What happens to financial aid if you drop a class?

Key takeaways

• Dropping a class could affect your financial aid package if you no longer meet enrollment status requirements.
• Withdrawing from a class rarely affects financial aid as long as you are completing more than ⅔ of your enrolled courses.
• If you lose financial aid, reach out to your school’s financial aid department to discuss your options or appeal their decision.

Financial could be affected if you withdraw from a class.

If you drop a class, your financial aid package could be affected. Scholarships, grants, and loans often require you to take a set number of credits each semester and meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). Dropping a class may mean you no longer meeting those benchmarks. In this guide, we explain everything you need to know about how your enrollment status, course completion rate, and grades affects your financial aid package.

A quick review of must-know financial aid terms

Before we can dive further, let’s brush up on some must-know terms that can impact your financial aid decisions.

• Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA): Most schools require the FAFSA to determine financial aid packages, which can include federal student loans, federal grants, institutional aid, state grants, merit aid, and more.
• State financial aid applications: Some states have separate financial aid applications for state-based grants and scholarships.
• Student loans: Student loans are borrowed from the federal government or private lenders and need to be paid back with interest.
• State financial aid applications: Some states have separate financial aid applications for state-based financial aid.
• Scholarships: Scholarships are monetary awards that can be used towards college expenses. Often based on merit, they do not need to be paid back.
• Grants: Grants are monetary awards usually based on financial need. As with scholarships, grants don’t have to be paid back.
• Work-study: Work-study is a federal program where students can work and earn cash through jobs at participating colleges.
• Institutional aid: Institutional aid is financial aid directly from the college. It can be scholarships or grants and merit- or need-based.
• Satisfactory academic progress (SAP): To maintain some scholarships and grants, you need to meet SAP requirements, which means earning above a certain GPA and completing a certain percentage of enrolled credits. SAP definitions vary by college. Scholarship organizations may have additional minimums or requirements beyond SAP.
• Enrollment status: Students are considered full-time if they earn 12 credits or more in a semester. Those who earn fewer than 12 credits each semester are considered part-time. Half-time students take six credits.

What happens to financial aid if you drop a class?

If you drop a college class during the add/drop period and don’t re-add another course, you could lose some or all of your financial aid. It depends on the aid sources’ enrollment and SAP requirements.

How credit hours affect financial aid

Your class schedule can directly impact your finances, as the federal government, colleges, and organizations often require recipients to take a set number of credits each semester to receive the full financial aid offer.

To qualify for federal student aid, you need to be enrolled at least half-time at an eligible institution. Most scholarships, grants, and institutional aid require students to be attending at least half-time or full-time. Some awards even state you need to take 15 credits each semester. Exact requirements depend on the source.

If you drop a class which causes you to fall below the enrollment status requirement, your financial aid package may be adjusted. You could lose all or some of the financial aid, depending on the source. Here are just two example scenarios you could run into if you dropped from 12 credits to 9:

• The Pell Grant is based on the number of credits you’re taking. You received the maximum Pell Grant at 12 credits, but will receive proportionally less if you dropped to 9.
• One of your scholarships requires you to attend full time. Dropping to 9 credits makes you a part-time student. You lose the scholarship.

However, if you drop a class and you still have enough credit hours to maintain the enrollment requirement, it won’t affect your financial aid eligibility. For example, if you dropped from 15 credits to 12:

• You only need to take 12 credits to receive the maximum Pell Grant. The Pell Grant amount is unchanged after you drop the class.
• At 12 credits, you are still a full-time student. You maintain the scholarship that requires full-time status.

If you dropped a class, it affects your enrollment status, and changes your financial aid package, you won’t receive the full amount you originally qualified for.

• If you dropped a class after you received the scholarship or grant, you could be required to pay it back.
• For federal student loans, falling below half-time status means your loan repayments are due earlier rather than six months after graduating or leaving school.

How grades affect financial aid

All colleges and universities require you to maintain a minimum grade point average (GPA) to maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) to stay enrolled, usually at least 2.0. More rigorous schools have higher minimum GPAs.

Some renewable scholarships and grants have GPA requirements. These awards require you to meet SAP as determined by the college or the award’s set minimum. If you fall below this standard, the award likely won’t be renewed the following year.

When you drop a class, you have fewer courses that go into the grade average. As a result, each course grade is worth more and impacts your overall GPA more. Here’s an example:

If a student decided to drop English at the start of the semester and earned the same grades in the other four classes, their GPA would be 2.13.

If a scholarship requires a minimum 2.2 GPA, the student met that requirement with the five courses and a 2.3. They fell below the minimum with four courses and a 2.13, so scholarship is not renewed.

However, not dropping a course you’re struggling in can bring down your GPA and cause you to lose out on the scholarship, too. If the above student took all five classes but earned a 1.0 in Spanish, their GPA is now a 2.1, below the SAP threshold.

Overall, dropped classes shouldn’t affect your GPA too much, but taking fewer classes can have a bigger effect on your GPA during your first year since you have fewer grades to pull from. If you’re on the border of your SAP requirements, talk to your advisor about the best course of action while also taking steps to improve your grades.

What happens to financial aid if you withdraw from a class?

Withdrawing from a single class likely won’t affect your financial aid, since you attempted the course.

“Dropping a class” and “withdrawing from a class” may be used interchangeably, but they’re actually different.

Generally, dropping a class means you opt to no longer take the course by the school’s add/drop deadline, usually two weeks into the semester at most. You are not charged for the course, it doesn’t appear on your transcripts, and it is as if you never registered.

Withdrawing from a class means you’re choosing to no longer take the class after the add/drop deadline. The class appears on your transcript with a “W” grade, you are charged for the course, and you don’t receive credit towards your degree. In most cases, your financial aid is unchanged.

Always read your school’s drop/add and withdrawal policies before changing your schedule.

What happens to financial aid if you withdraw from several classes?

To maintain SAP, schools typically require you to complete at least 67% of the courses you take. Withdrawing from several classes can lower your credit/course completion rate.

If you drop below the credit completion rate requirement, you could lose renewable scholarships and future federal financial aid. You may even be asked to return money. If you took out federal student loans, you’ll be required to start payments in six months unless you return to at least half-time status.

What happens to financial aid if you fail a class?

Your financial aid typically won’t be affected by one failed class, especially if you have a strong academic record. However, if lower grades, failed classes, and withdrawals lower your GPA and credit completion rate too much, you may no longer be meeting SAP thresholds.

What To Do If You Lose Financial Aid Eligibility

Before dropping or withdrawing from a class, meet with your academic advisor to discuss the pros and cons of the decision and how it will affect your academic progress. Also reach out to the financial aid department to discuss how the decision will impact your aid offer and how much you may owe if you drop a course.

If you lose financial aid eligibility, your next steps depend on your situation and the type of aid. You might be able to regain eligibility simply by improving your grades or taking another class that semester to make up for the dropped class. If you’re not meeting SAP requirements due to unavoidable circumstances such as injury, illness, or death of a family member, talk to your school’s financial aid department or the scholarship organization to discuss your options or appeal the eligibility decision.

If you need financial assistance for college expenses, we recommend applying to scholarships! Discover ones you qualify for with our Scholarship Search Tool.