Financial Aid Probation

When a student signs up and is granted financial aid they must go through a probation period. Students have agreed to maintain what Colleges and Lenders call Standards of Satisfactory Progress. These standards include that the student is required to pass a certain a determined number of credits that their student loans were based on. Students are enrolled in an undergraduate program have to achieve and maintain a cumulative grade point average of 2.0. Students enrolled in a graduate program must keep a 3.0 grade point average. Students that receive a named scholarship have to have a higher grade point average.

Students must also complete their programs in a timely fashion. Students in an undergrad program have a maximum of 5 years to finish their Bachelor’s Degree. Graduate students have 5 years to complete their Master’s Degree. If you fail to abide by the contract from your financial aid lender you will be placed on financial aid probation. Once this happens the student can still receive their funding but they must finish three consecutive terms with 100% completion. They must achieve their required grade point average. If students do not complete the requirements then the probation turns into a suspension.

Students will be placed on financial aid suspension if they have a grade point average of 1.75 for undergrad programs, they would have completed less than 75% of the credits you are taking. For graduate students their grade point average would be less than 2.75. If the suspension happens this will affect the Federal, State and Other aid loans.

Once the student has been placed on financial aid suspension you have a right to appeal that decision. The first thing you have to do is write a letter to the Director of Financial Aid, this letter of appeal should include in your own words you should explain how you ended up in the position you are in. You should explain what you are going to do to rectify the situation and what you can do to not allow this happen again. If your reason was a medical reason then you should include all of the doctors’ notes and possibly a letter from your doctor.

If this fails then you can still appeal to the Academic Dean. The best way to prevent this from happening is to work hard and study. These conditions are set in place for students who are serious about getting an education. If you start to fall behind or your grades start to slip you should make a plan to get yourself back on track before the end of the semester.

Financial aid probation goes by grade point average; you won’t get the GPA until the end of the semester. So there is time to correct yourself if you start to slip. Make sure that when you sign a financial aid contract that you read the entire contract. Read about deferment, probation and repayments. It is best to understand every term of payment, every term in the contract.