Federal Satisfactory Academic Progress Standard

Important SAP Dates:

Fall Semester: June 15^th to August 10^th
Spring Semester: November 1^st to January 12^th

SAP Appeal Instructions

An institution must establish a reasonable satisfactory academic progress (SAP) policy for determining whether an otherwise eligible student is making satisfactory academic progress in his or her educational program and may receive assistance under the Title IV, Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) programs.

A school must have an SAP policy at least as strict or stricter than the federal guidelines.

SAP Evaluation- There are three measurements for SAP.

1. Maximum time frame
2. Quantitative (Pace of progression)
3. Qualitative (Grade based-GPA)
   1. When measuring Qualitative, you must include remedial coursework

Maximum Timeframe

• Students may not attempt more than 150% of the credits normally required for completion of the degree. Students pursuing a two-year degree program (requiring 60 credits or units) will fail to meet academic progress if they attempted more than 90 credits or units. Students pursuing a four-year degree program (requiring 120 credits or units) will fail academic progress if they attempted more than 180 credits or units.

Qualitative (GPA)

• Students must achieve at least the GPA required to meet the College’s minimum retention standard. If enrolled in a program of more than two years, must have a GPA of at least a “C” or its equivalent or must have an academic standing consistent with the College’s graduation requirements.
• Federal Minimum Standard:

Quantitative (Pace of Progression)

• For students pursuing an associate or baccalaureate degree, accumulated or earned credits must be equal to or greater than a certain percentage of the total credits attempted (See the chart below). Divide your total earned credits by your total attempted credits.
  • Examples:
  • Baccalaureate Degree
    • If a student attempted 30 and earned 5 credits (5 divided by 30 is 16.6%), that student is on track.
    • If a student attempted 30 and earned 3 credits (3 divided by 30 is 10%), that student is not on track.
  • Associate Degree
    • If a student attempted 24 and earned 4 credits (4 divided by 24 is 16.6%), that student is on track.
    • If a student attempted 24 and earned 3 credits (3 divided by 24 is 12.5%), that student is not track.

ASSOCIATE DEGREE CHART

BACHELOR’S DEGREE CHART

NOTE: All students (whether aid recipients or not) will be measured against each of the three SAP components at the end of the spring term to determine eligibility for federal financial aid for the upcoming award year.  Students planning to use PELL for summer semesters may not be eligible if they are failing SAP at the end of the spring semester.

Financial Aid Suspension

Students who do not meet any of the three standards, will be placed on financial aid suspension and lose their eligibility to receive federal financial aid. Such students will remain ineligible for federal financial aid until they take actions that bring them into meeting the appropriate academic progress standard.

Right to Appeal

Students who have been placed on financial aid suspension may appeal to the Committee on Financial Aid Standing to regain their eligibility to receive federal student aid. Students may appeal any of the three standards.

Financial Aid Probation

If the College grants an appeal, it will determine if the student is able to regain academic eligibility in one semester, or if the student needs more than one semester to regain eligibility. If the college determines that a student should regain his academic standing in one semester, the student’s financial aid will be reinstated for the semester (probationary semester), and the College will evaluate the student’s academic progress at the end of the probationary semester to determine if the student has regained his academic standing. If the student meets the academic requirements, the student will continue to receive federal financial aid. If a student fails to meet the academic requirements at the end of the probationary semester, the student’s financial aid will be suspended.

If the College determines that the student needs more than one semester to regain academic eligibility, the College will develop an academic plan with the student and reinstate the student’s financial aid for the probationary semester (initial semester). At the end of the initial probationary semester, the College will review the student’s academic progress to determine if the student has fulfilled the requirements of the academic plan. If the student meets the requirements of the academic plan in the probationary semester, the student will continue to receive federal financial aid on a monitored, semester-by-semester basis until the next scheduled academic progress evaluation, which is at the end of the spring term.

Re-establishing Eligibility

Other than having eligibility restored through filing a successful appeal, a student on financial aid suspension may regain eligibility only by taking action that brings him or her into compliance with the appropriate progress standard. The mere passage of time is insufficient to restore federal financial aid eligibility to a student who has lost eligibility due to not meeting the satisfactory academic progress standard. Therefore, students may not re-establish eligibility solely by leaving the institution for at least one year because this action, by itself, would not bring the student into compliance for federal financial aid academic progress standards.

Measuring Satisfactory Academic Progress

• Remedial Courses – Remedial courses do not carry degree credits and are not included in the total cumulative record of credits earned or attempted. The credit-bearing portion of compensatory or developmental courses would be included in the cumulative earned and/or attempted credits totals for determining pace.
• Withdrawals – Withdrawals, which are recorded on a student’s permanent record, will be included as cumulative attempted credits and will have an adverse effect on a student’s ability to meet the pace of progression standard.

Note: Since the Form A (Census) date usually reflects a student’s course load for the term. Program adjustments classes that are dropped during the program adjustment period will not be included as cumulative attempted credits.

• Incomplete grades – Courses with incomplete grades are included as cumulative attempted credits. However, these courses cannot be used as credits accumulated toward the degree since successful completion is the criterion for positive credit accumulation.

Note: If the student fails to meet the pace of progression standard due to the lack of successful completion grades for incomplete courses, the recording of successful completion grades within a term, which brings the accumulated credit level to the appropriate standard, will restore eligibility for the term and subsequent terms within the academic year.

• Repeated Courses – Successfully completed courses can generally be accepted toward degree requirements once. However, each time a student attempts a course, even if that course is part of a forgiveness or amnesty policy whereby credits attempted and grades earned in prior semesters are excluded from the GPA, it must be included as part of the cumulative attempted credit record for the measuring of the pace of progression. Therefore, repeated courses, regardless of the prior grade, reduce a student’s capacity to meet the pace of progression standard.
• Transfer Credits – Transfer students’ satisfactory academic progress will be measured by counting the transfer credits accepted toward the degree as both credits attempted and credits earned.

Reviewing Appeals as Per Federal Guidelines:

• Appeals are to granted based on extraneous circumstances, such as illness, or injury, illness or death of a family member, etc.
• The circumstance must have occurred during the affected term. There must be supporting documentation.
• The student must also attest to changes that will be taken to assist in achieving and maintaining SAP standards in the future.
• The college’s recommended academic plan for the student achieving and maintaining future SAP requirements.

Continued Financial Aid Probation

• As long as the student complies with all of the conditions of the academic plan, student aid eligibility continues and is monitored on a semester-by-semester basis. (This pertains to the students that are approved for more than one term)

Back-to-Back Appeals

• While there is no limit on the number of times that a student may file an SAP appeal, “back-to-back” appeals, by federal regulation, cannot be granted to those who failed to satisfy the conditions of an appeal granted for a term immediately preceding the term that the new appeal would be applied to.

Readmission and Reestablishing Eligibility

• Newly readmitted students can appeal to have their federal aid eligibility reinstated after a non-enrollment period of no less than two (2) consecutive semesters.

Appealing for Federal Aid Re-instatement

Students who want to appeal for financial aid reinstatement must complete a Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal (SAP) by logging into CUNY Student Forms and completing all SAP tasks.