Keeping Your Aid
Your eligibility for aid requires you to make acceptable progress toward the completion
of your program plan (degree or certificate). We call this Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). If you took classes at Edmonds in the past, we must review your full transcript,
even if you did not receive aid at the time.
Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)
We check three areas of SAP at the beginning of each year before we offer you aid, and at the end of each quarter.
Grade Point Average (GPA)
To remain eligible for financial aid, you must earn at least a 2.0 grade point average (GPA) each quarter you take classes and overall on your transcript. Please note the following:
All credits are included in your GPA, including:
- Those below the 100 level
- Grades of U, V, I, and X – we assign a 0.0 to these grades
- Grades of S – we assign a 2.0 to this grade
- Credits transferred from other schools count in our overall GPA
- Credits earned through Running Start
We do not count continuing education coursework, courses connected to the English Language Acquisition (ELA) Program, and courses in which you officially withdrew and received a W grade.
Pace of Completion
Pace is the rate at which you complete the credits you enroll in. For example:
- You enroll for 15 credits, but complete 10 credits
- Your Pace of completion is 67%,
- You enroll for 10 credits, but complete 5 credits
- Your Pace of completion is 50%.
To meet the pace requirement, you must:
- Pass 100% of all attempted credits each quarter, which include grades of W, V, S, U, I, N, and X.
- Your overall or cumulative pace must be at 67% or higher.
Grades that do not count as a completion include:
- Grades of 0.0, V, X, W, U, I (incomplete)
When determining your Pace, we do not include:
- Continuing education credits or
- Credits taken as part of the ELA (English Language Acquisition) program
All other credits count for Pace, including credits earned at other schools if your transcript is on file with the college, and credits your repeat.
Maximum Time Frame (MTF)
- You may only enroll in courses required to complete your program plan.
- You must complete your program plan before you reach 150% of the credits needed to
graduate.
- This 150% of required credits is referred to as the Maximum Time Frame, or "MTF" for short.
You can determine your MTF by looking at how many credits your program requires for graduation. Multiply the number of credits by 1.5:
Required Credits x 1.5 = Credits eligible for aid.
Examples:
- If your program requires you to earn 90 credits to graduate, then you cannot receive aid for more than 135 credits (90 x 1.5 = 135).
- If your program requires you to earn 45 credits to graduate, then you cannot receive aid for more than 68 credits (45 x 1.5 = 68 rounded).
We include the following in your MTF limit:
- All college-level credits (above 100)
- Credits you took that were not required for your program
- All attempted credits, which include grades of W, V, S, U, I, N, and X
- Credits you transfer to Edmonds from another school
- Any other transcript included in your student file.
Please note that you can only take required classes for one program at a time.
Definitions
If you receive a warning, you can still receive your aid without delay for the next quarter. Since this is a warning only, there is no need to appeal.
This means your aid is canceled and you may not receive funds for the upcoming quarter.
Cancellation happens if:
- You are on Warning or Probation and again do not make SAP.
- You do not meet the overall or quarter Pace of Completion requirements.
- Your overall GPA is below a 2.0.
- You do not complete your degree within the Maximum Time Frame (MTF), or you do not follow your approved plan to go beyond the MTF.
If you are on Cancellation of Aid and successfully ask to have your aid reinstated, we place you on Probation for your next quarter.
You must meet the SAP standards at the end of your probationary quarter, or your aid is once again canceled, and you lose your eligibility for further aid.
If we determine you cannot meet the SAP standards during one quarter of Probation, we may require you to develop an Academic Performance Plan (APP). These plans lay out the steps you can take to bring yourself back into good standing within four quarters. APPs include:
-
- the minimum number of credits you will need to take each quarter
- the minimum GPA you need each quarter
Continued financial aid eligibility is dependent on successfully completing the plan’s requirements each quarter you are in attendance, or until the requirements are met and you are once again making SAP.
If your aid has been canceled and your appeal is denied or you fail to make SAP while on probation, then you will lose your eligibility for financial aid. We will send you an email that explains the reason you lost eligibility for aid and what you must do to regain eligibility.
You may ask for reinstatement of your aid once you can show you are meeting the SAP standards. While working toward meeting those standards, you will need to complete classes using funds outside of financial aid.