Maintaining Eligibility

SAP Credit Requirements (Undergraduate State Requirements)

1. If you are applying for state and/or federal financial assistance, you must be in compliance with the appropriate SAP policy as a condition of initial or continuing eligibility.
2. If you fail to maintain progress under any of the SAP criteria (GPA, Pace to Degree [both term and cumulative], or Maximum Time Frame [MTF]), you will not be eligible to receive financial aid.
3. If you are a first-time or returning aid applicant who has previously attended WSU, you must also be in compliance with the policy, even if aid was not received during periods of prior attendance.

State Aid Recipients

Your compliance will be reviewed at the end of each term (fall, spring, and summer).

Federal Aid Recipients

Your compliance will be reviewed during spring semester.

Students on an Academic Plan

See your academic plan for a specified review date.

If you are working towards an endorsement or a certificate (any certification that puts you into a “Non-degree Seeking” status), you ARE NOT eligible for funding.

1. At the end of each term if you have failed to meet the SAP standards, you will have a notice of deficiency in your WSU email.
2. If the severity of the deficiency puts you in a disqualification status, your financial aid will be withheld.
3. Deficiency notifications are based on information that is subject to change or correction. Therefore, it is your responsibility to document any corrections to the information (i.e. grade changes, consortium credits, etc.) that was used to determine your status.
4. Because of the limited amount of time between terms, a complete review of your status may not be possible before the beginning of the next term.
5. If you are still ineligible under the rules for SAP, any aid released to you will be returned and you will owe WSU this amount. If you receive financial aid and are subsequently determined to be disqualified, your aid will be withdrawn; you will also be responsible for repaying the funds unless a SAP Appeal is filed and approved.

Maximum Time Frame (MTF) refers to the maximum amount of attempted credits you are allowed within your program, as it pertains to financial aid.

State SAP

Students must complete their degree within 150% of their degree required credit hours. This is based on an average undergraduate degree program of 150 credit hours.

• Attempted 130 – 149 credit hours = Warning
• Attempted 150⁺credit hours = Disqualification

Federal SAP

Students must complete their degree within 150% of their degree required credit hours. This is based on an average undergraduate degree program of 150 credit hours.

• No Warning
• Attempted 180+ credit hours = Disqualification

Possibly.

All financial aid is awarded to you under the assumption that you will attend school for the entire term. When you withdraw or drop some of your classes, you may no longer be eligible for the full amount of funds that you originally were scheduled to receive. Cancelling enrollment or dropping classes may impact you academic progress.

Dropping classes after census

Census runs on the tenth day of classes and provides a snapshot of current student enrollment. This enrollment is used to adjust financial aid for the semester. If you drop classes after census, your financial aid may need to be adjusted, depending on several factors:

• If you are withdrawing for the semester: a return of financial aid is done under our Return of Title IV Policy, where a percentage of aid may be returned depending on how much aid you have earned.
• If you are in classes and your aid has not disbursed: your aid will be adjusted based on enrollment level once whatever is holding the disbursal of aid is resolved.
• If you are in classes, aid has disbursed, and your class has already started: the census snapshot stands and no aid will be adjusted.
• If you are dropping a class that starts in the future: your aid will be adjusted based on enrollment level as financial aid has not been earned for that class. If there is no change in enrollment level, then aid will not be adjusted.

In addition to completing the minimum credit hours, you must complete at least 67% of your overall attempted credits, which includes any additional credits transferred to WSU.

• If you drop below the cumulative 67% completion rate, you will be placed on warning status. You will have one term to bring your completion rate above 67% before losing your aid eligibility.
• If you remain below the cumulative 67% completion rate at the end of the warning term, you will be disqualified from receiving aid.

At any point you become disqualified to receive aid, you may regain eligibility by successfully appealing or completing a term on your own and in addition are no longer in disqualification status.

If, as a recipient of federal financial aid funds, you withdraw from school before the 60% point of the term, the amount of the financial aid you earned must be determined. All unearned aid, or a portion of the unearned aid, must be returned (cancelled from your account). The earned and unearned aid is determined by a daily prorated ratio. Basically, if you cancelled enrollment at the 20% point of the term, you earned 20% of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. Eighty percent of the amount of unearned federal aid or a portion of the 80% of unearned aid will be returned (cancelled from your account). Once you have completed more than 60% of the term, you have earned all the federal assistance you were scheduled to receive.

If enrollment is cancelled on or prior to Census (10th day of classes) all state aid will be canceled for the term. If student withdraws after census but prior to the 60 percent date, the calculation for each individual award is as follows:

1. The state grant award is to be multiplied by the unearned aid percentage; this gives the “unearned amount”.
2. The unearned amount is then reduced by 50 percent (grant protection).
3. The remaining calculation is the repayment due (amount to reduce).

Institutional Grant and Cougar Commitment Grant are adjusted based on the federal return of title IV calculation.

Contact Student Financial Services to determine how your scholarship(s) will be cancelled.

If a charge is created after your account has been adjusted, WSU will send you a bill. If a credit results after all adjustments are made, your account will be credited for the difference.

WSU will send a direct deposit for this amount to your bank account (if set up) or a check to your campus/mailing address.

You may be eligible for what is called a “post withdrawal disbursement.” This occurs if you were eligible to receive Federal Aid that was not disbursed to you prior to your withdrawal. If you are eligible for a post withdrawal, Federal Grant funds, those funds you were eligible for will be credited to your account. If you are eligible for a post withdrawal concerning your federal loans, you will have the opportunity to accept or reject any portion of them.

For unofficial withdrawals, the withdrawal date is assumed to be the midpoint of the term. A school must process aid adjustments for unofficial withdrawals within 45 calendar days from the earlier of:

1. The end of the payment period or period of enrollment
2. The end of the academic year; or,
3. The end of your educational program [34CFR 668.22(j)(2)]

At the end of each term, the SAP committee will identify students (graduate or undergraduate) who did not successfully complete any courses. Our office will attempt to contact you if you did not earn a passing grade in any course by mail and through myWSU will ask for verification from an instructor of yours for the last date of attendance at an academically related activity.

Proof of academically related activities may include:

• Examinations
• Quizzes
• Tutorials
• Computer-assisted instruction
• Academic advising or counseling
• Academic conferences
• Completing an academic assignment, paper, or project
• Attending a study group required by the institution where attendance is taken

If no proof of attendance at an academically related activity is received, 100% of your aid will be canceled. If proof of attendance at an academically related activity is received with a date prior to the 60% point of the term, an unofficial withdrawal date at 50% point of the term will be assumed for you.

In addition to federal aid adjustments for unofficial withdrawals, 50% of Washington College Grant and/or Educational Grants will be cancelled.

Warning status occurs if you fail to complete the minimum number of hours required, based on your individual enrollment. You are allowed one warning term to complete the minimum credit hours that are needed in order to get back into compliance.

Denial of your financial aid funds will occur if you fail to complete the minimum number of hours required during a warning term or if you fail to complete at least 50% of the minimum number of hours required based on individual enrollment. If you are attempting 5 credits or fewer, you will be in denial if you fail to complete ALL of these credits by the end of the term.

If you are placed in a denial status, you must successfully complete a SAP Appeal to continue receiving your aid.