Advising for Complete Withdrawal

Presented by Danny Gourley

Associate Director, Advising Center

February 10, 2015

Intheoldendays

2013

Center for Academic Success is Born

• CAS would do Complete Withdrawal as a retention effort.

• Keri Allen was the point of contact.

• She quickly learned that students had already mentally (and sometimes physically) committed to withdrawing by the time they reached her.

Financial Aid Audits

• Meanwhile, the federal government was reviewing UWG’s processes.

• One result was that the university decided to increased intensity of exit counseling.

Lead into Gold

Through the alchemy of opportunity, the Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management (Dr. John Head) passed the task to the Advising Center and changed the focus of Complete Withdrawal advising to counseling about impacts to degree progress and financial aid.

Complete Withdrawal Advising Procedure

• Limited Course Withdrawals Policy

• Impact on financial aid

• Effect on graduation timeline

• Selecting the type of Complete Withdrawal

• Special eCore instructions

• One more step for residential students

Covering Limited Course Withdrawals

• Registrar link: http://www.westga.edu/registrar/1560.php

• Students get six (6) total starting with Fall 2013.

• Know the exceptions!

• Run Banner batch job rs5215.

• Tell student how many already count toward the total.

• Give what the total will be after this process.

• After six (6), any extra become WF.

Impact on Financial Aid

• Financial Aid link: http://www.westga.edu/financialAid/index_2959.php

• Know the SAP rules!

• Be ready to discuss HOPE.

• Return to Title IV rules means a student may end up owing money for the current term.

• Don’t try to do the work of Financial; know enough to convince them that your referral is a good idea.

• Cover the concept of Pace of Progression.

• Mention Maximum Time Frame rule if the student has a lot of credits.

• HOPE Scholarship recipients need to know about the 127 maximum hours.

• Refer to Financial Aid to check how Complete Withdrawal will impact this term’s aid.

Effect on Graduation Timeline

• Wolf Watch link: https://hank.westga.edu/

• Classes not completed this semester will need to be taken in another term.

• Think about sequencing!

• You can see how many of the courses are counting toward a degree requirement and discuss a later graduation date.

• In the case of sequencing (science sequences, block schedules), a student may have to wait a year to continue degree progress.

Selecting the Type of Complete Withdrawal

• Registrar link: http://www.westga.edu/registrar/465.php#Withdrawl

• Two types: Formal and Term

• The types have different readmission rules.

• Student must select, but we can give advise.

• Formal Withdrawal:– Student expresses no intent to

return to UWG within the year.– Student will have to apply for

readmission and might not meet criteria.

– Ws do not count toward six (6) maximum.

• Term Withdrawal:– Student plans to return the

next term or within the year.– Student does not have to

apply for readmission.– Ws count toward six (6)

maximum.

Special eCore Instructions

• eCore link: https://ecore.usg.edu/students/withdraw/uwg_policy.php

• eCore collects data about students’ decisions to withdraw to improve course delivery and reduce technical barriers.

• The student must complete the eCore withdrawal process prior to getting the advisor’s signature on the Complete Withdrawal form.

• When the student is in our office, we send the student to our Registration Station to complete eCore withdrawal process.

• If the student is on the phone, we ask the student to forward the email confirmation that comes when completing the eCore withdrawal process.

• Only then do we sign the form.

One More Step for Residential Students

• Housing and Residence Life link: http://www.westga.edu/housing/general_frequently_asked_questions.php

• Students need to email housing@westga.edu, stating that they would like to cancel their contract and the reason they are cancelling their contract.

• Housing and Residence Life will send an email confirmation that the contract has been cancelled.

• Our only responsibilities here are to remind students that:

– Cancellation may result in fees.

– Unpaid balances can result is transcripts being held.