All undergraduate and graduate students must meet the Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) requirements in order to receive financial aid at Shenandoah University.
Federal regulations require each college or university to have an academic progress policy, which establishes the minimum standards of eligibility for financial aid.
Students are at risk of not meeting satisfactory academic progress if they:
- Have been placed on academic suspension, or
- Have been on academic probation for two consecutive semesters, or
- Receive only grades of “F,” “W,” “I” or “IF” or any combination of these grades for a semester
In order to maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress students are required to complete these requirements:
Full-time students must successfully complete:
- 16 credit hours after 2 semesters of study
- 36 credit hours after 4 semesters of study
- 60 credit hours after 6 semesters of study
- 90 credit hours after 8 semesters of study
- The baccalaureate degree in 10 semesters
The minimum credit hour requirements are prorated for students who attend less than full-time (i.e., 75 percent for 3/4 time; 50 percent for 1/2 time) or fail to maintain the following minimum cumulative grade point averages:
| Credit Hours Graded | Minimum Cumulative GPA |
|---|---|
| 1.00 – 23.99 | 1.6 |
| 24.00-53.99 | 1.8 |
| 54.00 and above | 2.0 |
Additionally, even if a student does not progress in their anticipated full-time credit load, students must have a minimum GPA of 2.0 at the end of their second year or fourth semester.
Graduate student are required to maintain a 2.0 GPA minimum for federal standards. Please note that specific programs may have higher academic requirements. Please check with your program for more information.
Students who intend to take longer than four years to complete a degree should realize that many state and university financial aid programs limit assistance to eight semesters of full-time study. Students who do not take these limitations into consideration may find themselves unable to obtain aid for a fifth year of study. Please contact our office for details if you will be attending more than four years.
In regards to federal student aid, students must complete their degree within 150% of the published program length. For example, if a program requires 120 hours to complete, students must complete their degree by the time they have attempted 180 hours. For any hours attempted over 180, a student would not be eligible for financial aid.
Miscellaneous SAP Information
Repeating Courses
Students who have earned a passing grade in a course can only take it one more time for Title IV aid, where a “D” is considered a passing grade. Once they have earned two grades of “D” or above, any subsequent enrollment in the course is not eligible for Title IV aid and will be excluded from the R2T4 calculation. Withdrawals, drops, or failures while in attendance at Shenandoah University will not count towards Title IV eligibility, however, may count for pace calculations.
At Shenandoah University there are some courses that share the same name, but are not the same course and are required multiple times in the same degree for degree completion. These courses are evaluated based on the number of instances per required completion, not on the total number of attempts overall.
Pass or Fail Courses
Courses that are graded as pass/fail are included in the calculations for pace and GPA if they have a credit-load attached to them.
Transfer Credits
Transfer credits will count towards both courses attempted and completed for pace, but will not be considered for GPA calculations.
If a student does not maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress they can reinstatement their eligibility by appealing:
Reinstatement of Eligibility
Students may re-establish eligibility for financial aid by enrolling for classes at their expense until completing the minimum number of credit hours and achieving the minimum cumulative grade point average.
Appeal Process
Students who lose student financial aid eligibility by failing to make satisfactory academic progress may appeal. Approved appeals result in a student financial aid probationary status. Students will receive financial aid as long as they are meeting requirements of the probation status as specified during the appeal process. Students appeal in writing to the Director of Financial Aid.