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Home > Financial Aid > (SAP) Standards of Academic Progress
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Standards of Academic Progress (SAP) for Financial Aid
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According to federal regulations, students participating in the federal financial aid program at PBCC must meet our Standards of Academic Progress (SAP). These standards may also apply to some state aid as well. The SAP calculation uses cumulative credit/hour totals. This means that we include all terms of enrollment, including those at prior institutions, regardless of whether the student was receiving financial aid at the time.
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Three standards are used to measure academic progress for financial aid purposes:
Standard 1: Cumulative grade point average (GPA) is at or above 2.0
Standard 2: Cumulative completion rate is at or above 67%
Anytime a student withdraws, fails, audits, and/or repeats a class, it is counted as an attempt. If an instructor withdraws a student from class, or the student receives an incomplete it is also counted as an attempt.
For example, if a student has attempted 24 cumulative credit hours, but only completed 12 cumulative credit hours, this equates to a 50% completion rate.
Standard 3: Credits/clock hours completed and/or attempted does not exceed 150% of the credits/hours required to complete the program
AA students are only eligible to receive financial aid for up to 90 cumulative credit hours attempted.
AS and certificate students are eligible until they have attempted 150% of the number of cumulative credit/clock hours needed to complete a program as published in the PBCC catalog.
Be careful when changing program objectives. Switching to a different program may lead to exceeding the 150% rule when classes do not transfer to meet the requirements of your new objective.
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THE SAP CALCULATION
- We will count all credits/clock hours that appear on a student’s transcript as cumulative hours attempted and/or completed.
- We include transfer credits, CLEP hours, repeated courses, and certain ESOL courses if designated as credit courses by the transferring institution.
- We will not include remedial course work (i.e., prep classes) when assessing the standards. However, a student is only eligible to receive financial aid for a maximum of 30 remedial credits.
- We will count “Incomplete” grades (I) as failing grades (F) until the Registrar’s Office posts the final grades on your transcript.
- We will calculate the standards at the end of each 16-week fall and spring term.
- Financial aid is cancelled when you do not meet the GPA standard, the 67% completion rate and/or the 150% rule.
Students whose eligibility has been terminated (because of failure to meet the standards of satisfactory progress) may in certain cases request a formal review of the decision to revoke financial aid eligibility. Circumstances that may be considered for this special review (appeal) include: illness of student and/or immediate family member (mother, father, sister, brother, spouse), death of immediate family member, relocation due to military duty or employer. If there are extenuating circumstances that caused you to fail SAP, you may file an appeal.
Other circumstances
Grade change
Academic transcript
Non-credit continuing education courses reported on your academic transcript
Procedure for Review
In order to appeal the decision on this basis; the following procedures must be used:
1. Type your appeal letter, or print legibly. Make sure to include a detailed explaination of the circumstances that occured.
2. Provide as much documentation as possible.
3. Be sure that the circumstances you reference apply to the semester(s) for which you are claiming mitigating circumstances.
4. Once the review has been made, the student will be notified of the result of the appeal by mail.
If the appeal is approved the student must adhere to the following conditions:
►You must not withdraw, audit, or fail ANY courses attempted.
►You will only be awarded aid for the classes you are enrolled in that count toward your degree/certificate.
►You must complete all course work attempted and maintain the minimum GPA according to the Standards of Progress for financial aid.
Other important information for appeals:
►You must request to have your appeal reviewed each academic year that you are still on suspension if you wish to receive financial aid. Your appeal will not be extended until all grades are posted from the previous term.
►Appeals are not retroactive. An appeal must be submitted prior to the end of the term for which it is intended.
A student who is placed on financial aid suspension or termination will not be eligible to receive federal and some state funding including student loans. Students who are suspended must pay for their own classes until they have earned the minimum required GPA and/or completion rate. We will not reimburse students for courses taken while on suspension.
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