To be making satisfactory academic progress for federal financial aid, you must:

Your cumulative academic record will measured against each of the three progress components at the end of the spring term to determine eligibility for receipt of federal student aid in the upcoming award year. All courses that appear on your permanent academic record and all courses accepted for transfer count towards progress even if you received no federal student aid for those courses.

Financial Aid Suspension
If you exceed the maximum time-frame, or fall beneath the pace of progression standard, you will be placed on financial aid suspension and lose your eligibility to participate in federal student aid programs. Students on financial aid suspension will remain ineligible for federal student aid until they take actions that once again bring them into compliance with the appropriate progress standard.

Your Right To Appeal
If you have been placed on financial aid suspension, you may appeal to the Committee on Academic Standing to retain eligibility to receive federal student aid.

Your appeal must be based on mitigating circumstances resulting from events such as personal illness or injury, illness or death of a family member, loss of employment, or changes in your academic program. Your appeal must include an explanation of why you failed to make satisfactory progress and what has changed in your situation to allow you to meet the appropriate progress standard in a future evaluation.

Your appeal may be granted if it is determined that you will be able to meet the appropriate standard by the end of the next semester OR if an academic plan is developed for you that, if followed, will ensure that you will be able to meet the progress standard by a specific point in time.

Financial Aid Probation
If your appeal is granted, you will be placed on financial aid probation and have your federal student aid eligibility reinstated for one semester. At the end of the probationary semester, your record will be reviewed to determine if you have met the appropriate progress standard or have fulfilled the requirements specified in your academic plan.

If you are found to have met the appropriate progress standard at the end of the probationary semester, you will continue to receive federal student aid until the next progress evaluation. If you are on an academic plan and meet all the conditions of the plan in your probationary semester, you will continue to receive federal student aid on a monitored, semester-by-semester basis until the next scheduled progress evaluation.

There is no limit on the number of times you may follow the financial aid appeals procedure. Additional appeals to extend financial aid probation is allowed, but, as in the origianl appeal, you would have to indicate mitigating circumstances, the reasons why you did not meet satisfactory progress requirements, the reasons why the objectives of your academic plan were not achieved, and what has changed to ensure you will be able to meet the progress standard at the next evaluation.

Re-establishing Eligibility
Other than having eligibility restored through filing a successful appeal, you may have your financial aid suspension removed only by taking actions that bring you into compliance with the appropriate progress standard. The mere passage of time, by itself, is insufficient to restore your aid eligibility.

If you remain enrolled without receiving federal financial aid, you may request a review of your academic record after any term you were on financial aid suspension to determine whether you are meeting the standard of satisfactory progress. If the standard is met, you will regain eligibility for federal aid in the subsequent terms of the academic year.

Determination of Credits Attempted and Credits Earned
Credits attempted reflect the course loads maintained in your permanent enrollment record at the college. Credits earned are those credits you have actually earned toward your degree.

In measuring satisfactory academic progress, certain courses and situations will be treated in the following ways:

1. Basic Skills Courses
   Remedial or basic skills courses do not carry degree credit and are not included in the cumulative record of credits earned or attempted for determing your pace of progression. The credit-bearing portion of courses classified in prior years as developmental or compensatory are included as part of the cumulative record of earned or attempted credits.

2. Withdrawals
   Withdrawals recorded on your permanent record will be counted in your cumulative record of credits attempted and will adversely affect your ability to meet the pace of progression standard.
   
   NOTE: Changes to your enrollment record caused by retroactive "non-punitive" administrative withdrawal activity can result in your having to repay the assistance that you received that term.

3. Incomplete Grades
   Your cumulative record of credits attempted must include any course in which you receive an incomplete grade. This course cannot be counted in your earned credits until you have received a completion grade. If you fail to meet the pace of progression standard due to an incomplete grade for a course, the recording of a successful completion grade within a term which brings your accumulated credits up to the appropriate standard will restore eligibility for this and subsequent terms within the academic year.

4. Repeated Courses
   Successfully completed courses can generally be accepted toward degree requirements only once. However, each time you attempt a course, it is included as part of your cumulative record of credits attempted for the measuring of pace of progression. Therefore, repeating a course, regardless of prior grade, reduces your ability to meet the pace of progression standard.

5. Transfer of Credit
   As a transfer student, you will have your status initialized for measuring satisfactory academic progress by counting the transfer credits accepted toward the degree as both credits attempted and credits earned.

Treatment of Non-Standard Situations

1. Readmitted Students
   Upon readmission after any period of non re-enrollment, your satisfactory progress standing will be re-evaluated as it stood at the end of your last semester of attendance. If you have taken any action during your period of non re-enrollment that would bring you into compliance with the progress standard (such as successfully completing transferable courses at another institution) this will also be factored into the assessment. If you have taken no such action, or if the action you took is not sufficient to bring you into compliance with the progress standard, you would remain on financial aid suspension and would have to file a successful appeal to re-establish eligibility.

2. Second Degree Students
   If you are enrolled for a second degree, you shall have your pace of progression status initialized for measuring satisfactory academic progress by counting the credits accepted toward the second degree as both credits attempted and credits earned.

3. Change of Major/Change of Degree
   If you change majors within the same degree or certificate program, or if you change your educational objective and begin pursuing a different degree without having earned the first degree, you must complete your academic program within the maximum timeframe allowed or file a successful appeal to extend the maximum timeframe.