Satisfactory Academic Progress

Eligibility for Financial Aid

To be eligible for and to receive any federal aid, state aid, certain types of institutional aid and private educational loans students must comply with Florida Gulf Coast University’s standards for Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). The intent of this policy is to ensure that students who are receiving federal and state financial aid as well private educational loans for their educational needs are making measurable progress toward completion of a degree in a reasonable period of time.  Students are measured on GPA (a qualitative measure), Completion Rate and Maximum Timeframe (quantitative measures). Students who fail to meet SAP standards will be ineligible to receive any federal aid, state aid or private educational loan funds. Students who are found ineligible may appeal this determination under specifically prescribed conditions. Resources for policies follow sections 668.34 of the federal handbook.

• Qualitative Measure of Progress

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  The qualitative requirement allows a set minimum standard institutional Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) for undergraduate students. Teacher certification and Teacher Immersion students are considered undergraduate students for SAP purposes. The CGPA does not include grades from courses taken at other institutions. Undergraduate students must maintain an institutional cumulative GPA of at least 2.0 for continued eligibility.

• Quantitative Measure of Progress

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  The quantitative requirement is broken up into two sections.  The first quantitative standard will be the student’s completion ratio. The ratio is compiled by dividing the number of completed credits by the number of attempted credits. Students must have earned a minimum of 70 percent of the total credit hours attempted. Attempted hours that can affect your completion rate include withdraws, incomplete grades, non-reported grades, unsatisfactory grades, failing grades and any other attempted credits that does not result in earned credits. Any articulated hours transferred in from another institution (including consortium hours) will be used to calculate a student’s completion rate.

  Time Frame to Complete Degree

  The second component of the quantitative measure of progress is the maximum timeframe allotted to complete a program. The time required to complete an undergraduate degree cannot exceed 150% of the program length. Once it is mathematically impossible to complete the degree requirements before reaching 150% of their program length the student will be placed on financial aid suspension. Courses that are attempted during periods when a student did not receive aid are also counted in the calculation. All articulated transfer hours, consortium hours, study abroad, repeat courses, failed courses, and any other attempted credits will be added to determine maximum timeframe hours. Students are limited to two major changes. This means if a student changes majors three or more times consideration may not be given to extend financial aid through the appeal process if the timeframe is exceeded. The only time this policy will be overridden is if the university should no longer offer a major and a change is necessary.

  Undergraduate students cannot exceed 180 attempted hours.

  Note: Most undergraduate degrees require 120 earned credits to graduate. If your degree program requires more than 120 hours to graduate, then your eligibility may be adjusted by submitting an appeal.

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SAP Details

The SAP Process is run annually at the end of each spring term after grades are posted. This annual process will check for completion rate, institutional CGPA, and Timeframe as explained above. Students on financial aid probation will be reviewed at the end of each term. Also, Teacher certification and Teacher Immersion Students will be reviewed at the end of each term.

New freshman coming in during the academic year will automatically be considered making SAP. Transfer students will be reviewed at time of enrollment, after FAFSA (free application for federal student aid) information is received. All transcripts must be received and processed before eligibility will be considered.

SAP Status code/Description	How Financial  Aid eligibility is Affected
SAP- Making Satisfactory Academic Progress	The student has met all financial aid eligibility requirements and is eligible for financial aid.
SUS- Financial Aid Suspension	The student has not met one or all of the financial aid eligibility requirements and is no longer eligible to receive financial aid.  The student will remain on suspension until an appeal is approved or until SAP is achieved. Some types of financial aid (including some scholarships) will still disburse regardless of the suspended status.
PROB- Financial Aid Probation	The student submitted an appeal that was approved by the financial aid appeals committee. The student is now on probation and is eligible to receive aid. After the appeal is approved the student will either be allotted one semester to achieve SAP or be assigned an academic plan.  The academic plan will include criteria that must be achieved over two or more semesters to meet SAP. Students on probation will be reviewed at the end of each semester to determine if SAP was achieved or if the academic plan was successfully completed. Students will remain on probation until they achieve their academic plan and reach SAP. If the student fails to meet SAP or the conditions of the academic plan the financial aid status will revert to suspension and financial aid will cease.

Teacher Certification and Teacher Immersion Programs

Teacher certification and TIP (Teacher Immersion Program) students will be reviewed at the end of each term due to the length of the program.  Students must achieve at least a 2.0 CGPA and a 70% cumulative completion at the end of each term.  The maximum timeframe for each program cannot exceed 31 credit hours.

Regaining Eligibility

Mitigating circumstances: Students who do not meet the minimum satisfactory academic progress requirements may request reinstatement of their eligibility based on any of the circumstance listed below. Request for reinstatement must be made in writing through the financial aid appeal process.  Approval is NOT guaranteed.

• Death/Illness of an immediate family member

• Personal injury/illness
• Physical disability
• Other extraordinary circumstances

Appeal: Students seeking reinstatement of their eligibility to receive financial aid must complete a Financial Aid Appeal form and provide supporting documentation. Supporting documentation can include obituaries, medical bills, doctor’s notes, and any other documentation that the committee deems appropriate. Students must also explain what in their situation has changed so they may now meet SAP standards. Notification of action taken by the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships will be emailed within 20 working days of the request (unless necessary information cannot be obtained). If additional documentation is requested, the student must submit the documentation by the deadline posted on the appeal form. If the timeframe is not met the appeal will either not be considered or considered for the subsequent semester. The committee has 14 working days from the date the last supporting document is provided to notify the student of a decision (unless necessary information cannot be obtained). Deadlines for appeals will be published on the financial aid appeal forms. Appeals will not be reviewed for the current term after the posted deadlines.

If the appeal provided is approved the student will then be placed on probation for the semester requested and aid may be awarded for that semester. The student’s progress will then be reviewed at the end of the semester. The student will remain on probation as long as they continue to achieve the requirements of their academic plan each semester. The only time SAP status will automatically be updated is  at the end of the spring term when the annual process is run or due to a reported grade change. If a student reaches SAP standards at any other time they must submit an appeal for the status to be updated. 

If a student's request for reinstatement of financial aid is denied they may pursue further review by the Financial Aid Appeal Committee by supplying additional documentation that was not included in the first appeal. A student is allowed three approved appeals while pursuing an undergraduate degree (including teaching certification) and three approved appeals while pursuing a graduate degree. After the third approved appeal no other appeals may be submitted, and the student can only receive aid by meeting SAP.

Fall- Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal

Spring- Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal

Summer- Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal

Satisfactory Academic Progress Timeframe Review

Note: Financial Aid for the current academic term will be awarded at the time of reinstatement providing funds are still available. All charges incurred during the period of time in which a student is suspended are the sole responsibility of the student.

Violation of Terms of Probation: Students who have appealed and are placed on probation must  achieve SAP or fulfill the terms of the academic plan. Violation will result in financial aid suspension and not being eligible to appeal for reinstatement of financial aid. Probation students whose status are negatively affected by NR grades are eligible to submit an appeal if the updated grade(s) result in the student meeting SAP standards. Students will remain on suspension until meeting SAP or may appeal again after completing one semester on their own, as long as they have achieved SAP standards during that semester.

 Circumstances Which Affect Your SAP Status

• Withdrawals

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  Students who withdraw from school while receiving financial aid will be subject to the provisions of the Refund and Repayment Policy and may be required to repay part or all of the aid received. In addition, withdrawals will affect the quantitative measures of progress.

• Incomplete grades, Non-Reported grades, Failing grades, and Withdrawals

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  Students who receive an Incomplete ("I") grade, or earn any grade that does not result in credits being earned will be ineligible to receive aid beyond the time frame for the completion of a degree regardless of whether they have completed the necessary course requirements for the degree.  These types of grades will also count against your completion ratio.

• Repeat Courses

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  Repeated courses count as attempted credit hours each time a student registers, but only count as earned credit hours once.  This means these courses will affect completion rate and maximum timeframe.  This is true even if financial aid does not pay for the course after the second attempt.

• Change in Major, double major, or minors

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  Student who change their major more than twice while earning an undergraduate or graduate degree are in danger of going over their allotted timeframe to earn that particular degree. Double majors and minors may also cause the maximum timeframe to be reached before graduation. If the maximum timeframe is surpassed an appeal may not be granted for these reasons alone. Also if the maximum timeframe is met or surpassed an appeal may be approved but will only allow for completion of the degree requirements

• Grade Forgiveness

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  Grade forgiveness may help increase your GPA if used properly, however the credits for the course will only count as earned one time. Therefore, grade forgiveness will count against the students’ completion rate and maximum timeframe.

• Courses taken for pass/fail grades

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  Count against both your maximum timeframe and your completion ratio (unless courses are not allotted credit hours).

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• Late Posted Grades, Grade Changes, and Late Withdrawals

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  All grade changes, late posted grades and late withdrawals will be reviewed and changes to a student’s SAP status will be applied accordingly.  These changes may cause a student’s status to change to making SAP, Probation, or Suspension.  We encourage all financial aid recipients to discuss these changes before requesting any changes.

• Consortium or Study Abroad Credits

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  Count towards your completion rate and maximum timeframe once the official transcripts are received and processed.

• Completed Program - without degree

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  A student who completes their academic program requirements, but chooses not to apply for graduation or misses the deadline to apply for graduation may no longer eligible for Title IV aid.

• Second Bachelors Program

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  Students over the required timeframe that enter a second bachelor’s program will be required to submit an appeal and timeframe review form. 

• Remedial courses

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  If the courses were completed at FGCU for credit hour(s) or credit hours were transferred, then the hours will count towards the completion rate and maximum timeframe.