<p>So I heard that one of my relatives had his financial aid cancelled. I'm wondering what are the typical reasons for it being cancelled. Low grades? Failed to hand in a form? Or what are some other reasons for it being cancelled? </p>
<p>In this case, it wasn't cancelled due to newfound financial wealth (like winning the lottery).</p>
<p>Usually it is grades, must maintain a certain GPA to keep federal loans, work study etc.
I think it is called “Satisfactory Academic Progress.”</p>
<p>There are federal rules governing financial aid (if the money comes from federal sources). Those include PELL, Subsidized and Unsubsidized Direct Loans, TEACH, Perkins, SMART, and Academic Competitiveness Grant.</p>
<p>One reason is called SAP, or satisfactory academic progress (grades). Another reason: there is a limit on how many credit hours you can have while attaining a particular degree. Also, you have to have a certain amount of hours enrolled to qualify. Just some of the possible reasons . . .</p>
<p>It might also not be a full cancellation, but cancellation of some items. A friend’s DS dropped a lab class he was struggling with and ended up 1 unit below full time, lost one grant, but not another. One required full time and one required a lower minimum units. A person could drop one class of their full time load and not realise they were going below the minimum units required</p>
<p>Probably for not meeting SAP. Each school sets their own SAP but typical reasons for not meeting SAP can include not meeting GPA requirements, not successfully completing a certain % of all classes attempted, being over a certain % of credits required for a degree.</p>
<p>Can it be lost for going over 8 semsters…into semester 9?</p>
<p>Some schools may limit institutional aid to 8 semesters. federal aid is not usually limited in that way, though there are $ limits for loans. The Pell is available for something like 16 or 18 semesters (!!).</p>
<p>The SAP policies at my daughter’s school limit the number of attempted credits to 150% of the credits required for the degree. So if a degree required 120 credits, that would be 180 credits.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Is the the Pell Grant? How can one make SAP and still not graduate in 18 semesters? By changing majors and/or taking the wrong classes?</p>
<p>Well most degrees at my daughter’s school require around 120 credits. So 150% of that would be 180 credits. if someone took the minimum credits required to be full time it would take 15 semesters to hit 180 credits. Some degrees may require more credits. For instance the Architecture degree at my daughter’s school requires 154 credits. So 150% would be 231 credits. If a student took the minimum required to be full time (12 credits), it would take over 18 semesters.</p>
<p>And schools can grant appeals based on change of major, double major, stuff like that.</p>
<p>Doesn’t mean they will though. There was a student recently who was losing his aid because of too many credits but it was an unfortunate situation because of something like AP credits or some weird double counted credits (can’t quite remember, it was complicated and rather unusual) that did not work for his degree. One of the FA officers that posted here was trying to help him out but his school was very rigid and would not work with him at all.</p>