Student Performance
Poor academic performance and weak attendance can have an enormous impact on a student's financial aid eligibility.
A student can avoid the stress of financial aid pitfalls by examining these guidelines concerning attendance, satisfactory academic progress, and unearned Title IV funds.
Attendance:
A student cannot received financial aid for course he or she did not attend. Therefore, SCC's Financial Aid Office will verify a student's attendance with his or her instructor during the first two weeks of courses. If a student does not show up for class during the first two weeks, he or she will have their financial aid reduced and or eliminated. If a student is reported as never attending a course and he or she feels the report was made in error, it is the responsibility of the student to insure that his her instructor provides notification to the Financial Aid Office that the student did in fact attend.
If a student unofficially withdrawals (stops attending without completing the official withdrawal process) he or she's last date of attendance may be verified with his or her instructors.
Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP):
You must maintain satisfactory academic progress to continue receiving financial aid. Satisfactory academic progress for financial aid includes maintaining the requirements as listed below:
- Successfully complete 67% of enrolled credit hours. This will be measured on a cumulative basis. Example: If the student enrolls for a total of 24 credit hours their first academic year, the student must satisfactorily complete 16 credit hours. (Example: 24 credit hours x .67 (67%) = 16 credit hours)
- Completion of the academic program in 150% of the published length of the program. Example: Associate in Arts degree = 62 credit hours. Maximum enrolled credit hours permitted to complete this program would be 93. (Example: 62 credit hours x 1.5 (150%) = 93 credit hours.
- Minimum Cumulative Grade Point Average. During the entirety of a student's program, the student must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.00.
ATTENTION STUDENTS! Any student failing to meet these standards will be placed on Financial Aid Probation. Any student on Financial Aid Probation will have one semester to bring their coursework up to minimum standards. A student failing to attain these standards by the end of the probationary semester will be terminated from receiving further financial aid. This termination includes student loans.
There are two options a student may peruse in order to regain eligibility for financial aid:
- Complete the number of credit hours necessary to achieve the 67% requirement and/or minimum cumulative grade point average need for their grade level. This will be at the student's own expense. When these hours have been complete, the Financial Aid Office must be notified by the student so that eligibility for aid can be reinstated. Financial Aid eligibility does not automatically become reinstated.
- If special circumstances exits, the student may submit a letter of appeal to the Financial Aid Office stating the reasons the standards requirements noted above were not met. If the appeal is approved by a review committee, eligibility for financial aid will be reinstated on a probationary level. The "Financial Aid Appeal" form is available on this website under "Financial Aid Forms."
Unearned Title IV Funds:
By federal law, unearned Title IV funds (Pell, Stafford loans, SEOG) must be returned to the federal government for a student who totally withdraws (official/unofficial) on or before the 60% point of the enrollment period. The amount of return is determined by the following:
- Determine percentage of enrollment period student completed.
- Earned aid = total awarded Title IV aid multiplied by same percentage.
- Unearned aid = earned aid subtracted from total disbursable aid.
- Southeastern returns: the total institutional charges incurred by the student multiplied by the unearned percentage of Title IV aid.
- Student returns: unearned aid - Southeastern's return; If a student received grants, the student's return will be multiplied by 50% after being reduced by the amount of loan funds the student is required to return. This amount is then subtracted from the initial amount of grant funds due from the student.
Examples of these refund policies are available upon request at the SCC Financial Aid Office.
