The Office of Financial Aid uses a SAP Policy to determine continued eligibility for financial aid programs. The SAP Policy is comprised of two parts, a qualitative and a quantitative component.
Students must uphold the minimum requirements for both the qualitative and quantitative requirements of the SAP policies to maintain eligibility to participate in the programs. In compliance with prescribed regulations, Soka University of America has established guidelines that are designed to ensure that students successfully complete courses and to promote timely advancement toward specific degree objectives. These requirements also serve as a standard against which to evaluate student progress, grade point averages and the overall time periods in which students complete their undergraduate programs.
Programs where Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) applies:
There are two components to SAP: Qualitative and Quantitative
Qualitative: The standards for GPA are:
|
Federal Financial Aid |
Institutional Financial Aid |
||
|
Year |
Cum GPA |
Year |
Cum or Semester GPA |
|
1 |
≥ 1.5 |
1 |
≥ 3.0 |
|
2 and beyond |
≥ 2.0 |
2 and beyond |
≥ 3.0 |
Quantitative: Time Allowed for Completing a Program
The second component used to measure SAP is the maximum time a student may take to complete a program. To measure this, a student must successfully complete a percentage of credits attempted. This can also be understood by measuring credits attempted vs. credits earned according to the following chart:
|
Attempted Credits |
Required Completion |
|
0-29 |
50% |
|
30-59 |
60% |
|
60-89 |
70% |
|
90-120 |
80% |
|
120-180 |
90% |
A student must take a minimum of 6 credits to be eligible to receive all or part of his/her financial aid. Aid may be prorated for students who are considered less than full time. Under no circumstances may a student exceed 150% of the time it normally requires to complete a program and continue to receive aid dependent on FSAP eligibility.
All institutional scholarships and grants are subject to additional terms and conditions. Excluding Athletic Scholarships.
Institutional aid has a lifespan of 8 continuous semesters. Institutional scholarships and grants will not be awarded beyond 8 continuous semesters.
Probation
In order to achieve SAP, a student must achieve both the qualitative and quantitative minimum requirements. Failure to meet one or both requirements will result in the placement on SAP Warning. During the warning period, students will continue to remain eligible for financial assistance if all other requirements have been satisfied. Academic counseling should be sought to ensure the student satisfies all deficiencies during this period.
Once a student is placed on SAP Warning, the student has one semester to achieve both the qualitative and quantitative requirements. If a student fails to meet SAP as a result of the fall semester, he/she will have the spring semester to meet SAP. Likewise, if a student fails to meet SAP for the spring semester, he/she will have the fall semester to meet SAP. If the student meets SAP within the warning period (of one semester), he/she will be automatically placed back in good standing for financial aid.
It is possible that a student may fail to meet the specific terms and conditions of an institutional award while continuing to meet the minimum SAP requirements for Federal Aid. If this is the case, the student would be placed on warning for the specific award but not placed on general SAP Warning.
Students will be notified in writing via traditional mail and via email that he or she is on SAP Warning. Failure to receive notification through one or both of these means is not terms for an appeal. It is the student’s responsibility to understand the Financial Aid SAP policy and to adhere to it.
Students who have questions about SAP Warning, or students who feel they might not have met SAP requirements, are encouraged to contact the Office of Financial aid or appear in person without an appointment to discuss the policy.
Suspension of Financial Aid
After one semester of probation and continued failure to meet SAP, some or all of a student’s financial aid will be suspended. It is possible to meet the SAP policy and continue to receive aid dependent on that policy while at the same time to not meet the terms and conditions of institutional aid and have only institutional aid suspended.
Students must achieve both the qualitative and quantitative requirements of SAP to remain in good financial aid standing. If a student is placed on SAP Probation as a result of not meeting the qualitative requirement one semester and then meets the qualitative requirement the next but does not meet the quantitative requirement that semester, aid will be suspended.
Students will be notified in writing via traditional mail and via email that he or she is on SAP Suspension. Failure to receive notification through one or both of these means is not terms for an appeal. It is the student’s responsibility to understand the Financial Aid SAP policies and to adhere to them.
Students who have questions about SAP Suspension, or students who feel they might not have met the SAP requirements, are encouraged to contact the Office of Financial aid or appear in person with or without an appointment to discuss the policy.
Regaining Eligibility
Students on financial aid suspension can make up units and raise their cumulative grade point average the next academic semester; however they are ineligible to receive financial aid during that period of suspension. Once the SAP requirements have been met, students are eligible to apply for financial aid for the upcoming semester.
Students must notify the Office of Financial Aid that he or she has again become eligible for reinstatement of funds.
Appeals and Extenuating Circumstances
Students may make a written request to appeal a financial aid decision determined by the SAP Policy. The Office of Financial Aid is the only office that may field an appeal for Financial Aid SAP. Students must download the appeal form from the student intranet, sign it, and submit it, in-person, to the Office of Financial Aid. Students may request that the form be date marked for when it has been received.
The Office of Financial Aid will determine whether the appeal can be fielded directly by the Office of Financial Aid or if the appeal must be considered by a committee. Only appeals that result in the outcome requested by the student can be fielded directly by the Office of Financial Aid.
Students are entitled to an explanation of why an appeal has been declined. Once an appeal has been declined by committee, students may not make the an identical appeal because he/she did not agree with the outcome. The appeal will be considered officially declined.
It is understood that there may occasionally be exceptional circumstances that might affect a student’s ability to meet an assessment deadline or affect their performance in assessment. Extenuating circumstances may include, but are not limited to, a death in the family or prolonged illness. Where appropriate these circumstances may be taken into account by the
Office of Financial Aid or committee in making a decision. The Office of Financial Aid or committee will consider each claim and decide whether or not the circumstances were material to the student’s performance in the assessment in question and whether there is sufficient evidence to warrant accepting that the extenuating circumstances existed.
SUA admits students without consideration of their abilities to meet the costs. Soka University’s need-blind admission policy means that student financial aid status will not affect his or her possible admission to the university.
It is the sincere objective of the Office of Financial Aid to fair access to aid across all student populations. However, there are some types of aid only available to US citizens and eligible non-citizens as mandated by US Federal Regulations. In these cases, every effort has been made to create an equal alternative program for those who are not eligible for such aid.
The Office of Financial Aid is committed to adhering to positive awarding practices that does not discriminate on the basis race/ethnicity, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, or age in the administration financial aid or any other programs.
Email is the standard and preferred method of communication with the Financial Aid Office. The Office will use the email address noted on the admissions application for all communication with applicants. Once a SUA email address is assigned to a student, the Office of Financial Aid will use this as the primary communication method and cease to use other email addresses.