Satisfactory Academic Progress
Southwestern’s Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) policy specifies the standards a student must maintain to be considered making progress in his/her course of study. The policy also establishes the criteria by which a student who has failed to maintain satisfactory progress may reestablish his/her eligibility for federal/state financial assistance.
Qualitative and Quantitative Components
SWAU’s satisfactory progress policy contains a qualitative component which requires a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 at the end of each semester for undergraduate students and a 3.0 for graduate students. The quantitative satisfactory progress policy requires completion of a specified percentage of the coursework attempted as well as a maximum number of credits that may be attempted for the completion of a degree.
| Attempted Hours | Completion Percentage Required |
|---|---|
| at 23 | 50% |
| at 55 | 58% |
| at 89 | 67% |
| 90+ | 67% |
Students who work at the minimum level of any interval will be expected to perform at a higher rate of completion in future semesters. This will be individually monitored and the performance expectation will be communicated to the student.
| Maximum Attempted Hours | |
|---|---|
| Bachelor Degree | 192 |
| Associate Degree | 96 |
- Transfer hours are included in the qualitative and quantitative standards after the transcripts are evaluated and added to the Southwestern transcript. At this time, total transfer hours accepted by Southwestern are included in the attempted hours.
- Southwestern’s satisfactory progress policy for graduate students contains a qualitative component which requires a cumulative grade point average of 3.0. The quantitative satisfactory progress policy requires completion of 67% of the coursework for the entire program with a maximum of 54 credit hours attempted.
- Students who find that they have exceeded the maximum time allowed for completing a degree because of a change in majors, will need to go through the appeal process for a determination as to whether they may continue to receive federal student aid. The degree audit will be reviewed as a part of the appeal process.
Treatment of Incompletes
Treatment of Incompletes, Withdrawals, Repetitions, Non-Credit Remedial Courses, Second Degrees, and First-time SAP Problems
- Classes with incomplete grades are not counted until a grade is earned for the course.
- Only grades of D or better are considered completed hours in the quantitative standards for progress. Withdrawals and letter grades of ‘F’ are included in the attempted hours.
- A repeated class replaces the prior class and is counted in the quantitative standards each time hours are attempted and once for completed hours. The repeated class grade replaces the prior class grade and is included in the cumulative GPA.
- A student may take six hours of non-credit remedial courses along with for-credit classes. Remedial courses do not count as credit toward the student’s degree. GPA and remedial credit hours are included in the semester totals but not in the cumulative total on the students transcript. Non-credit remedial courses are included in the total attempted hours, total earned hours, and the cumulative GPA for Satisfactory Academic Progress purposes.
- 100 level English as a Second Language remedial courses count up to 12 hours of elective credit toward a bachelors degree and 6 hours of elective credit toward an associate degree. All remedial ESL classes are counted in the attempted hours and included in the cumulative GPA for SAP purposes.
Monitoring Satisfactory Academic Progress
Southwestern monitors satisfactory academic progress at the end of each fall and spring semester. Student Financial Services is responsible for monitoring progress and for notifying students that they are on financial aid suspension.
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