SATISFACTORY ACADEMIC PROGRESS (SAP) DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS

A student who has not met all of the financial aid standards and who wants to retain financial aid eligibility must appeal their SAP determination. If the student does not appeal, the student will lose their financial aid eligibility in the quarter immediately fol-lowing the period of monitoring. For example, if the student is determined to have not met SAP standards at the end of their third quarter of attendance and does not appeal that determination, the student loses their aid eligibility beginning with their fourth quarter of attendance. Likewise, if the student appeals and the appeal is not approved, the student loses their eligibility for aid in the first quarter following the pe-riod of monitoring. The school will notify the student if the outcome of the review of the appeal affects the student’s aid eligibility.

SUBSEQUENT APPEAL

A student who appeals their SAP standing may re-gain their financial aid eligibility only after the appeal has been reviewed and approved by FIDM Staff. In some cases, adherence to an academic plan may be required for the student to regain their aid eligibility. An academic plan is specific to the individual student, and may require the student to successfully follow a schedule of specific coursework, unit loads, etc. If a student’s SAP appeal is approved, they are consid-ered to be on “SAP Probation” status, and are eligible for one additional quarter of financial aid eligibility.

If the student‘s SAP appeal is approved and requires adherence to an academic plan, the student will retain financial aid eligibility as long as the student meets the terms of the plan.

COURSE INCOMPLETES

If a student who is on SAP Probation subject to the terms of an academic plan meets the minimum SAP requirements at a standard monitoring period, the SAP probation status can be removed at the discretion of FIDM financial aid staff. Should a stu-dent meet the terms of their financial aid academic plan but nonetheless be placed on FIDM academic disqualification or academic dismissal, the student would also be considered to be disqualified for finan-cial aid purposes. If the student is allowed to return to school after academic dismissal or academic disqualification, a new SAP appeal and academic plan would be required.

APPEAL PROCEDURES

COURSE WITHDRAWALS

Grades for classes with a grade of “W” are not included in the calculation of GPA. Units for classes with a grade of “W” are counted as attempted but not successfully completed for purposes of pace. For purposes of unit completion, classes with a grade of “W” are considered not successfully completed.

QUARTERS OF NON-ATTENDANCE

Students who have not met SAP standards at the point of monitoring (and are not entitled to “Financial Aid Warning” status) will lose their eligibility for financial aid. The student will receive a communication from the Financial Aid Office with instructions on how to appeal. The student must follow all the instructions, including the time frame for return of the appeal form. The appeal form must be returned to the Financial Aid Office at the student’s campus of attendance, unless otherwise

Quarters of non-attendance are not included in SAP monitoring. Students are required to meet standards of attendance in addition to standards of SAP. FIDM’s policies that limit the number of quarters of non-at-tendance can be found on page 27 of FIDM’s Student Consumer Handbook for 2020-21.

directed. FIDM Staff will review and respond to the appeal. The response will inform the student if:

FIDM Staff may accept a subsequent SAP appeal from a student who has failed to meet the terms of an Academic Plan. A subsequent appeal will only be approved if the student has encountered challenges in addition to those on which a previous appeal was approved. A revised Academic Plan would be created. To maintain financial aid eligibility, the student would then need to meet the terms of that new Plan.

For purposes of pace, units for a class with a grade of “I” are counted as units attempted but not completed. For purposes of unit completion, units for a class with a grade of “I” are counted as units successfully completed. If the grade is changed prior to the final SAP monitoring for the previous quarter, appropriate action will be taken, depending on the changed grade (SAP status will be changed to warning, suspension, disqualification, “OK”, or no action if the SAP status is not affected). If the grade is changed after the final SAP monitoring for the previous quarter, the student’s SAP will be monitored as usual at the next monitoring marker.

COURSE REPETITIONS

If a student repeats a class for which they received a “D” or an “F”, in subsequent SAP monitoring the orig-inal grade will not be counted in the GPA calculation, but the pace and unit completion calculations will