Undergraduate Satisfactory Academic Progress

Students on Financial Aid Warning who fail to maintain the minimum standards for pace and/or maintain the minimum cumulative and semester GPA requirement will be placed on Financial Aid Suspension status for subsequent semesters. No financial aid will be disbursed during subsequent semesters until the student regains financial aid eligibility. Students who do not complete their program within the maximum time frame also lose eligibility for financial aid and are placed on Financial Aid Suspension status.

Students who wish to appeal must submit a completed SAP Appeal Packet at least two weeks before the start of the next semester.

• SAP Appeal Packet

The committee will review the appeal and notify students of the decision within fourteen working days after the Appeals Committee meets and makes its determination. The SAP Appeal Packet requires the following pieces of information.

• Personal Statement: Indicate what went wrong during the preceding semester enrolled at Hopkins, what you did (and why) during time away from JHU (if applicable), and what you will do differently at Hopkins to ensure success in the upcoming semester. Mitigating or special circumstances include, but are not limited to, serious illness or injury to student or immediate family member, death of an immediate family member, and significant trauma in a student’s life that impaired their emotional and/or physical health.
• Documentation and supporting statements: Provide documentation for your circumstances, including evidence of a changed major if applicable. Supporting statements from third parties should be on professional letterhead and signed.
• Academic Plan: Work with your academic advisor and outline a semester-by-semester plan for completing your degree requirements. The purpose of an academic plan is to support the student in bringing them self back into compliance with the financial aid SAP standards by a specific time to ensure that the student can successfully complete the degree or certificate program. The academic plan will be tailored specifically to the student and may include milestones and requirements such as a reduced course load, specific courses, or tutoring. Students on an academic plan are still responsible for meeting the SAP requirements in the subsequent semester, will lose eligibility if the SAP standards are not met, and must go through the appeal process to regain eligibility. The student’s progress in the academic plan will be considered in any subsequent appeal process for financial aid eligibility.
• Certification Statement: Signed confirmation that you have read the requirements for completing the appeal process and certify that all of the information that you have provided is true and complete to the best of your knowledge. If necessary, you agree to provide further proof of the information that you have submitted.

Reinstatement of financial aid after a student is placed in Financial Aid Suspension status is achieved in one of the following ways. Students who are beyond the maximum time frame to completion may regain financial aid eligibility on a semester-by-semester basis through the appeal process:

1. The student submits an appeal (see procedures below), and the Appeals Committee grants the appeal. The student is then placed on Financial Aid Probation for the next semester and is eligible for aid during the Financial Aid Probation semester. If the appeal is approved, but the Committee has determined that the student will not be able to meet the SAP standards within one semester, the student will be placed on Financial Aid Probation with an Academic Plan to ensure the student can meet SAP by a specific point in time.
2. The student registers for coursework while on Financial Aid Suspension status, pays for tuition and fees without the help of student financial aid, and does well enough in the coursework to satisfy SAP at the end of the subsequent semester(s).

Students who fail to meet the minimum cumulative and semester grade-point average standard (2.0) or meet the minimum standards for pace will be placed on Financial Aid Warning for the subsequent semester. Students are still eligible for financial aid during the Warning semester. Students receiving financial aid for the first time will be placed on Financial Aid Warning as applicable if they did not meet the minimum grade point average or course completion standards as noted in this policy prior to applying for financial aid.

Course withdrawals (W) are not included in the GPA calculation but are considered a non-completion of attempted coursework. Incomplete courses (I) are included in the GPA calculation as no credit earned (0 quality points earned towards the GPA). They are considered a non-completion of attempted coursework until the coursework is graded with a permanent grade. Audited courses (AU) and other noncredit coursework are not considered attempted coursework or included within the GPA calculation, nor is the coursework considered for financial aid eligibility. A satisfactory (S) or passing (P) grade is treated as attempted credits that are earned but are not included in calculating GPA. F grades are treated as attempted credits that were not earned and are included in the calculation of GPA and minimum completion rate. The coursework is not included in the GPA calculation if no grade is reported or a grade of X. Still, it is considered a non-completion of attempted coursework until the coursework is completed and graded with a permanent grade. The most recent grade earned in a course that is repeated will count in the GPA computation, but every repeated attempt will be included in the completion rate determinations.