GENERAL FINANCIAL AID POLICIES It is the student’s responsibility to become familiar with both financial aid and SFCC regulations and policies concerning withdrawals, incomplete grades, repeats, audits, degree plan requirements and any other policies that may affect financial aid eligibility.
CHANGES IN ENROLLMENT STATUS Initial awards are based on full-time status. If a student drops or withdraws from any class prior to the close of the drop/add period of the course, awards will be adjusted to reflect the change in enrollment. Grant aid is disbursed after the beginning date of a student’s course and prorated based on credit hours attending. Students receiving financial aid who are planning to drop classes or withdraw completely should visit the Financial Aid Office to learn about the implications.
TUITION REFUND POLICY – FINANCIAL AID SFCC’s tuition refund policy is explained on Page 19.
WITHDRAWAL FROM ALL COURSES AND RETURN OF FEDERAL STUDENT AID FUNDS Federal student aid recipients who withdraw from all classes may be required to repay financial aid. To learn the consequences of withdrawing and the amount of student aid that must be repaid, contact the Financial Aid Office before officially withdrawing. When a student officially withdraws from all courses in a term, or earns all non-passing grades (which is referred to as an unofficial withdrawal), a federally prescribed formula will be calculated to determine if the student, the school, or both will be required to pay back a portion of their aid to the U.S. Department of Education and/or student loan lender. If the student had aid that could have been disbursed, he/she may qualify for a post-withdrawal disbursement. After the 60 percent point of a term, the student has earned a 100 percent of the federal aid. A student is notified by letter when it is necessary to return aid. The letter includes the amount of the return. If the school is required to return funds, the amount will be charged to the student’s account. As prescribed by federal regulations, funds will be returned in the following order: 1) Unsubsidized Loan 2) Subsidized Loan 3) Pell Grant 4) FSEOG Grant. Please refer to www.sfcc.edu/financial_aid information or contact the Financial Aid Office 505-428-1268.
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SATISFACTORY ACADEMIC PROGRESS STANDARDS Federal regulations require that financial aid recipients meet certain academic standards to be eligible for federal financial 13
aid. SFCC’s Financial Aid Office reviews academic transcripts each semester. All terms of attendance are reviewed (fall, spring and summer), including periods during which a student did not receive financial aid. Students will be placed on financial aid warning or financial aid suspension if they do not meet these three requirements: 1. Qualitative Progress: Students must maintain a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of at least 2.0. 2. Incremental Progress: Students must successfully complete 67 percent of the credit hours they attempt. All terms of attendance at SFCC will be reviewed regardless of whether the student was receiving financial aid for those terms. Any course in which the student earns a grade of failing (F), withdrawal (W), incomplete (I), progress (PR) or audit (AU), are treated as attempted but not completed coursework. Students changing from audit to credit classes during the semester should check with Financial Aid. Transfer credits are counted as attempted and completed. 3. Quantitative Progress (i.e., Maximum Timeframe): Students must complete a program within a maximum number of attempted credit hours to continue to qualify for aid. The maximum timeframe is 150 percent of the credit hours required for the program of study. For example, if a program requires 60 credit hours, the maximum number of attempted credit hours, including transfer credits, is 90. Up to 30 credit hours of Developmental or remedial courses may be excluded from the maximum time frame calculation. In addition, courses dropped during the drop/add period are excluded from calculations. Repeat courses, incompletes, audits and withdrawals are included in the maximum timeframe calculation as attempted credit hours. Students who exceed the maximum timeframe will be immediately suspended from receiving financial aid.
FINANCIAL AID WARNING A student will be placed on financial aid warning if he or she does not meet the minimum qualitative or incremental progress requirements. That is, students are placed on warning for not maintaining a cumulative GPA of at least a 2.0 and at least a 67 percent completion rate of all course work. Students on financial aid warning are still eligible to receive financial aid during the term that they are in warning status. Aid for the term following the warning term will not be considered until final grades for that term have been posted and satisfactory academic progress has been reestablished. Students on warning status who do not meet the Satisfactory Academic Progress standards at the end of their warning term will be placed on financial aid suspension.