Sometimes in order to award financial aid the Federal Student Aid Programs will require verification of information reported on the Student Aid Report. In that case the student will be required to submit his/her Federal Income Tax Returns along with parents, if applicable, and complete a verification worksheet. Once the information is turned in to the Student Financial Aid Office and corrections are made, if needed, the student’s financial aid is ready for packaging.

If you are eligible for financial aid, you will receive an award letter or notification that tells you the types and amounts of aid you have been awarded at that school. (Hagerstown Community College sends out award letters to students informing them of their financial aid award package.)

Most schools offer aid awards in the form of a “package” that contains some combination of scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study. Schools might ask you to formally accept or decline the aid you have been offered and usually require you to do so by a stated deadline.

Most financial aid packages consist of a combination of the above types of awards. Awards may vary based on the number of credits in which you are enrolled and the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) from your Student Aid Report.

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)

Students must be making satisfactory academic progress in order to receive financial aid.
A copy of this progress policy is available for download.

What Happens if I Drop or Add a Course?

If you drop a class and your enrollment status changes your financial aid will be adjusted accordingly. Some students only qualify for financial aid by enrolling full-time and others may be awarded aid for less than full-time. If you adjust your schedule after the first week's drop/add period your future financial aid may be in jeopardy due to the fact that you must be maintaining satisfactory academic progress.

You should always check with the Student Financial Aid Office to see if your financial aid will be affected during the current semester or future semesters. There may be extenuating circumstances which need to be brought to the attention of the Financial Aid Office.

What Happens if I withdraw or drop all my classes?

Treatment of Federal Student Aid When a Student Withdraws
The law specifies how Hagerstown Community College (HCC) must determine the amount of Federal Student Aid (FSA) assistance that you earn if you withdraw from school. The FSA programs that are covered by this law are: Federal Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant.

When you withdraw during the semester, the amount of FSA program assistance that you have earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula:

The amount of assistance that you have earned is determined on a pro-rata basis. For example, if you completed 30% of the semester, you earn 30% of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60% of the semester, you earn all the assistance that you were scheduled to receive.

If you received (or your parents received funds or funds that were paid on your behalf to pay tuition and fees or purchase books at the HCC bookstore), less assistance than the amount that you earned, you may be able to receive those additional funds. If you received more assistance than you earned, the excess funds must be returned by the school and /or you.

There are some FSA funds that you were scheduled to receive that you cannot earn once you withdraw because of other eligibility requirements. For example, if you are a first-time, first-year undergraduate student and you have not completed the first 30 days of your program before you withdraw, you will not earn any Stafford or Plus Loan funds that you would have received had you remained enrolled past the 30th day.

Return of FSA funds
If you received (or your parents received funds or funds that were paid on your behalf to pay tuition and fees or purchase books at the HCC bookstore), excess FSA program funds that must be returned, HCC must return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of:

• Your institutional charges multiplied by the unearned percentage of your funds
• or the entire amount of excess funds.

The school must return this amount even if it did not keep this amount of your FSA program funds.

If HCC is not required to return all of the excess funds, you must return the remaining amount. Any loan funds that you must return, you (or your parent for a PLUS loan) repay in accordance with the terms of the promissory note. That is, you make scheduled payments to the holder of the loan over a period of time.

Any amount of unearned grant funds that you must return is called an overpayment. The amount of a grant overpayment that you must repay is half of the unearned amount. You must arrange with your school to return the unearned grant funds.

Post-Withdrawal Disbursement
If you did not receive all of the funds that you earned, you may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement. If the post-withdrawal disbursement includes loan funds, you may choose to decline the loan funds so that you do not incur additional debt. HCC may automatically use all or a portion of your post-withdrawal disbursement (including loan funds, if you accept them) for tuition and fees. For all other school charges, the school needs your permission to use the post-withdrawal disbursement. If you do not give your permission, you will be offered the funds. However, it may be in your best interest to allow the school to keep the funds to reduce your debt at the school.

HCC Withdrawal Policy
The requirements for FSA program funds when you withdraw are separate from any refund policy that HCC may have. Therefore, you may still owe funds to the school to cover unpaid institutional charges. HCC may also charge you for any FSA program funds that the school was required to return. Official withdrawal procedures are available by contacting the Admissions and Registration Office at admissions@hagerstowncc.edu.

If you have questions about your FSA program funds, please inquire at HCC’s Student Financial Aid Office. You may also call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FEDAID (1-800-433-3243). The Center accepts calls from 8 a.m. to midnight (EST), seven days a week. TTY users may call 1-800-730-8913. Information is also available on the U.S. Department of Education’s “Financial Aid for Students Home Page”.