Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) is the term used to denote a student's successful completion of coursework toward a certificate or degree. Financial Aid must monitor the progress of each student toward the completion of a certificate or degree in order to meet federal and state guidelines governing the administration of student financial assistance. Students who fall behind in their coursework or fail to achieve minimum standards for grade point average and completion of classes may lose their eligibility for all types of federal, state, and university aid administered by Financial Aid.

SAP Components

There are three components to SAP. Failure to comply with any component may result in a loss of aid eligibility. The three components are as follows:

1. Minimum Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA)
   • Undergraduate Students: 2.0
   • Graduate Students: 3.0
2. Completion Rate (Deficit Hours)
   • While students are expected to enroll in full-time to be eligible for financial aid, each student must successfully complete at least 67% of all credit hours attempted.
   • This percentage includes all institutional and transfer credit hours, regardless of whether or not financial aid was received.
   • Grades of W, F, I Q, WF, and grad exclusions are not considered to be adequate grades for completion.
3. Maximum Hours (Excessive Hours)
   • Students are expected to complete their degree pursuits within a maximum timeframe, including transfer hours earned as well as institutional attempted hours.
   • Students seeking their first bachelor's or master's degree, the maximum number of credit hours (total attempted hours) is limited to 150% of the published degree program length and includes all hours attempted (including repeats and withdrawals) at any institution of higher education and any hours accepted in transfer -even if financial aid was not received. Evaluated credit will also be included in the total attempted hours once articulated by the Registrar's Office.
   • *** Credit hours are cumulative; thus, students obtaining more than the maximum hours (e.g., change in major) may reach this maximum timeframe before completing their course of study and may need to appeal the timeframe eligibility.

Review Policy

The Financial Aid Office will review the above minimum standards of academic progress at the end of every semester to determine each applicant's eligibility for aid consideration for the upcoming year (summer, fall, spring). If it is determined that the student does not meet the requirements, he/she will be ineligible to receive financial aid and will be notified accordingly.

Financial Aid Warning

Students failing to meet the SAP standards of a cumulative 2.0 GPA-Undergraduate/3.0 Graduate and 67% completion rate will be placed on financial aid warning status. The student will remain eligible for financial aid for one semester during the warning.

First time transfer students who fail to meet Financial Aid SAP requirements at the end of their initial semester are not eligible for Financial Aid Warning.

Financial Aid Suspension

Students fails to meet the SAP standards of a cumulative 2.0 for Undergraduates or 3.0 for Graduates GPA and 67% completion rate after being placed on financial aid warning status, will be placed on Financial Aid Suspension and will immediately lose financial aid eligibility.

Maximum Time Frame Suspension

Students who fail to meet the Maximum Time Frame standards, will be placed on Maximum Time Frame Suspension and will immediately lose financial aid eligibility. There is no provision for a warning period if students are exceeding the maximum time frame.

SAP Appeal

Students who are placed on financial aid suspension, will be given the opportunity to appeal to have their financial aid reinstated.

The Satisfactory Academic Progress appeal documentation submission process must be completed online at: https://tamuct.verifymyfafsa.com/account/login. If you are a first-time user of this site, please click create account and establish an account using your preferred email (required for email notifications regarding documents) and cell phone number (optional for text alerts regarding documents). Please add this email address to your trusted email list to prevent the emails from being flagged as spam or junk mail.

Students are limited to only two appeals during their undergraduate coursework and two appeals during their graduate coursework.