Good Academic Standing and Receipt of Undergraduate Financial Aid

Requirements

State and federal regulations require that all financial aid recipients maintain program pursuit and make satisfactory academic progress toward completion of degree program requirements. The Financial Aid Office at Fredonia evaluates student aid academic progress according to state requirements for TAP, SUNYTC, SUSTA, APTS, and PTAP at the completion of each semester and according to federal requirements for SEOG, PELL, TEACH, Work Study, Direct Stafford and Direct Plus loans at the completion of the academic year. All three criteria in the charts below must be met in order to retain financial aid for the following semester. If a student withdraws from a course, it may affect his/her aid for the next semester.

New York State Good Academic Standing Chart for Undergraduate Students who first received TAP in 2010-11 and thereafter (TAP, SUNYTC, SUSTA, APTS, PTAP)

ft = full-time pt = part-time

* Only students in approved five-year programs (EOP and Public Accountancy) are eligible for 10 semesters of undergraduate TAP. All other students are limited to eight semesters of undergraduate TAP.

New York State Good Academic Standing Chart for EOP Undergraduate Students and Students Whose First TAP Payment was 2006-07 through 2009-10 (TAP, SUNYTC, SUSTA, APTS, PTAP)

ft = full-time pt = part-time

* Only students in approved five-year programs (EOP and Public Accountancy) are eligible for 10 semesters of undergraduate TAP. All other students are limited to eight semesters of undergraduate TAP.

Repeated Courses

Courses in which the student has already received a passing grade cannot be included in meeting full-time study requirements for state-sponsored financial aid. Repeated courses may be counted toward full-time study requirements if a student repeats a failed course, if a student repeats the course for additional credit, if a student has received a grade that is passing at the institution but is unacceptable in a particular curriculum, or when a student repeats a previously withdrawn course.

Notification Procedure

The Financial Aid Office will notify the student within one month after the conclusion of the Fall semester if good academic standing requirements were not met while the student received State aid, and within one month after the Spring semester while the student received State aid. The letter will inform the student of loss of aid at Fredonia for the semester immediately following the one in which the program pursuit and satisfactory academic progress standards were not met and will also apprise the student of the waiver procedure to follow if the student feels financial aid should be reinstated.

Waiver Procedure

A request to reinstate State aid for the next semester at Fredonia will be evaluated and granted only if exceptional circumstances (e.g., family illness or death, personal illness, personal emotional disturbances, other unusual circumstances) can be documented by the student. Waivers of the Good Academic Standing criteria and reinstatement of aid are not automatic. They are approved only if in the best interest of the student and only if unusual circumstances prevented the student from meeting the expected criteria. A waiver to reinstate State aid is available only once during undergraduate study (with the exception of "C" average waiver). The waiver request form is mailed with the notification of aid loss to the student by the Financial Aid Office. A student choosing to use the waiver process to reinstate their aid for that semester at Fredonia must complete and submit the waiver form along with appropriate documentation to the Office of Financial Aid for evaluation by the published deadline.  

Good Academic Standing Chart for Federal Aid (PELL, SEOG, TEACH, Work Study, Direct Stafford, Direct Plus Loan)

ft = full-time pt = part-time

Receipt of federal aid is limited to 12 semesters (for students enrolled full-time), according to Federal Regulation 34CFR PART 668.16.

Students should be aware that course repeats do not count as a completion in determining Good Academic Standing.

Part-time students enrolled beyond 12 semesters (up to 24 semesters maximum) must continue to complete 100 percent of hours attempted and maintain a 2.0 GPA.

As a rule, students should always check with the Financial Aid office when considering a withdrawal from courses or the university.

Federal Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)

Final regulations published in the Federal Register on October 29, 2010 (668.16 and 668.34) by the U.S. Department of Education require institutions that participate in the student financial aid programs under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended to (the HEA), to implement new guidelines, effective July 1, 2011; tied to the annual Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) review for federal student aid. Fredonia conducts a review of Satisfactory Academic Progress tied to the receipt of federal student aid on an annual basis, at the completion of the Spring semester. If a student fails to achieve satisfactory academic progress at that time, the institution may not award and disburse federal Title IV program funds to the student.

Incompletes and WD’s

Effective July 1, 2011, GPA and pace of completion are affected by course incompletes and withdrawals. Transfer courses must count as both attempted and completed hours when measuring quantitative progress.

Financial Aid Probation

This will be a new status assigned to a student who fails to meet the Satisfactory Academic Progress review at the completion of the Spring semester, who has appealed that determination via the institutional Waiver process, and has subsequently had eligibility for federal aid reinstated. This status will be assigned for a single consecutive payment period and the student will receive Title IV funding while in this status. At the end of that payment period, the student must meet the institution’s SAP standards or meet the requirements of the “academic plan” that may have previously been developed by the institution to qualify for further federal aid.

The institutional SAP Waiver Policy and Use of Academic Plans is based on the following set of procedures:

• A student will be notified within four weeks at the conclusion of the Spring semester if they fail to meet federal Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements.
• If the student chooses to appeal the loss of federal student aid for the subsequent semester, they must submit a letter and include supporting documentation with the Waiver Application that supports the reason for failing to meet federal Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements by the published deadline.  
• The basis on which a student may file an appeal are the death of an immediate family member, student illness, illness of a family member, and/or other personal and emotional difficulties, and/or other unusual circumstances. 
• The Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Waiver Committee will review the documentation and either approve or deny the Federal Waiver request and will subsequently notify the student via electronic means.
• If the federal aid waiver is approved,  and the student  has an overall GPA below a 2.0, they are placed in a Financial Aid Probation status for the semester in which they are requesting their aid be reinstated for.  
• Once in a Financial Aid Probation status, a determination will be made as to whether or not a student could meet the required SAP standards after the subsequent payment period and if not, the Advisor/Department Chair will develop an “academic plan” in collaboration with the student to ensure that the student meets Federal SAP standards by a specific point in time. The “academic plan” then becomes the students mandate to meeting federal Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements in place of the standard federal SAP Chart.