Satisfactory Academic Progress for Financial Aid

The United States Department of Education requires every postsecondary institution receiving Title IV federal funds to have a standards of academic progress policy that is used to determine eligibility for and continued receipt of federal funds.

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Policy

Although this policy must apply to all students whether or not they are receiving financial aid, the receipt of financial aid is a privilege that creates both rights and obligations for the student. The SAP policy has three components:

  1. The student must maintain a certain grade point average or a comparative qualitative measurement against a norm.
  2. The student must complete a certain percentage of all coursework attempted.
  3. The student has a maximum timeframe to complete the program.

Affected financial aid funds

Title IV federal funds affected by this policy at Moore College of Art and Design include the Federal Direct Subsidized Loan, Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan, Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan, Federal Direct Parent PLUS Loan, Federal SEOG Grant, Federal Pell Grant, and Federal Work Study program. Although not required by the federal government, all institutional scholarship and fellowship funds are also governed by the SAP policy.

SAP review schedule

A review of SAP will be conducted at the end of every spring term regardless of when a student enrolls. Failure to meet any component of SAP at the end of the spring term will result in the loss of eligibility for federal and Moore College of Art and Design financial aid for the next academic year. The Office of Financial Aid will notify the student if the student has failed to meet the standards of SAP and has lost eligibility for financial aid. If financial aid has already been awarded for the subsequent academic year, the offer of aid will be rescinded.

How to appeal SAP eligibility

A student may appeal the loss of eligibility of financial aid and seek to be placed on a Financial Aid Academic Action Plan for one term. This appeal must be based upon on either the death of a relative, a serious personal illness/injury, or other extenuating circumstance. The student must be able to demonstrate that the circumstance occurred during the academic year and had a direct impact on the student's academic performance. To do this, the student must:

  1. Meet with the Academic Standards Committee and receive an Outcome Letter describing the academic requirements for the student.
  2. Submit a Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal Form with all supporting documentation to the Financial Aid SAP Committee for review within 10 business days of being notified. The online SAP Appeal Form is located on the Financial Aid section of the website.

After the student’s SAP Appeal Form has been submitted to the Financial Aid SAP Committee, the SAP Committee will then review and notify the student of the approval or denial of the appeal within 5 business days.

If the student’s appeal is approved, the student is granted Financial Aid Academic Progress Probation and the student will regain eligibility for financial aid for one term. At the end of the term, the student’s academic record will be reviewed. If the student is now meeting the overall GPA, course completion, and maximum time frame requirements, the student will regain eligibility for financial aid for subsequent terms. If the student has still not met the overall requirements, but has fulfilled the terms indicated in the Outcome Letter, then the student’s Financial Aid Academic Progress Probation will be renewed for an additional term and the student will be awarded aid for that term. If the student has not fulfilled the terms indicated in the Outcome Letter, then the student will lose eligibility for both federal and institutional financial aid.

Students who are dismissed or withdrawn from the school are not deemed to be making SAP and are not eligible to receive financial aid. The SAP policy will be disseminated to all newly matriculated students. All students will be notified yearly of the SAP policy which will be published on this webpage.
Minimum GPA requirements

  • BFA students must achieve a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0
  • Graduate students must achieve a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0

Minimum course completion requirements
Students must complete the appropriate percent of all courses attempted to maintain a good academic standing. The completion percentage is calculated by dividing total hours earned by total hours attempted.

  • BFA students must achieve a minimum course completion percentage of 66.67%
  • Graduate students must achieve a minimum course completion percentage of 80%

It is also important to understand how specific grades and/or course types count toward the completion ratio. The following grades count as attempted but not completed courses:

  • Incomplete
  • No Grade Reported
  • Withdraw
  • Failure
  • Unsatisfactory

Transfer credits will count towards a student’s attempted and completed credit hours.

Maximum timeframe requirements

BFA and Graduate students may not exceed the maximum timeframe for a program as defined as 150% of the total amount of credit hours required to complete the degree. 
All time enrolled counts towards the maximum timeframe regardless of whether or not the student receives federal financial aid. Attempted credits include: remedial, repeated, withdrawn, transfer and incomplete credits. Time spent in a leave of absence does not count towards the maximum timeframe when considering funds eligibility.
If you have any questions regarding these SAP policies and procedures, please contact:


Grace Taylor
Director of Financial Aid
gtaylor@moore.edu
215-965-4042