Keeping your aid from one term to the next

Federal aid continues from term to term as long as you keep making progress toward your degree. Knowing how your school measures that progress lets you spot a problem before it costs you aid. This page explains the standards and how to appeal if you fall behind.

The three measures

Every school that offers federal aid must have a Satisfactory Academic Progress policy. Most measure three things. The first is your grade point average, and many schools ask for at least a C average.

The second is pace, which compares the credits you complete with the credits you attempt. Dropped classes, failed classes and incompletes can all count as attempted. The third is a maximum time frame, often set at one and a half times the published length of your program.

How often it is checked

Schools review progress at least once a year, and many check at the end of every term. Your school publishes its exact standards, usually on the financial aid office's website or in the student handbook.

Transfer credits, repeated courses and remedial classes may be counted in different ways. Ask the aid office how they apply to your record.

Check each term

• Your grade point average
• Credits completed compared with credits attempted
• How close you are to the time limit
• Your school's appeal deadline

If you fall short

Schools that review each term may first place you on warning, which lets you keep aid for one more term. If you still fall short after that, your aid is suspended.

You can usually appeal a suspension. An appeal explains what got in the way, such as illness, an injury, a family death or another hardship, and what has changed since then. Many schools also ask for an academic plan worked out with an adviser.

If the appeal is approved, you are placed on probation and must follow the plan. If it is denied, you can often regain aid by meeting the standards on your own.

Other things to keep current

File a new FAFSA each year, respond to any verification request, and stay enrolled at the level your aid assumes. Withdrawing from all classes mid-term triggers separate federal rules about returning aid.

Before you drop a class, ask the aid office how it will affect your pace and your aid for that term. A short conversation can save you from a problem you only discover when the next term's aid fails to arrive.