Students receiving federal aid must show satisfactory progress toward completing their degree. This progress is evaluated based on three criteria: Term GPA, Cumulative GPA, and PACE (the timeframe for completing the degree). Students not meeting Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) may appeal by completing the Federal Financial Aid Probation request form and meeting with ALAC to create an academic plan.
Federal regulations require all institutions participating in federal financial aid programs (e.g., Direct Loans, Pell Grants, SEOG, and Work-Study) to assess students' progress toward graduation based on Federal Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) standards. SAP requirements only affect eligibility for federal aid and do not impact Rensselaer merit-based or need-based scholarships and grants.
Qualitative Measures
Federal Regulations require students to achieve a 2.0 cumulative GPA by the end of the 2nd year of enrollment in their academic program. Rensselaer Undergraduate programs require students maintain a minimum term GPA of 1.5 every semester. In addition, see the graph below for the progression of GPA required to remain in good standing, based on number of terms enrolled. The Rensselaer requirements meet progressive GPA provisions of Federal Regulations.
This chart below shows the progressive cumulative GPA requirements for Rensselaer along with the minimum term GPA and the “pace of progress” expectation for percentage of attempted credit hours to be completed.
| At the end of the student’s semester: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 and each semester thereafter |
| Minimum CGPA: | 1.5 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Minimum Semester GPA: | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Completed Credits Divided by Attempted Credits must be >= to: | 67% | 67% | 67% | 67% | 67% |
In addition to the general environment described in the Qualitative Measures section, students’ quantitative Federal Student Aid Satisfactory Progress is monitored by the Financial Aid Office using the following guidelines:
- Students must complete at least 67% of the total number of courses they attempt each term. Completing below 67% for any single term throughout enrollment may result in placement into Warning or Suspended status.
- Students must maintain the 67% “Pace of Progress” throughout enrollment so their academic outcome trajectory indicates they will complete their degree requirements prior to attempting 150% of the total credits needed for program degree requirements.
- Students with Pace of Progress issues which indicate it is no longer mathematically possible to complete their degree within this 150% timeframe requirement, become ineligible for Federal financial aid, regardless of GPA.
- Students are eligible for Federal financial aid for a maximum of twelve semesters of attendance or 150% of the normal 4 year program of study.
- Course withdrawals and incomplete courses are counted in the hours attempted and are counted towards the quantitative measurements.
- Transfer credits are always counted as both attempted and completed credits. AP (Advance Placement) courses are treated in the same way. However, grades from transfer credits or AP courses are not included in your GPA or your CGPA. However, because transfer credit and AP credit are counted toward meeting your degree requirements they can impact the CGPA that you have to attain in order to make SAP.
- An “Attempted Credit” is any credit on the transcript for a term of enrollment that is not dropped within the established drop timeframe for the term of enrollment, even if the student withdraws before receiving a formal grade in the class.
- A “Completed Credit” indicates that the student attended the full term and received a grade other than “Incomplete”. A Completed Credit can be either a pass or a fail grade.
When Students Fall Below Satisfactory Standards
To be considered in Satisfactory Standing for Federal Student Aid programs, students must:
- Maintain a 1.5 term gpa every term
- Complete a minimum of 67% of all attempted credits
- Attain and maintain 2.0 cumulative GPA by the end of their second year of enrollment
Rensselaer Institutional Awards, Eight Semesters of Eligibility: To be considered in Good Standing for Rensselaer Scholarships and Need-based Gants, the student must also complete an average of 16 credit hours per semester of enrollment. This pace of progress is needed in order to complete degree requirements within the Institute policy to provided Institute awards for eight (8) semesters of enrollment, or ten (10) for architecture majors.
It is possible for a student to remain eligible for Federal awards although Rensselaer award eligibility has expired, and vice-versa.
When the student is not meeting Satisfactory standards at the end of any semester that began with the student in Good Standing they are notified they have been placed on Warning for the next term they attend. The warning may be based on any of the SAP requirements (term GPA, cumulative GPA, or term/cumulative Pace of Progress (67% completion)).
Each student is typically allowed one Warning period during their enrollment. This status is granted automatically to a student, NO APPEAL is required. If the student has not returned to Satisfactory standing at the end of their next semester, student will be moved to Suspension (failure to make Satisfactory Academic progress).
The student is notified of their Warning status and reminded of the Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements. The notice also provides information about the campus-based resources available to help them succeed in the classroom. The student is not required to submit any documentation at this stage.
Students falling below term-specific satisfactory standing for the second time after receiving a Warning after any prior term during enrollment.
Suspensions are effective for the next term of enrollment. The Suspension notice provides information to remind the student of the academic progress expectations and encourages them to file a Probation request which includes an ALAC (Advising and Learning Assistance Center) plan. The Probation request form will ask the student if unusual circumstances have impacted the student’s ability to succeed in class along with requesting information on how the student plans to regain Satisfactory academic standing.
