By: The Feds
Do you have bad SAP? Do you want to learn how to fix it? The Financial Aid Office is here to help! SAP stands for Satisfactory Academic Progress, which means that each student must successful complete a specific number of credits per year, complete a certain percentage of all attempted classes, as well as maintain a certain cumulative GPA (cGPA) each year in order to be eligible for any type of financial aid.
At the end of the spring semester, the Financial Aid Office will review your academic transcript to make sure that you have achieved the required credit/pace/cGPA and confirm that you are not on academic probation. If you do not meet these specific requirements, you will be making bad SAP and will not be eligible to receive financial aid until you reinstate your eligibility. This applies to all financial aid, including federal student loans, federal parent loans, grants, scholarships, and work study.
However, this ineligibility is not permanent. If you can get back into good SAP, AND NOTIFY THE FINANCIAL AID OFFICE, they will review your transcripts and reconsider you for aid. How can you fix your bad SAP? There are a few ways to do this. For example, if you have the right amount of credits, but you won’t have the necessary cGPA, or vice versa, then you can enroll in a summer course to bring your grades up or earn the credits you need to achieve good SAP. If you choose to do this, you must be sure that your academic transcript is updated by the Registrar’s Office. Once your grades are posted then you must inform the Financial Aid Office that you are back in good standing. They will check your information, and if you are in good SAP, you will be reconsidered for financial aid. If you are interested in taking a course at another school you must first check with your academic advisor or the Registrar’s Office to make sure if the course(s) you want to take will transfer to your degree program at UNH.
Students should ALWAYS be aware of their academic progress. It is your responsibility to be sure that you are taking the necessary amount of credits each semester and that you are maintaining a good cGPA. SAP for a full time day student is defined as successful completion of 24 credits in a single academic year, September to May, while maintaining the correct cGPA and Pace. If you fail to earn the minimum of 12 credits during the fall term, you just have be sure that at the end of the year you have 24 total earned credits so you may need to take an additional intersession or spring course to make up the difference. Therefore, if you keep track of the amount of credits you complete, you will be able satisfy the credit portion of satisfactory academic progress.
Keep in mind that you also must have good Pace to achieve good SAP. This requirement means that you must successfully complete at least 67% of the credits attempted during your entire college career, including transfer credits, summer credits, intersession courses, etc.
With regard to the cGPA requirements of SAP, students should be aware of where their grades stand throughout the semester. If you are concerned about a certain course, talk to your professor to see if there is anything you can do to improve your grade. Also, there are tutors for most subject in the CLR, so don’t be afraid to take advantage of them if you are struggling with a class.
If Satisfactory Academic Progress is something you are concerned about, the first thing you should do is talk a Financial Aid Counselor to see what options are available to you. It is not impossible to fix your bad SAP, so follow the advice above and you could be back in good SAP before you know it!
