Award Renewal and Satisfactory Academic Progress
Willamette University’s Financial Aid Office monitors students each semester for Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress (FA-SAP).
A student who falls below the standards of FA Good Standing will be given a FA Warning, and can continue to receive aid for 1 more semester.
If the student has not returned to FA Good Standing after 1 semester on FA Warning, they will be placed on FA Suspension with an opportunity to submit an appeal for continued aid eligibility. A FA Appeal may or may not need to be submitted with a FA Academic Plan.
If the appeal is approved, the student will be placed on FA Probation, and can continue to qualify for financial aid (for one additional semester if no FA Academic Plan was submitted, or for the duration of the FA Academic Plan if submitted.) If the appeal is not approved, the student is no longer eligible for aid, i.e., Final FA Suspension.
If the student has not returned to FA Good Standing after their term of FA Probation or their FA Academic Plan, they will be placed on Final FA Suspension.
Any time a student returns to FA Good Standing and then subsequently falls below that measure again, they will be returned to FA Warning status for 1 semester, after which all other statuses may apply in turn. However, it is important to remember that quantitative measures and maximum timeframe standards are still in effect, and a student is ineligible for aid when it becomes mathematically impossible for them to complete their program within the University’s FA Maximum Timeframe.
The Financial Aid Office will notify students who do not meet the definition of FA Good Standing of their FA-SAP status at the end of each semester. Notifications will be sent to the student’s Willamette University email address.
Completion Rate. Students must be able to complete their degree requirements within the maximum timeframe of aid eligibility allowed by the University (9 semesters for institutional aid, 12 semesters for federal aid.)
- Students must successfully complete at least a minimum percentage (67%) of all credit hours attempted. This percentage includes all Willamette credit hours (including repeated coursework) and transfer credit hours, regardless of whether or not financial aid was received. Grades of F, W and I are not considered to be adequate grades for completion.
Cumulative GPA. 2.0 cumulative GPA.
Cumulative Major GPA. 2.0 cumulative GPA in major courses (Willamette College students only, not PNCA undergrads)
Note regarding study abroad: If you receive any forms of financial aid from Willamette, you must meet satisfactory academic progress requirements during your time abroad to maintain your financial aid eligibility. With regard to GPA, this means maintaining a 2.0 cumulative GPA and a 2.0 GPA in major courses. A study abroad GPA will be calculated for the purposes of determining satisfactory academic progress, regardless of whether the grades are calculated into the Willamette GPA on the official transcript.
If a student falls below the FA Good Standing measure, in credits and/or cumulative GPA, they are issued a FA Warning for the following semester. No further action is required on the student’s part, and the student can continue to receive aid for that semester.
After FA Warning, if a student continues to be below FA Good Standing measure, they will be placed on FA Suspension and offered the option to submit a FA Appeal.
Students can appeal their FA Suspension on the basis of illness or injury, death of a relative, or other extraordinary circumstances. Students will be given a generous deadline by which they must submit their appeal. Students whose appeals are not received by the deadline will be placed on Final FA Suspension. A student whose appeal is approved, and whose deficiency can be reasonably made up within one semester, can continue to receive financial aid for one semester. Students whose deficiencies are more than can be remedied in one semester, but for whom it is still possible to return to FA Good Standing within the maximum timeframe for graduation, must submit a FA Appeal along with an Academic Plan. For those students, if their appeal is approved they will be monitored each subsequent semester as defined by their Academic Plan, to ensure they are meeting the plan’s requirements. In either case, students who cannot mathematically return to FA Good Standing and graduate within the University’s FA Maximum Timeframes will not be offered the option to appeal FA Suspension. FA Appeals will be reviewed by the FA-SAP committee.
A detailed description of courses to be taken, semesters during which those courses will be taken, and minimum passing grade required for each course, as a “road map” for the student to follow back to FA Good Standing.
If the student can reasonably return to FA Good Standing within 1 semester, and if their FA Appeal is approved, they will be placed on FA Probation without an Academic Plan, and they can receive aid for one additional semester. They will be reviewed at the end of the semester; if they have returned to FA Good Standing, they are eligible for aid. If they have not returned to Good Standing, they no longer qualify for aid (Final FA Suspension).
If the student’s deficiency is severe enough to require more than one semester to return to Good Standing, but there is good reason to believe that the student can eventually return to Good Standing and graduate within the allowed timeframe, then they will be asked to submit an Academic Plan along with their FA Appeal. If approved, they can continue to receive aid for the semesters defined in the Academic Plan. After each semester they will be monitored to make sure they are following the plan and meeting its requirements. If they fail to meet the requirements of the Academic Plan or fail to return to FA Good Standing status, they no longer qualify for aid (Final FA Suspension).
Students who fail to appeal FA Suspension by the deadline, or whose appeals are denied, or who are determined to be mathematically unable to complete their degree requirements within the University’s FA Maximum Timeframe will be considered on Final FA Suspension, and they will no longer qualify for aid at Willamette University. To remedy this, the student will need to return to FA Good Standing without the use of financial aid (either by paying tuition in full here at Willamette, or by attending another school and transferring into Willamette University sufficient credits and/or GPA to meet the FA Good Standing requirements as listed above.)
Willamette University allows students to receive institutional grants and scholarships for a maximum of 9 semesters. However, some funds have different eligibility rules as defined on the initial award notification (i.e., Willamette merit scholarships listed on the admission letter). Federal regulations allow students to receive federal student aid (Federal Pell Grant, Federal SEO Grant, Federal Perkins Loan, Federal Direct Loans, and Federal Work Study) for up to 150% of their program length (i.e., 12 semesters). Please note: The Office of Financial Aid will count every semester in which a student attends at least one class period, regardless of withdrawal, medical withdrawal, or leave of absence during the semester.