Financial Aid Attendance/Withdrawal Policies

For more information

For more information please contact the Office of Financial Aid, Room 155, Main Building, phone (513) 569-1530 or email fam@cincinnatistate.edu .

Loan Eligibility and Less than Half-Time Enrollment

Students must be enrolled for at least half time (six credit hours) to be eligible for loans. Any time a Stafford loan-borrowing student withdraws to less than six credit hours, takes off a semester, or enrolls for less than six credit hours, federal regulations require the student to complete exit counseling.

Even if the student intends to return to Cincinnati State with at least six credit hours, the student’s repayment deferment time period begins when enrollment is less than six credit hours, and exit counseling is required. Students may complete exit counseling at www.studentloans.gov .

Non-Attendance of Classes

1. Instructors are required to document student attendance in each course meeting through the first two weeks of the semester.
2. From the first day of the semester until the First Day to Withdraw for the semester, students who drop or withdraw from a course must identify whether or not they attended the course section.
3. A student who enrolls in a course but does not attend the course within the first two weeks will be designated a No Show (NS) and dropped from the course by the instructor.
4. If there is a discrepancy between a student’s self-reported attendance status and the attendance status reported by an instructor, the attendance status reported by the instructor will be the status of record.
5. Students are not permitted to begin attending a course section after an NS has been issued by the instructor or by the student for that course section.
6. The designation of NS will not appear on the student’s transcript.
7. A student who receives an NS designation for a course is still financially responsible for payment for the course. State and federal financial aid is not applicable to a course for which a student has received an NS designation. A student is not permitted to withdraw from a course he or she did not attend or to which an NS has been assigned.

A student who receives what he or she believes is an incorrect NS mark for one or more classes may ask for a determination that this was an institution error. Students who have been incorrectly marked with NS must wait until passing grades have posted to their academic record in order for the Office of Financial Aid to adjust the student aid for that semester.

If a student receiving Title IV aid receives an NS mark for one of more classes and does not receive an earned grade (such as an A,B, C, etc.) on completion of a class, no financial aid will be disbursed for such classes.

Policy on Official and Unofficial Course Withdrawal for Financial Aid Recipients - Federal (Title IV) Funds

Department of Education regulations require students to earn their eligibility for Title IV funds through attendance in classes. If a Title IV recipient ceases to be enrolled prior the end of the semester, the student’s eligibility for Title IV funding must be recalculated. The recalculation process may require that portions of the Title IV funding be returned to the funding source.

Official Withdrawals

Upon dropping all classes for any given semester, a student is considered to have officially withdrawn from Cincinnati State, even if future enrollment is anticipated. To officially withdraw, a student must submit the Course Withdrawal Form to the Office of the Registrar. A student who withdraws from all classes after the fourteenth day of the semester, up to the 60% point of the semester, is subject to a financial aid re-calculation and must return a pro-rated portion of their financial aid to Cincinnati State.

Unofficial Withdrawals

A student is considered to have unofficially withdrawn if the student receives grades of Failing (F) and/or Unsatisfactory (U) in all classes for which they have registered and begun class attendance. The student will receive a notice of unofficial withdrawal from the Office of Financial Aid, and can appeal this unofficial withdrawal status to the Office of Financial Aid by the deadline indicated in their notice.

In the appeal, the student must provide documentation from the instructor, dean, or associate dean of the applicable division. The following are acceptable forms of documentation: exams, records of attendance, tutorials, computer-assisted instruction, and records of counseling, academic advisement, or study groups.

The withdrawal date for students considered unofficially withdrawn is the midpoint of the semester for which Title IV funds were disbursed, unless proved otherwise through the appeal process.