Graduate Academic Progress Standards

The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, requires students to maintain satisfactory progress toward their degree in order to receive financial aid. At Grand View University, these standards are established for students who are receiving or applying for financial aid from one or more of the various federal, state or institutional scholarship, grant, work or loan programs.

Grand View’s Satisfactory Academic Progress Standards for Financial Aid apply to all students who want to establish or maintain financial aid eligibility. These standards apply to a student’s entire academic transcript, including terms for which financial aid was not applied nor disbursed.

The Satisfactory Academic Progress Standards require that students successfully complete a certain percentage of attempted credit hours and maintain a minimum required grade point average as defined by the standards. These are minimum standards that must be attained. Specific aid programs or academic departments may require more than these minimum standards.

The academic progress of financial aid recipients is monitored a minimum of once each semester. Students should contact the Financial Aid Office with questions regarding the intent and/or interpretation of these standards.

COMPLETION RATE & DURATION of ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Students must successfully complete at least 67% of the credit hours they attempt. Credits for which students receive grades of “W” or “F” are counted as credits that are attempted, but not completed. Pass-fail credits will be counted as attempted and earned credits. Students who do not complete 67% of their attempted credit hours will be granted one warning period in which to increase their percentage of credit hours earned. Failure to achieve this standard at any point following the warning period will result in the loss of financial aid eligibility until the student has earned 67% of his or her attempted credit hours. Eligibility will terminate when the credits required for a specific degree/program are earned or the student has attempted greater than 150% of the credit hours required for a specific degree/program.

Graduate GPA Requirements

Students must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA. Graduate students must maintain a 3.0 minimum cumulative GPA. Students who do not meet the minimum cumulative GPA requirements will be granted a warning period in which to raise their cumulative GPA to the minimum standard. Failure to achieve this standard at any point following the warning period will result in the loss of financial aid eligibility until the cumulative GPA meets the minimum standard.

Courses with a grade of Incomplete must be completed in the following semester. Incomplete courses that remain after one semester will be assigned a grade of “F” and factored into academic progress at that time.

Courses with a grade of Incomplete must be completed in the following semester. The Incomplete is not factored into academic progress until the grade is assigned by the faculty member. Incomplete courses that remain after one semester will be assigned a grade of “F” and factored into academic progress at that time.

S and U grades will not be counted in GPA determinations.

SAP DETERMINATION & NOTIFICATION

The Financial Aid Office evaluates the SAP progress (completion rate, duration of eligibility, and GPA) for all students at the end of each semester/payment period of the current academic year to determine financial aid eligibility for the next semester.

Students who do not meet the minimum cumulative GPA or completion rate requirements will be granted one warning period in which to raise their cumulative GPA and/or completion rate to the minimum standard. Failure to achieve this standard at any point following the warning period will result in the loss of financial aid eligibility known as Financial Aid Suspension until the cumulative GPA meets the minimum standard.

Students who have failed to meet SAP at the semester evaluation will receive a notification to their Grand View email addresses and a letter sent to their preferred mailing address.

RE-ESTABLISHING ELIGIBILITY

A student who has lost financial aid eligibility and been placed on Financial Aid Suspension can regain eligibility in one of three ways: 1) by achieving the minimum standards established in this policy after a period of Financial Aid Warning; 2) successfully completing a Financial Aid SAP Appeal; or 3) by achieving the minimum standards established in this policy after attending without receiving financial aid. It is the student’s responsibility to notify the Financial Aid Office and request that aid be reinstated when this has been accomplished.

APPEAL PROCESS

Extenuating circumstances such as the death of a relative, an injury or illness of the student, or other special circumstance that results in a student failing to achieve the minimum completed credit hours and/or GPA requirements will be evaluated by the Financial Aid Academic Progress Committee.

A student’s appeal must include both of the following:

Financial Aid Appeal Form
Updated completion plan, approved by their academic advisor, and archived in GV Self-Service

If you have questions regarding the process please call Financial Aid at 515-263-2820. The Financial Aid Academic Progress Committee will notify you of the appeal decision by email to your Grand View email account. Once an appeal has been approved, the student will be placed on Academic Plan.

ACADEMIC PLAN

The Grand View Satisfactory Academic Progress Standards require that students who are on an Academic Plan complete at least 75% of the credits they attempt and earn at least a 2.0 grade point average as defined by the standards each term.

Once the student is the meeting minimum cumulative GPA as defined by the Satisfactory Academic Progress Standards, they will return to good standing and regain financial aid eligibility.

WARNING PERIODS

Please note that students will receive a total of one warning period whether they are in violation of one or more Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements (GPA or completion rate).

TRANSFER STUDENTS

Transfer credits that are accepted at Grand View University will be counted toward the total attempted credits in determining Duration of Eligibility. Transfer GPA will not be used in determining satisfactory academic progress compliance for credits transferred to Grand View University.

REPEATED COURSEWORK

When a student repeats a course, the most recent grade received will be used in the calculation of the cumulative grade point average. Each time the course is taken, the credits for the course will be calculated as part of the attempted and completed credits in a student’s completion rate and duration of eligibility. A course that has been successfully completed with a D or above can only be repeated once; financial aid will not pay for a student to repeat a passed course more than once.

NON-CREDIT COURSE WORK

Non-credit coursework will not be counted in the determination of completion rate or duration of eligibility.

Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

These courses are not counted in GPA requirements, but are included in maximum timeframe and completion rate determinations.

REMEDIAL COURSEWORK

All attempted remedial coursework is included in the calculation of minimum GPA and completion rate. All remedial coursework it is excluded from the measure of maximum time frame (duration of eligibility).

CHANGE OF MAJOR OR ADDITIONAL DEGREES

All coursework acceptable for the student’s current program of study is included in the calculation of student progression for duration of eligibility. Acceptable coursework is not limited to only those courses accepted by Grand View in order to meet graduation requirements.