Complete Withdrawal Policy  

The University of Hawaii Federal Regulations requires a “Return of Title IV Funds” for all students who are receiving federal financial aid and who process a complete withdrawal on or before 60% of the semester has elapsed.  You may be required to repay a portion or all of the financial aid you received.  

The portion of the Financial Aid you are eligible for is determined on a percentage basis by calculating the total number of days attended divided by the number of days in the semester.   The date of your withdrawal will determine the amount of your earned aid for the semester (# of days completed divided by # of days in the semester).

For example, if you completed 10% of the semester, you earned 10% of the financial aid that was paid to you. This means that 90% of your awards remains unearned and must be returned to the DOE. Therefore, you will be required to repay the University for the amount of unearned aid paid to you.    

Please note: the amount of any tuition/fees refund will be applied to the amount of unearned aid that must be returned. 

The University of Hawaii at Manoa , Financial Aid Services will hold you responsible for the entire amount of unearned aid.  Until this overpayment is cleared, a Financial Obligation will be placed on your student account, and you will not be able to receive any services from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa or enroll at any other institution in the University of Hawai`i system.

Unofficial Complete Withdrawal

If you stop attending classes and do not process an official withdrawal, you will receive significant financial penalties, including partial cancellation of the financial aid you received for the semester.

At the conclusion of each semester, the Financial Aid Office will be notified if you have passed any courses for the semester. If you have not, you will be required to repay up to 50% of the Title IV aid received for the semester on demand.

Dropping Classes

If you are decreasing in credits to below full-time (for undergraduates:  12 credits; for classified graduate students:  according to Graduate Division definition) and are a financial aid recipient, your aid will be adjusted accordingly.