Financial Aid Eligibility and Satisfactory Academic Progress

Kendall College academic policies require that a student maintain a term average and cumulative GPA of 2.0. Students who do not maintain these benchmarks are placed on Academic Probation for the following term and must contract to correct their performance. Students who return to the required levels during the Academic Probation term are returned to good standing, and those who do not will be academically suspended and ineligible for financial aid. Students may follow academic policies to appeal academic suspension, and the Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeals procedure listed below to appeal the loss of financial aid eligibility.

Federal regulations require the College to establish an academic progress policy for federal financial aid recipients which is at least as strict as the academic progress policies applied to all students. The financial aid policy must address both minimum academic standards and a maximum time frame in which students must complete their program or degree.

In order to maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress for financial aid purposes, a student must meet the minimum qualitative and quantitative academic benchmarks or be on Financial Aid Probation as described in this section.

The qualitative benchmarks mirror the 2.0 requirement in the academic policy described above and elsewhere in the Kendall College catalog. This is measured at the completion of each term. A student falling below this benchmark will be put on Financial Aid Probation for a single term during which the student must work with Academic Advising to achieve at least a 2.0 for courses attempted during the probationary term and, increase or maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0. The student is eligible for financial aid while on Financial Aid Probation. If a student fails to remedy the GPA during the term of Financial Aid Probation, the student becomes ineligible for financial aid funds until the GPA benchmarks are met.

If a student achieves a GPA of 2.0 during a term of Financial Aid Probation, but the cumulative GPA does not reach 2.0, the student must continue to achieve a minimum GPA of 2.0 during an additional term of Financial Aid Probation or become ineligible for financial aid funds until the GPA benchmarks are met. If all credits during the probationary term are “Pass/Fail”, the student must earn an “S” for satisfactory completion of all credits attempted in order to continue in probationary status during the next quarter during which the student must achieve the minimum 2.0 GPA.

The quantitative benchmark requires the student to complete at least 67% of credits attempted. Degree students are evaluated on all credits attempted during the award year (which begins July 1 and ends June 30), and measurement is at end of each Spring term. Certificate students are evaluated for 67% completion after every two terms of study. A student falling below this benchmark will be put on Financial Aid Probation for a single term to improve the percentage of completed credits. The student is eligible for financial aid while on Financial Aid Probation. If a student fails to complete at least 80% of credits attempted during the term of Financial Aid Probation, the student becomes ineligible for financial aid until or unless the overall credits completed/credits attempted percentage for Kendall College credits (including transfer credits) is brought to at least 67%. If a student completes at least 80% of credits attempted during a term of Financial Aid Probation, but the overall credits completed/credits attempted percentage is still less than 67%, the student must continue to achieve a minimum of 80% completion of credits attempted during an additional term of Financial Aid Probation or become ineligible for financial aid funds until the overall 67% benchmark is met.

A student may attempt no more than 150% of the credits in the major/degree program. If a student reaches a point in training where it is impossible for the program to be completed within 150% of the credits, the student immediately loses eligibility for financial aid.

The “credits attempted” total includes all credits attempted at Kendall College (or transferred in) for coursework which can be accepted toward the current major or degree. All terms at Kendall are included, not just those for which Title IV received. However:

• Courses dropped during the term’s “add/drop” period are not considered to have been attempted.
• Courses dropped after the “add/drop” period receive a grade of “W” and do count as attempted credits.
• Original credits for repeated courses do count as attempted credits, but do not count in the GPA.
• Incomplete grades count as credits attempted and not completed, but do not impact GPA.

A student may appeal a determination of failure to maintain the qualitative and/or quantitative academic progress standards for mitigating circumstances. The student must demonstrate there were extreme and unusual circumstances, such as serious illness or injury to the student, death or serious illness of an immediate family member, or significant trauma in the student’s life that impaired the student’s emotional and/or physical health, which prevented the student from maintaining the required standards during a specific time period. The appeal must be submitted in writing to the Director of Financial Aid.

The appeal must include an explanation and supporting documentation of the mitigating circumstances which caused the student to fall below the required benchmarks as well as confirmation that the mitigating circumstances will no longer affect the student’s ability to progress as required. If the appeal is granted, the College’s satisfactory academic progress requirements for financial aid eligibility will be suspended and not applied to the credits in question. The student will continue to be eligible for financial aid, and must meet standards moving forward.

Except in the case of a successful appeal, the student must return to standards in order to regain financial aid eligibility. Simply paying cash or sitting out for a period will not suffice.