Satisfactory Academic Progress

Policy

Updated May 2010

Per federal regulations students receiving financial aid must meet satisfactory academic progress to maintain eligibility for financial aid. The Financial Aid and Scholarship Office will review all financial aid recipients three times a year (end of Fall term, end of Spring term, and end of Summer term). The review will measure both qualitative (GPA) and quantitative (completion rate) standards.

When evaluating Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), all terms of enrollment will be evaluated regardless of whether the student received financial aid during those terms or not. For transfer students, only those credits that are transferred to NMSU, and all credits attempted while attending NMSU, will be counted toward the timeframe. The 2008-2009 Federal Student Handbook (Vol. 2, pgs. 2-127) states that "a school must at least count those transfer credits that apply toward the current program (though the school may count all credits from the previous school)." Therefore we will only count those transfer credits that NMSU accepts.

Qualitative Measure

GPA Requirements for Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate students must maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA or greater to remain in good standing. Undergraduate students that fall below a 2.0 cumulative GPA will receive an unsatisfactory SAP code of U-GPA.

• Student will be ineligible for financial aid until their cumulative GPA is 2.0 or better or an appeal for financial aid has been approved.

Quantitative Measures

Completion Rate for all students

All students, both undergraduate and graduate are required to pass and complete 2/3 (66.6666%) of all classes attempted. Undergraduate and graduate students that fall below a 2/3 completion rate will receive an unsatisfactory SAP code of U-COMP.

• Student will be ineligible for financial aid until completion rate is 2/3 or greater or an appeal for financial aid has been approved.

** Classes in which an undergraduate or graduate student receives an F, W, I, U, or RR will be counted as classes attempted but not completed.

**All undergraduate and graduate students who are below the required GPA and completion rate will receive a U-GPCO. The U-GPCO indicates the student is down on both GPA and completion rate and not eligible to receive financial aid until their academic progress is within the acceptable standards or an appeal for financial has been approved by the Financial Aid Office.

Time Frame Requirements

Noncredit remedial courses, of up to 30 credits, may be deducted from the total number of credits attempted when calculating time frame since they do not count as credit toward a degree but may be required and taken within an eligible program (2008-2009 Federal Student Handbook, Vol. 1, pg. 1-4).

Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate students must attain their degree on or before 150% of the published credits needed for an associate or bachelor degree. Second degree seeking students should visit the Financial Aid Office regarding second degree requirements. Forms for second degree seeking students are in the Forms Library.

Unsatisfactory timeframe for most degrees are as follows:

For a student seeking a Bachelor Degree

• Unsatisfactory Time Frame - 192 attempted credits

For a student seeking an Associate Degree

• Unsatisfactory Time Frame - 99 attempted credits

For a student seeking a Certificate

• Unsatisfactory Time Frame - 36 attempted credits

SAP Codes

Time frame students will receive an unsatisfactory SAP code of U-AP (system generated) or U-MAX (manually generated).

Students with unsatisfactory timeframe will be ineligible for financial aid. Students always have the option to submit an appeal for their financial aid.

As part of the quantitative measure undergraduate and graduate students must be able to meet the 2/3 completion rate requirement by the time the student is considered unsatisfactory on timeframe.If a student is below the 2/3 completion rate, the Financial Aid Advisor will need to evaluate whether the student will be able to meet the 2/3 completion rate requirement by the time the student would be considered unsatisfactory due to timeframe. This is determined by calculating the number of credits needed to attain a 2/3 completion rate and by adding that number to the total credits attempted. If this number exceeds the maximum credits need for their degree, then it is possible the student cannot attain the 2/3 completion rate requirement. A degree check may be necessary to see the total credits needed for the degree to determine if the student can attain the 2/3 completion rate within 150% of their published degree.

Students that have fallen below the required SAP standards and have been approved for financial aid based on an appeal will be given an SAP code of W-STIP, indicating there are academic progress stipulations that must be met by semester end. Those students will be reviewed at the end of each semester. The students that met stipulations but would still be unsatisfactory according to the NMSU SAP policy would divert back to the appropriate U code. The student would then notify the Financial Aid Office that the required stipulations were met and an Advisor would review the SAP and reinstate the W-STIP code. If the student did not meet the prior semester stipulations, the student will go back on an unsatisfactory SAP code and a current appeal would be required for further review.

All the satisfactory academic progress standards for students applying for and receiving Federal Financial Aid, excluding academic suspensions, are established and monitored by Financial Aid and Scholarship Services. Academic suspension standards are established and monitored by the Registrars Office.

Students awarded the Adjusted Credit Option (ACO) by NMSU will have to have their SAP separately calculated for Time Frame, Completion Rate, and GPA. Federal regulations do not allow a student's SAP to be calculated based on adjusted GPA, time frame or completion rate if Academic Amnesty (2008-2009 Federal Student Handbook, Vol. 2, pg.1-130) has been applied to the student's records.

When evaluating a student with an ACO, the Advisor must calculate their completion rate as would be done for any other student (all credits completed divided by all credits attempted). Time frame will be evaluated by adding all credits attempted at NMSU plus any transfer credits accepted at NMSU. For GPA, the actual non-adjusted cumulative GPA must be determined without any consideration of the ACO and the non-adjusted cumulative GPA must be used for purposes of evaluating SAP requirements. These students will be coded U-ACO until reviewed.

Appeal Process

Students that fall below the satisfactory academic progress requirements have the right to appeal their ineligibility for aid. All appeals are reviewed for mitigating circumstances by Financial Aid Advisors, Financial Aid Appeals Committee and/or Financial Aid Managers. Students are encouraged to access the applicable forms; Appeal for Unsatisfactory Academic Progress, Time frame Appeal, and the Second Degree Form from the Forms Library. Appeals may be submitted by email, fax, or taken directly to the Financial Aid Office.

Students enrolled in the same educational programs who are not receiving Title IV assistance may follow the university regulations for satisfactory progress as documented in the University Catalogs.