Student Handbook
Refunds
All refund requests must be submitted in writing to the Office of Student Financial Services, using the refund request form. Students who are disputing tuition charges must complete an academic petition form and submit it to the Registrar's Office no later than the end of the following semester. Petitions received after the deadline will be referred to Student Financial Services for review. All charges remain due until otherwise notified.
Tuition
Tuition withdrawal credits are made for full-semester courses according to the following schedule:
| Withdrawal | Percent of tuition charges, net of scholarships, to be refunded |
| Date of registration through the drop/add period | 100% |
| First full week of semester | 100% |
| Second full week of semester | 80% |
| Third full week of semester | 60% |
| Fourth full week of semester | 40% |
| Fifth full week of semester | 20% |
| After fifth week | No refund |
Note: Refer to academic calendar for specific refund dates and for courses other than full-semester.
In case of withdrawal, scholarships initially credited toward tuition due are subject to the same withdrawal credit percentage as the tuition charge. In other words, there are no cash refunds of scholarships. In the event of disciplinary suspension or expulsion from the college, no refund of tuition charges will be made.
Return of Funds Policy for Federal Aid Recipients
A federal regulation specifies how colleges must determine the amount of federal financial aid you earn if you withdraw from the college. The law requires that when you withdraw, the amount of federal aid that you have earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula. If you received (or had applied to your account) less assistance than the amount that you earned, you will be able to receive those additional funds. If you received more assistance than you earned, the excess funds must be returned.
The amount of assistance that you have earned is determined by the percentage of the semester completed. For example, if you completed 30 percent of the semester, you earned 30 percent of the federal aid you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60 percent of the semester, you are considered to have earned all of your federal assistance. If you received excess funds that must be returned, Bentley must return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of your qualifying institutional charges for the term multiplied by the unearned percentage of your funds, or the entire amount of the excess funds. If Bentley must return part of your financial aid, and the removal of those funds from your account creates a balance due, you will be billed for this balance.
If the college 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.
If you are responsible for returning grant funds, you do not have to return the full amount. The law provides that you are not required to return 50 percent of the grant assistance that you receive that it is your responsibility to repay. Any amount that you do have to return is a grant overpayment, and you must make arrangements with the Department of Education to return the funds.
Example: A student has tuition charges of $10,480 and no room or board charges for the fall semester. The student pays $7,813 toward the bill and the rest is covered by a federal stafford loan for $2,667. The student withdraws from the college after completing 40% of the semester. The student is considered to have earned 40% of the aid received, or $1,066. The remaining 60%, or $1,601, must be returned. Bentley will return $1,601 of the loan from the student's account to the lender. This leaves an unpaid balance of $1,601 on the student's account. The student will be billed by the college for this amount and is responsible for paying because not all of the aid used to pay the initial bill was considered to have been earned by the student.
