Withdrawal, Refunds, and Repayments

General Information

If you receive federal Pell grant funds, you must finalize your registration by the last day to receive a 100% refund. The academic calendar provides the exact date for each quarter. This is called our Census Date. Up until the census date we adjust your Pell grant to match your registration level. Federal rules do not allow us to adjust your Pell grant after the census date.

Adding classes after the Census Date

We cannot increase your Pell grant to reflect your actual registration after the census date.

Withdrawing from classes on or before the Census Date

The financial aid you receive is based, in part, on the number of credits you take each quarter. You may receive funds for the following enrollment levels:

• Full-time: 12 or more credits
• Three-quarter time: 9 – 11 credits
• Half-time: 6 – 8 credits
• Less than half-time: 5 credits and below

If you reduce your credits below the number we originally offered you aid for, we must adjust your Pell grant down to reflect your reduced registration.

• You may owe a repayment if we already disbursed Pell grant funds to you, and we notify you by mail (usually during the third week of the quarter).
• If dropping a class/es results in a refund, the refund is returned to the Pell grant program, and may reduce the amount you owe.

The rule that requires us to adjust your Pell grant on or before the census date due to a change in registration does not apply to other grant programs. However, if you complete less credits than what your award was based on, we must apply the rules related to Satisfactory Academic Progress, which may result in cancellation of future aid. You may talk with a financial aid advisor about adjusting and repaying other types of financial aid to avoid the risk of losing aid for future quarters.

Refunds

Unless you withdraw from all your classes, financial aid students can generally expect to receive a refund of aid after a partial withdrawal.

Repayments

If you fail to complete any credits for a quarter in which you received financial aid, and you did not attend class for at least 60% of the quarter, you may owe a repayment on some or all of the aid you received. Instructors are required to report the Last Date of Attendance (LDA) for all students who receive a failing grade or stopped attending class. We use this date to determine if you owe a repayment, and the amount of the repayment. This repayment requirement applies to all federal and state financial aid with the exception of Direct Student Loans. You can see the full detail of the repayment policy below.

Federal and State Aid Repayment Policy

Completion of Courses

• You must complete the courses you are funded for if you receive federal or state aid.
  • If you do not complete any credits, the college is required to return the funds you received based on the percentage of the quarter you completed, or your last date of attendance.
    • If you stopped going to class, but did not officially withdraw, your instructors report your last date of attendance at the end of the quarter when they submit grades.

Earned Aid

• You must complete at least 60% of the quarter before you are considered to have earned 100% of your federal funds, and not owe a repayment of those funds.
• You must begin attendance in all enrolled classes for which state funds were disbursed to not owe a repayment.
  • If you complete less than either/both of these requirements, you are considered to have earned a pro-rated amount of your aid, and may owe a repayment.
  • If you never attended your class(es), you either owe a repayment based on a revised enrollment level, or you owe 100% of the funds you received.

School and Student Responsibility

Bellevue College is required to return a portion of your unearned aid to the appropriate federal aid program and advise you of the amount you owe to any state aid program.

Please be aware:

• The returned amount is not a refund of your tuition and fees. This is only a return of funds that were used to pay your tuition and fees.
• The college bills you for any amount returned to the federal aid program, which results in you owing a debt to the college.
• If you withdrew during a refund period, the refund is applied to the amount you owe first, which may reduce the amount you owe to the college.
• The college is not required to return funds directly to state aid programs, and you are required to repay any amount due.

Earn All Your Aid to Avoid Owing A Repayment

The dates listed below represent the 60% point of each quarter of the 2025-2026 aid year. If your last date of attendance is on or after these dates, you will not owe a repayment of your financial aid:

Notification

We calculate repayments throughout the quarter as we become aware of withdrawals, and at the end of the quarter after grades are posted. We send you a letter, which notifies you of the requirement to repay financial aid funds. You will receive a letter(s) from us notifying of any money you may owe to the U.S. Department of Education, WA State, or Bellevue College.