Advising and Academic Services
If you’ve received a notice from the Office of Financial Aid stating that you need to submit a Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Appeal plan, please reach out to your assigned SAS advisor directly. If you do not have an assigned advisor, please email us at the contact below. We're here to support you through the process.
As noted in that letter and on the Office of Financial Aid page, all students receiving federal, state, or University financial aid must achieve a certain minimum cumulative grade point average AND earn a certain percentage of the credits they attempt. Please review the letter from the Office of Financial Aid carefully to determine your situation and learn what issue(s) need to be resolved. You can also view your status at https://finservices.rutgers.edu/sap/
The Academic Status Table is available at the website, but we’ve also included the table below.
Students that have fallen out of SAP compliance can be placed on a Financial Aid SAP appeal plan while they are working to meet the standards above.
During that period of financial aid probation, you will follow an academic plan created in consultation with an academic advisor.
If you choose not to work with an advisor to create an academic plan, do not meet the standards above, and are enrolled at Rutgers, you will need to find alternate ways to fund your education.
Follow these steps:
The academic plan illustrates what a student must do to meet Satisfactory Academic Progress in four or less semesters. You and an advisor will create an academic plan, which you must follow in order to receive financial aid. You will be on financial aid probation while following an academic plan.
An academic plan can be created for one, two, three, or four terms.
The plan will specify a minimum number of credits you must earn in a term, and /or a minimum term grade point average. The specific requirements will depend on your situation.
Your academic plan will be filed with the Office of Financial Aid. At the end of each term of the plan, they will review your record to be sure that you have satisfied the requirements of that first term. If you meet those requirements, you will be eligible for aid for the next term. If you don’t meet those requirements, your academic plan is void and you will not be eligible for aid for the next term.
Yes. You can become eligible for financial aid again if you come back into compliance with the Satisfactory Academic Progress standards on your own in the future. Once you have met your appropriate required GPA and/or completion rate, you should contact the Office of Financial Aid to discuss reinstating your eligibility.
Until then, you will have to find alternate ways to fund your education while trying to regain your eligibility.
Please keep in mind that students cannot receive financial aid for credits in excess of 150% of the credits required for graduation. For SAS students, this number is 180 attempted credits.
We know this is confusing. If you do not meet the requirements of the academic plan and are notified by the Office of Financial Aid that you are no longer eligible for aid, contact the SAS academic advisor that you were assigned to for your original SAP appeal plan.
No! A plan cannot be amended once it has been submitted to the Office of Financial Aid. The student must follow the plan as it is written and meet the required minimum term GPAs and/or earn the required minimum credits to continue to be eligible for aid.
Not at the same time. Students can work with an advisor to discuss the various ways to reach the required completion rate and or GPA, but there can only be one plan submitted to the Office of Financial Aid, and that is the plan that the student must follow. Students who successfully follow an academic plan, return to the standards in the Academic Status Table, and then fail to meet those standards again, can work with an advisor to create a new academic plan.
Yes! It is actually in your best interest to be on financial aid probation for as few terms as possible. Your advisor may help you create an academic plan for as little as one term and as many as four terms, but plans using the fewest terms are preferred since that means the student is making good academic progress toward his or her degree.
It depends. If your failure to be eligible for financial aid is due to an insufficient completion rate, then the answer is yes! We will only factor in the courses that transfer back to Rutgers. What that means for you is that if you withdraw from, or fail a class, elsewhere, the credits won’t transfer back to Rutgers. BUT, we also won’t hold those withdrawals and failures against you, like we do with the courses you attempt at Rutgers. If your issue is due to a low GPA, then taking classes elsewhere will not resolve the issue. In fact, as you can see from the table above, if you earn more credits, the minimum GPA you must earn is higher, so taking classes somewhere else might make the situation worse. It is important to talk with your academic advisor to determine what is best in your situation.
All of this is separate from the review that the School of Arts and Sciences completes to determine if a student is in good academic standing, on Academic Warning, Academic Probation or Academic Dismissal.
It can.
Any Ws count as credits attempted but not credits earned. If your issue is an insufficient completion rate (you haven’t earned the required percentage of credits you’ve attempted), then any credits you attempt but don’t earn will make your situation worse.
Withdrawing from an entire term (earning all Ws) that is part of your academic plan will automatically void that plan, since you will have failed to meet the minimum requirements outlined in your plan for that term. If your issue is an insufficient GPA, then a withdrawal may not affect your situation, but a failure will likely make the situation worse.
Students who take a Leave of Absence (do not enroll at all for the Fall or Spring term or cancel their registration before Ws are noted on the transcript) will need to work with their advisor to modify the terms specified in the plan. The requirements of the plan CANNOT be changed, only the term can be updated.
Students who register for a semester and are dropped from their classes for non-payment have an extremely complicated situation and will need to work with their advisor to determine how their situation is affected. It is important that you work closely with an advisor throughout the time you are on an academic plan to keep that person informed about your grades and progress.
For information pertaining term bills and financial aid, please contact the One Stop Student Services Center (One Stop). The One Stop, which serves as an integrated and coordinated cross-functional front-line service for the Offices of Financial Aid, Registrar, and Student Accounting, Billing, and Cashier Services.
