My daughter just received a letter warning her that she is approaching the Maximum Credit limit for undergraduate financial aid. She just finished her freshman year. She did not take any financial aid freshman year, and did not plan to for sophomore year, but we were keeping it in the back of our minds as a contingency plan for later years. I did not realize that it might not be available in the later years!
She is in this situation due to AP credits, dual enrollment credits, and concurrent enrollment (community college and high school at the same time). She entered college with a LOT of transfer credits. But of course they are all lower-division courses and will not necessarily apply toward her major.
I wish we had known about the Maximum Timeframe/Credit Limit earlier. We may have been more strategic, and not “transferred” so many of those credits to the college. Maybe this post will help someone else avoid the nasty surprise.
Federal regulations that govern SAP take maximum time frame/credits into account. The credits she brought in with her have put her in SAP jeopardy, but it’s possible that the school has a policy that would grant approval of an appeal in this case. She should contact her academic advisor to discuss - the advisor can work with your D & the financial aid office to discuss what she needs to do to reinstate aid eligibility.
I called the Financial Aid office, and they said pretty much what @kelsmom said. There is an appeal process, and in this case, she would almost certainly be granted the appeal. So our contingency plan is intact. Whew!
For those wondering… the limit is 180 credit hours. She came in with 112 credits from high school, and earned 39 credits her freshman year. So she has 151 credit hours completed at end of freshman year. The warning is because a standard load this year (30 credits) would put her over the maximum.
The intent of the SAP time frame policy is to keep people from just going to school forever without getting a degree & collecting grants/borrowing loans for years on end. There are people out there who get grants & loans to live on, rather than for an education, and this is supposed to weed them out. With the push toward early college programs, the credits being brought in that don’t necessarily count toward a particular degree are presenting aid offices with challenges. Many will approve situations like Mommertons describes, but there is work involved in all the documentation for that … because schools are actually not allowed to make a blanket exception to SAP policy for a situation … it all has to be done as an individual decision & documented as such (adding more regulatory work to the aid officer).
Wow. She came in with 112 credits! My son came into his freshman year with something like 48 credits from AP credits and a gap year program. I was wondering if it could affect his aid - he receives institutional aid and federal loans. His first year he took 35 credits. So it seems, at that rate, he will finish with over 180, but won’t go over 180 till his senior. So I think he will be ok. Thanks for posting this.