Financial Withdrawal & Refund Policies

Registration constitutes a financial contract between a student and the university. Students are responsible for paying all registration charges by the due dates for the payment options they select, or their registration may be canceled. Failure to attend class meetings, participate in a course, or oral notification of intent to withdraw is not considered official withdrawal from a course. The following financial policies apply when students officially withdraw from courses. Students may also be subject to Academic Course Withdrawal Policies and should review them before attempting to drop or withdraw from courses.

Withdrawal from courses (commonly known as "dropping" if done by the end of the second week of the term) is official once the Law School registrar has been notified. Notification may be made electronically by dropping courses online via GGU4YOU or in writing by submitting Schedule Change Request forms. Written notifications may be delivered in person, by standard mail, by fax, or by electronic mail. Electronic mail must originate from the students' e-mail addresses on record with the Law School Registrar's Office. The date the written notice is received will be the official date of withdrawal. Oral notification of intent to withdraw is insufficient.

Students should refer to the Academic Calendar to determine the last day to drop courses without tuition charge. After the start of the term, fees are not refundable except in the case of a course being canceled by the Law School. Tuition credits remain in students' accounts. Refunds are issued by Student Accounting Services upon written request from students. If students receiving Federal Student Aid funds withdraw from all courses (considered complete withdrawal), that aid is subject to the Return of Title IV Calculation, which may result in balances due on the students' accounts.

Regular Courses
Regular courses are those that generally meet for the entire length of the term or for four or more weeks. Tuition will be credited as shown below.

Withdrawal Date	Credit Amount
Official withdrawal prior to the start of instruction	100% tuition credit
Official withdrawal during the first or second week of instruction	100% tuition credit
Official withdrawal after the second week of instruction	No tuition credit

Intensive Courses
Intensive courses are those that are shorter than four weeks in length and generally meet more than once a week. Tuition will be credited as shown below.

Withdrawal Date	Credit Amount
Official withdrawal prior to the start of instruction	100% tuition credit
Official withdrawal before the third class meeting	100% tuition credit
Official withdrawal after the third class meeting	No tuition credit

Students who decide to withdraw from the School of Law or who want to request leaves of absence or to visit away at other law schools must provide official notification by completing the following steps:

1. Complete Withdrawal from Law School forms and submit them to the director for student services or LLM program director, as appropriate. Students requesting leaves of absence or to visit away must obtain approval in advance by submitting Request for Leave of Absence or Visiting Away Status forms to the director for student services or LLM program director, as appropriate.
2. Students who are currently enrolled in courses and have decided to withdraw completely from the term must also drop the courses via the Web or submit Schedule Change Request forms to the Registrar's Office. Students who intend to request incomplete grades must submit Petition for Incomplete Course Attempt forms.
3. Students who received financial aid must also see the Financial Aid Office to document the financial consequences of withdrawing on their financial aid and student account balances. Students who received Federal Stafford Loans must also complete Stafford online exit counseling. Students who received Federal Perkins Loans must complete Perkins online exit counseling in addition to the Stafford exit counseling. Students who did not receive financial aid must see the Registrar's Office to document their student account balances.
4. Students with balances due must see Student Accounting Services to pay their charges. Leaves will not typically be approved for students owing balances. However, in the event an exception is made, students will be required to pay their balances in-full before they will be allowed to return from leaves of absence.

Students receiving Title IV Federal Student Aid funds (i.e. Stafford and Perkins loans) who withdraw from all courses for a given term must notify the Law Financial Aid Office after dropping or withdrawing from their courses via the Web or submitting Schedule Change Request forms to the Registrar's Office. They should notify the office by sending a message to lawfao@ggu.edu. JD students who withdraw from the fall or spring semester must also withdraw from the School of Law or request leaves of absence by completing the Official Withdrawal Process. If students complete the Official Withdrawal Process, their official withdrawal dates will be determined from their withdrawal or leave request forms. If students do not complete the process, their official withdrawal dates will be determined from the date of complete withdrawal from all courses for the term.

The Financial Aid Office will complete Return of Title IV Funds calculations to determine the financial aid consequences of the withdrawal based on students' official withdrawal dates. Students may be required to return funds for which they are no longer eligible based on this calculation. Up through the 60 percent point in each term, a pro rata schedule is used to determine the amount of Title IV funds students have earned at the time of withdrawal. After the 60 percent point of the term, students have "earned" 100 percent of the Title IV funds, and no return of federal student aid will be required.

The Federal Return of Title IV funds calculation is separate from the Golden Gate University School of Law Withdrawal Tuition Credit Policy. All students receiving Federal Student Aid are subject to this federal policy. In addition, students withdrawing from the School of Law or taking leaves of absence must complete online exit counseling. If institutional scholarship recipients withdraw from all courses in a given term, their scholarships are revoked and the students may be liable for tuition costs previously paid by their scholarships, as determined by the School of Law Withdrawal Tuition Credit Policy. To receive refunds of credit balances resulting from tuition credits in accordance with the School of Law Withdrawal Tuition Credit Policy, students must submit written requests to Student Accounting Services. Requests may be submitted by e-mail to sas@ggu.edu or by letter. Refund checks will be mailed to the student's address on record unless a different address is noted in the request. Credit card refund requests must include the last four digits of the credit card number and the expiration date of the credit card that was used to pay the charges. To receive a refund for a personal check deposited within 60 days, the student must submit proof the check has cleared the student's bank, such as a bank statement. Students who are confronted with unexpected circumstances that require them to withdraw from some or all courses after the drop deadline (generally the end of the second week of the term) may petition the Law School to reverse a portion of their tuition charges. To do so, they must submit petitions in writing to the Law School Financial Petitions Committee no later than 90 days after the last day of the term in which the course(s) were withdrawn.

Petitions should explain in detail the circumstances and the correlation between these circumstances and the need to withdraw from the course(s), and what actions are being taken to resolve or prevent such circumstances from occurring in the future. All petitions must be supported by detailed documentation of all facts and circumstances as to why an exception to the withdrawal tuition credit policy should be made. The committee will not approve any petition that is undocumented or is based on a pre-existing condition. Financial Petition forms with additional instructions are available at the Law School Registrar's Office. The forms should be submitted to the Registrar's Office by mail, fax, or e-mail.

The Law School Financial Petitions Committee will respond to all petitions in writing within 30 working days of receipt. The university will apply credit balances resulting from approved petitions toward future tuition charges within the next twelve-month period. In rare cases credit balances resulting from financial petitions will be refunded to students. Credit balances resulting from petitions for students receiving Title IV funds are typically returned to the appropriate financial aid program or lender. Students who owe balances, either because they did not pay their charges in full or because some or all of their Title IV funds were returned, will be required to make payment arrangements with Student Accounting Services. All disputes concerning students' accounts should be submitted in writing to:
Student Accounting Services
Golden Gate University
536 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94105-2968.
sas@ggu.edu
The university will respond within 30 working days of receipt.