Students receiving financial aid should contact the Office of Financial Aid about current and future term eligibility when considering taking Planned Leave. Students considering Planned Leave are encouraged to discuss the following impacts:

• Students are not eligible for any financial aid disbursements during their semester(s) on Planned Leave.
• Generally, Planned Leave is approved before any financial aid is disbursed. However, if Planned Leave is approved after August 1 for the fall semester or January 1 for the spring semester, any disbursed financial aid for the semester will be pulled back. If the student had received a refund based on the financial aid disbursement, they subsequently would owe the University those funds. Students who have received financial aid are encouraged to contact the Office of Financial Aid at (970) 491-6321 before taking Planned Leave.
• Students on Planned Leave are reported to lenders and loan service agencies as “non-attending” and should contact their lenders for information regarding possible repayment requirements.
• Students with institutional scholarships or Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) awards will not meet their renewal criteria if they take Planned Leave.

Students who have an institutional scholarship or WUE status who need a decision about their scholarship and if it can be appealed (for not meeting the annual scholarship renewal criteria of continuous enrollment and 24 completed regular on-campus credits) prior to applying for Planned Leave, may submit a proactive scholarship appeal to the Office of Financial Aid. The appeal MUST include their reason for taking a semester off for Planned Leave (any supporting documentation for their reason should also be included). Please be advised there is no guarantee the proactive scholarship appeal will be approved (i.e., scholarships and/or WUE status are not guaranteed upon return from Planned Leave). Students taking Planned Leave, regardless of the status of their scholarship or WUE award, do not need to proactively appeal and will be notified in June (at the end of the academic year they took Planned Leave) they did not meet the renewal criteria. The appeals process will be included in that letter.

Students must currently be meeting their scholarship or WUE GPA requirements to proactively appeal. Proactive appeal deadlines are August 1 for fall semester and January 1 for spring semester; however, students should submit appeals a minimum of two weeks prior to the deadline if they would like a decision before the Planned Leave deadline. Students may fax, mail, walk-in or use the secure document upload to submit a scholarship appeal, found on the the Office of Financial Aid website. Students who do not meet the proactive appeals requirement or who will not be on Planned Leave should contact the Office of Financial Aid for an additional appeal process.

The Native American Legacy Award (NALA) does not have any renewal criteria; as long as the student has remained a Non-Resident, they will still qualify for NALA.

For questions regarding impacts of Planned Leave on financial aid and scholarships, please contact the Office of Financial Aid.