Students who choose to withdraw from the University prior to the end of an enrollment period (semester) should follow the University's guidelines for withdrawing from school. Information concerning the details of withdrawal procedures can be found at the Office of the Registrar at https://www.registrar.msstate.edu/, then click on Policies and Withdrawal Policy. The university's refund policy schedule can be found at www.registrar.msstate.edu/files/withdrawal-refund-schedule.pdf and the refund restrictions can be found at https://www.controller.msstate.edu/accountservices/refunds/, then click on Refunds. Students who are withdrawing should also contact the following areas: Admissions and Scholarships, Housing, Dinning Services, Post Office, and Account Services to discuss your withdrawal.
To officially withdraw from the university an Official Withdrawal Form must be completed and submitted to the Registrar’s Office. To complete the online form the student must go to the Registrar's website at https://www.registrar.msstate.edu/students/withdrawal-from-the-university/where the student will click the login button to their myState and will follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.
When a federal student aid recipient withdraws, officially or unofficially (see below), after attending at least the first class day, the university will return a prorated portion of funds received based upon a federally required calculation. Under the Higher Education Amendments of 1998, the amount of aid a student has earned for the enrollment period is based on the length of time the student remains enrolled for that period. Therefore, the percentage of the enrollment period completed is also the percentage of aid the student has earned.
- If a student withdraws on or before the 60% point of the enrollment period, the percentage of aid earned is equal to the percentage of time completed.
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A student who remains enrolled beyond the 60% point of the enrollment period has earned 100% of the aid for that period. (There would be no unearned aid.)
Return of funds due by the school and the student and/or parent are charged back to the student's university student account and returned to the applicable student aid programs. The return of funds may require the student to repay funds to the university. A letter of return notification is mailed to the student at their permanent home address.
If university records show a federal student aid recipient never attended a class and/or never performed an academically related activity, or drops all classes or voids his/her schedule for a semester or term, then the aid recipient never established eligibility for any aid funds that may have been disbursed for that semester or term. In these situations, the student aid recipient must repay the entire amount of aid disbursed for that semester or term. If a student withdraws with an effective date of the first class day no attendance is assumed and the student must repay the entire amount of aid disbursed for that semester or term.
A student who withdraws from a class or receives a non-passing grade MUST have attendance in those classes to keep their Pell Grants. The Financial Aid Office will verify attendance for all students who receive a Pell Grant then withdraw from a course at any point in the semester or receive a non-passing grade at the end of the semester. If the student never attended the class the Pell Grant funds paid for those classes will be returned to the Department of Education and the student will be responsible for any charges on their student account.
If a student withdraws from the fall semester prior to the last 30 days of the term and received a Federal Stafford Loan that was certified for both the fall and spring semesters, the student will have to re-apply for their spring semester loan by submitting the online Financial Aid Fall/Spring Change Request Form which can be found under the Financial Aid tab after logging into myState at my.msstate.edu. A new loan will be certified for the spring only enrollment period. If a parent borrowed a Federal Plus Loan on behalf of the student and the loan was certified for both the fall and spring semesters and the student withdraws from the fall semester prior to the last 30 days of the term, the parent will have to re-apply for the spring semester loan by completing another Plus Information Request Form. A new loan will be certified for the spring only enrollment period.
Unofficial Withdrawal: Federal student aid recipients who begin attending classes during a semester and who cease attending or performing academic activities prior to the end of the semester, and never complete an Official Withdrawal Form are considered by the federal government to have Unofficially Withdrawn. At the end of each semester, after final grades are posted, student’s instructors will be contacted to document attendance/academic activity for students who unofficially withdrew. If no attendance or academic activity can be documented, the Unofficial Withdrawal student is not eligible for aid received and must repay the entire amount of aid disbursed for that semester or term. If University records indicate that a student did begin attending classes but the last of attendance or academic activity is unknown, the University will consider the Unofficial Withdrawal date to be the midpoint of the semester and a federal return calculation will be based on the midpoint date. If the student did begin classes and the last date of attendance or academic activity is known then the Unofficial Withdrawal date is that last day of attendance and a federal return calculation will be based on the date. The return of funds may require the student to repay funds to the university. A letter of return notification is mailed to the student at their permanent home address.
Non- federal funds will be returned based on Institutional/State policy. Non-federal funds will be returned if university records show that the aid recipient never attended a class and/or never performed an academically related activity for a semester or term, then the recipient never established eligibility for any aid funds that may have been disbursed for that semester or term. If a student withdraws with an effective date of the first class day of class, no attendance is assumed and the student must repay the entire amount of the aid disbursed for that semester or term. In addition, any aid recipient who drops all classes or voids his/her schedule for a semester or term did not establish eligibility for any aid funds that may have been disbursed and the aid recipient must repay the entire amount of aid disbursed for that semester or term.
Scholarship fund adjustments will be done by the Admissions and Scholarships Department. For more information contact Admissions and Scholarships at 662-325-2224.
Note: The information contained in this section is subject to change, without notice, in order to comply with federal, state, or university requirements.
