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Refund Procedures

When you sign up for a class, you must pay for it.

If you drop a class before the deadline, you can get all the money back for tuition and fees. The deadline for dropping classes and getting a refund is usually the first Sunday after the term starts. If there are no issues with your account, you can drop classes online.

If there is a problem with your account, you must come to the student services hub in person or call 503-491-7393 to drop the class.

If we cancel a class, you will get all of the money back you paid for that class.

You cannot get your money back for classes you drop after the deadline. If you have a good reason, you can try to get a refund by following the process for requesting a refund due to special circumstances.

Getting Your Money Back

You may be eligible for a refund if your financial aid is more than the total tuition or fees you have been charged, or if you paid more than you needed.

If you have extra money in your account because of financial aid or if you overpaid, that money will first go towards any money you owe the college. If you register late, add more classes, or register for the next term, you may not get much or any money back.

If you paid too much by check, the refund will be sent to you in the mail five business days after your payment is processed.

The college starts refunding students in the third week of the term.

Refund Procedures for Students Who Withdraw with Financial Aid

Students receiving federal financial aid who withdraw from or stop attending all courses may be required to return all or a portion of financial aid received. If you officially drop all your classes during the first week of the term, it will be as though you never registered. If you have charged any books, it will be your responsibility to pay those charges.

Financial aid begins to disburse funds to students the second week of each term. If you are not registered at that time, you will not be paid any financial aid.

If you stop going to classes after your financial aid is disbursed, you may need to return a portion of your aid to the Department of Education. This could create a financial debt for you. It may even make you ineligible for future financial aid, including loans. We recommend talking to an academic advisor and the financial aid office in the student services hub if you are thinking about withdrawing.

When you are awarded financial aid, it's based on the assumption that you will attend and participate in classes. To keep all your funds, you need to attend and participate for more than 60% of the term. This includes weekends, holidays, and the first and last day of the term. If you do not pass any classes, it is considered as "W," "U," "F," audits, or drops.

If you decide to withdraw, the amount of financial aid you must return depends on the date of your withdrawal. It could be:

  • The date you fill out the add/drop form.
  • The midpoint of the term, if you do not officially withdraw.
  • The date the college documents you last participated in or attended class.

The portion of financial aid you earned up to the 60% point in time is calculated by dividing the number of days you attended by the number of days in the term. To find the portion of aid you did not earn, subtract the percentage earned from 100. If you withdraw after the 60% date and your attendance is verified by instructors, you will not have to return any financial aid.

The unearned amount of aid is multiplied by the total federal financial aid, excluding Federal Work Study, to determine the amount you owe back to the school. You will receive a written notice stating the amount you owe, and you will have 45 days to pay it or set up a payment plan with the business office.

If you do not pay or make arrangements to pay, the balance may go to collections.

Any unearned financial aid you have will be applied in a specific order. First, it goes towards the Federal Unsubsidized Direct Loan, then the Federal Subsidized Direct Loan, Federal Perkins Loan, Federal PLUS Loan, Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, and finally, any other aid you received.

These policies apply to all students who receive Title IV funds, which is federal student aid. If you receive additional resources like scholarships or agency benefits, your financial aid may be reduced, resulting in a financial aid overpayment.

Refund Procedure for Student Accounts without Financial Aid

These procedures are for everyone at the college, including students who do not have any financial aid like scholarships, grants, awards, or loans. The procedures make sure that you get your refunds on time when you pay directly with cash, check, or credit card and have extra money left after paying all the charges.

Processing Times and Amounts

The refund process starts in the third week of the term at the earliest. If you have extra money on your account because of a refund or overpayment, that money will first go towards any money you owe on your account.

Refund Options

How you receive a refund depends on how you initially paid.

Cash or Check Payment and Not Taking Credit Courses

If you paid in cash or with a check and you have more money left than what you owe, you will get a refund check. The check will be made out to you and sent to the address we have on file. If you pay with a check, the refund will be processed at least five business days after the check was processed.

Cash or Check Payment and Taking at Least One Credit Course

The college has partnered with BankMobile to manage some refunds. If you paid in cash or with a check and you are taking at least one credit course, you will get your refund through BankMobile.

If you paid with a bank or credit card and you have extra money in your account, we will try to refund it directly to the card. If the refund happens more than six months after the original payment, we will follow the cash or check refund process. If you made payments with cash, check, and bank/credit card together, we would refund the card first. Any remaining refund will be sent by check from MHCC or through BankMobile. You can check the cash or check overpayment refund procedures mentioned earlier for more details.

View the college's contract with BankMobile, a division of Customer Bank

Financial Aid

The financial aid you're supposed to get will be added to your account each term. You'll get an email or a letter in the mail when the aid is added. If the total amount of grants and loans is more than what you owe, you'll get a refund starting from the first official day of the term.

For excess aid or refunds for dropped classes within the allowed time, we have partnered with BankMobile to handle the refunds. It's important that we have your current mailing address. You can update your address online through the MyMHCC portal.

Petitioning to Remove Tuition Charges

A petition for an exception to the MHCC refund policy will be considered in the event that there are extenuating circumstances that have affected a student’s ability to complete the course(s) and withdraw within the refund period.

Petitions must meet one of the following criteria for consideration:

  • Personal illness or injury that prevented the ability to officially drop a course within the refund period, a physician’s statement is required.
  • Illness, injury, or death in the family prevented the ability to officially drop a course within the refund period, a physician’s statement is required.
  • Mandatory military or career transfer outside the greater Portland, Oregon or Vancouver, Washington area, documentation is required.
  • Institutional error verified by MHCC employee. A letter of explanation and supporting documentation are required.

Petition Guidelines

  • All petitions must include documentation. Documentation should support your personal statement and circumstances. Petitions without documentation on official letterhead will be denied. Accepted documents would be a physician’s statement indicating dates of illness, injury, or disability, court documentation, etc.
  • Petitions can only be considered for non-graded courses, W grades only.
  • If a prior petition has been approved, then a second petition will not be approved if using the exact same reasons/documentation.
  • Petitions must be submitted within 60 days past the end of the term for which you are requesting a refund.
  • The refund petition committee has 30 days to respond to petitions from the date on which they are received.
  • Students receiving federal financial aid (grants, scholarships, and/or tuition waivers) may not be eligible for a refund.
  • Any exceptions to the petition guidelines must be approved by the college registrar.

Reasons A Petition Cannot Be Filed

  • Changes in work schedule, transportation problems, or childcare issues.
  • Being unaware of college procedures and deadlines.
  • Quality of instruction or course dissatisfaction. Please see the instructional dean for this.
  • Course placement or advising issues. Please see the dean of student success for this.

Petition Instructions

  • Drop the course(s) if not past the withdrawal date.
  • Complete this petition form.
  • Submit a personal statement of explanation.
  • Submit any supporting documentation as described above under the guidelines.

Only complete petitions with official supporting documentation will be considered. Petitions that do not meet all requirements or that are incomplete will be returned without review. Mail or bring to the address below.

Download the printable petition form

Mt Hood Community College
Admission, Registration and Records Office
26000 SE Stark
Gresham, OR 97030

Students who received financial aid will not receive a refund. If they have received their financial aid, they must contact the financial aid office at 503-491-7262 about any changes made to their class schedule that may affect their financial aid status.

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