You’ve been through the applications and the FAFSA and you’ve read the letters telling you your student loans have been approved.
You may know the importance of getting good grades to keep these loans, but you may not know that federal regulations also determine how your school measures your progress. These rules are known as satisfactory academic progress or SAP and are the standards students must meet to receive federal and state financial aid.
NSU’s SAP rules require students to complete a third of all credits they attempt in an academic year and a third of all the credits they attempt in their degree overall. Students must also maintain a minimum GPA; undergraduate students must maintain at least a 2.0 GPA while the requirement varies for master’s, specialist and doctoral students.
The Current sat down with Director of the Office of Financial Assistance Kathleen Strickland to learn more about SAP requirements. Strickland explained how SAP works, what SAP entails and where students can get more information.
On how often SAP is checked
“The financial aid office checks SAP once a year at the end of the student’s academic year. Most of the students here are on a fall/winter/summer semester program. For those students, the office evaluates for SAP at the end of the summer semester.
“NSU also has programs that start the academic year during the summer semester. If the student begins in the summer and they go summer, fall, winter, their academic year is going to end in the winter semester and SAP will be evaluated at the end of the winter semester.
“The other type of programs NSU has are the four-semester programs. They go summer, fall, winter, and spring. For those students, the office checks SAP at the end of the spring semester. So it’s once annually at the end of the student’s academic year.”
On the different components of SAP
“One component is maximum timeframe, the limit to the number of credit hours a student can receive financial aid for. Most schools permit 150 percent maximum timeframe, which means if you’re in a bachelor’s program with 120 credits, you can receive financial aid for 150 percent of the 120 credits, which would come to 180 credits. Once a student reaches 180, they no longer meet that component of SAP, so they will fail SAP. All credits count.
“Another component is GPA and that’s a cumulative GPA, from the start to the end of the evaluation period — the end of the academic year that the office is evaluating.
“NSU doesn’t bring in a GPA from transfer credits. You get the credit and you might have the grade but it doesn’t count toward your GPA here. GPA is the qualitative component of SAP.
“Another component is the annual quantitative component: the financial aid office measures the students’ annual attempted hours to see if they have earned two thirds of the number of credits that they have attempted. The office only looks at that academic year for this component of SAP. If it’s a fall, winter, summer program, the office is going to look at the credit hours the student attempted for that period of time to determine if they have met the two thirds requirement.
“The fourth component is pace: two thirds completion over all. The office takes the total attempted hours overall, total earned hours and determine if the pace is at least two thirds. The office looks at the student’s total attempted hours to determine if the student has successfully completed two thirds of whatever they have attempted.
“Attempted credits basically includes all credits. Transfer credits that are accepted to NSU, incomplete courses, withdrawal courses, repeated courses, dropped courses. Everything counts in attempted credits.
“If a student drops before the course starts, generally, that course does not count toward attempted credits. However, because NSU disburses loan funds ten days in advance of the term starting, students get their money before classes start. Then if they drop before the class starts, that type of course is going to count as an attempted course because the student received aid for it. Once a student starts the class and then drops, all of those credits count in attempted credits.
“If a student fails any of these components, they fail SAP.”
On how to appeal when a student fail SAP
“Under the regulations, a school is not required to have a SAP appeal process but NSU has chosen to have one. Generally, the office just allows one approved appeal. Students can appeal if their reason for SAP failure was for something beyond their control: some type of extenuating circumstance occurred in the student’s life that prevented them from being successful.
“That appeal has to be documented. For instance, if the circumstances had to do with a medical [condition] that the student was diagnosed with, the office would require some kind of medical documentation that would show us that this event was happening or starting or occurring during the time or term in which the student did not do well.
“So, the office is going to compare all of that information when they turn in a SAP appeal. The SAP appeal also has to tell us — and this is a requirement under federal regulations —what has changed in their life that will now allow them to be successful. So if they had a medical condition and that medical condition has not been resolved, they will not be approved under the appeal because it’s not permitted under federal regulation.
“If a student does have a valid reason for an appeal, he or she can go through that appeal and get approved. If it’s approved, then that student will be reinstated in terms of their financial aid. In those instances, the office will evaluate them every term until they have met all the requirements again. At the end of the year again, the office is going to do its annual evaluation.
“Another way to reinstate eligibility for aid for students to take courses on their own, pay out of pocket, or find a private loan that doesn’t require SAP that they qualify for. When the office does its evaluation at the end of the next evaluation period, if the student has made progress, if the student has made up their deficiency during that time period, he or she can reestablish eligibility.”
On where students can find more information
“The financial aid office has an entire webpage devoted to SAP and I can’t stress enough the importance for students to go there, look under their program and look at the four criteria, the four components of SAP, to understand what they need to do to continue to receive financial aid. If they have any questions about what they’re reading, they should call and ask the question and get the clarification they need.
“The other thing I would say, if they’re having challenges in their life, to go see their academic advisor before it gets to be a problem and just plan accordingly so that they are able to focus on whatever courses they registered for so that they earn the credit, they earn the good grade and they don’t have to receive the denial letter later on. Plan accordingly.”
On students’ other options
“The SAP requirements affect federal financial aid and state financial aid. Some of the private educational loans require SAP. Some don’t. If a student has failed SAP and is looking for some other resource to fund their education, [I] advise them to see if [he or she] can find a private educational loan that doesn’t require SAP or sign up for one of the payment plans through the Bursar’s Office.”
For more information about SAP, call the designated SAP Service Line at 866-775-3575 or 954-262-2427, email nsusap@nova.edu and visit the SAP website at nova.edu/financialaid/eligibility/satisfactory-academic-progress.html. The NSU Call Center is open 24/7 at 954-262-3380.
