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Return to Title IV Policy

What Happens to Your Financial Aid If You Drop All Your Classes

When you get federal financial aid (also known as Title IV funds), like a Pell Grant or FSEOG, it鈥檚 based on the idea that you will stay in school for the whole semester.

If you drop or withdraw from all your financial aid eligible classes, you might not get to keep all the money you were given. By law, IVC must do a special calculation to see how much of your aid you 鈥渆arned鈥 and how much must be returned. This is called a Return to Title IV Calculation.

How It Works
  • If you drop out before finishing 60% of the term, only part of your aid is considered earned.
  • If you drop out after finishing 60%, you get to keep all of your aid.
  • Any unearned money must be returned鈥攕ome by the college and some possibly by you.

The money is returned in this order:

  1. Pell Grant
  2. FSEOG (Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant)   

If you need to return some of the money:

  • You鈥檒l get a letter telling you how much you owe and how to pay it.
  • You鈥檒l have 45 days to pay IVC.
  • If you don鈥檛 pay on time, the U.S. Department of Education will contact you to collect the money.
  • You can鈥檛 get more federal financial aid until it鈥檚 fully paid back.

You can call the U.S. Department of Education at 1-800-621-3115 if you have questions.

If You鈥檙e Still Owed Some Aid

If you鈥檙e still eligible for some financial aid after the calculation, you鈥檒l get a Post Withdrawal Disbursement letter.

This letter will tell you:

  • How much money you can get
  • The deadline to say yes
  • How to accept the payment

Once you accept it, the money will be sent to you within 45 days.

If you are owed any money back (called a credit balance), it will be sent to you within 14 days.

Important Dates: 60% Point by Term

For the 2025鈥26 school year, these dates show when 60% of each full semester course has passed.  The dates may be different if you are only enrolled in short term courses.

Payment Period 60% Point
Fall October 16, 2025
Winter/Spring April 30, 2026
Summer July 15, 2026
Withdrawal Date

Your withdrawal date is the last date of academic related activity as reported by your instructor, not the day you dropped the course on WebSTAR.

We will use the latest date from all your dropped financial aid classes. If your instructor does not give a date, we may use the middle of the payment period as your withdrawal date.

If you do not pass any of your financial aid classes, we must treat you as if you withdrew from school. In that case, we will have to recalculate your financial aid using the withdrawal date explained above.

If you believe your last day of class activity was later than what was reported, you can contact the Financial Aid Office to ask about an appeal. Your instructor will need to confirm your last date of academically related activity.

Thinking About Dropping Classes or Leaving School?

If you鈥檙e thinking about dropping classes that count for financial aid or leaving school, it鈥檚 a good idea to talk to an academic counselor first. There may be programs or services that can help you stay on track with your education.

Watch our . 

Return of State Financial Aid

State financial aid includes money from the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC), like Cal Grant A, B, C, and the CHAFEE Grant.

If it is determined that you dropped your classes before finishing more than 60% of the semester, any pending disbursements will be canceled. If you drop after the 60% point, you won鈥檛 have to pay any state aid back.

If you were given too much money (overawarded), your aid will be corrected in the CSAC system, and IVC will send the extra money back. If this causes you to owe money to IVC, a hold will be placed on your account until you pay it back.