Federal regulations require Mizzou Student Financial Aid to evaluate the academic progress of each student to ensure financial aid recipients make progress towards graduation.
Students are evaluated annually at the end of the Spring semester. This evaluation includes a review of a student’s GPA (Qualitative measure), Pace of Completion (Quantitative measure), and Maximum Time Frame measure.
Measurements for professional students from the School of Medicine, Law, and Veterinary Medicine are determined and monitored by the professional schools.
Qualitative Measure
| Cumulative Attempted Hours | Minimum Cumulative GPA |
|---|---|
| Less than 60 credit hours | 1.67 |
| 60 credit hours or more | 2.0 |
| Graduate program | 3.0 |
Quantitative Measure
The quantitative measure of a student’s academic progress is determined by their completion rate, calculated by dividing completed credit hours by attempted credit hours. All students are required to complete at least two-thirds (66.67%) of their attempted credit hours.
All attempted courses marked with grades of F, incomplete, no credit, dropped, withdrawn, no grade, in progress, revision of record, repeated courses (only one passing grade will count as completed), or waiting on a grade are included in the calculation.
Maximum Timeframe Measure
Students must complete their program within 150% of the published length. All attempted credit hours count toward this maximum timeframe.
For example, a bachelor’s degree requiring 120 credit hours allows up to 180 attempted hours (120 × 150%) before the student no longer meets SAP standards. Students who exceed this limit will be evaluated after each term of enrollment until their program is complete.
Students pursuing a second bachelor’s degree may attempt up to 225 total credit hours, including the 30 hours required at Mizzou, before not meeting SAP standards.
Financial Aid Suspension
Students who fail to meet the minimum satisfactory academic progress requirements will be placed on financial aid suspension. If a student is placed on financial aid suspension, federal, state, and institutional aid, and some private loans, will be withheld until the student has an approved SAP appeal on file or meets the overall SAP measures.
Financial Aid Appeal Process
Students who do not meet the SAP measures and are suspended from receiving financial aid may submit a SAP financial aid appeal if extenuating circumstances contributed to their not meeting satisfactory academic progress. Extenuating circumstances may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Death of a family member
- Family difficulties, such as divorce or illness
- Natural disaster impacting the student or family’s home
- Interpersonal difficulties with friends, roommates, significant others, etc.
Students who have extenuating circumstances may appeal with the following procedure:
- Submit a Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal form.
- The appeal will be reviewed by the financial aid appeal committee. Appeals are reviewed in the order received, and priority is given to those who submit their appeal before the start of the semester.
- Students are notified of the committee’s decision via email. Appeal decisions are final and are not eligible for further review. However, students with new or additional information not previously provided may submit a new appeal.
Financial Aid Probation
Financial aid probation is a status assigned to students whose SAP financial aid appeal has been reviewed and approved by the committee. While on probation, students must meet probationary requirements each semester until they return to meeting overall SAP measures.
Minimum SAP probationary requirements are defined as the following:
- Undergraduate students (fewer than 60 credit hours): Term GPA of 1.75
- Undergraduate students (60 or more credit hours): Term GPA of 2.0
- Graduate students: Term GPA of 3.0
- All students: Term completion rate of 66.67%
At the end of an approved probationary semester, the student’s GPA, completion rate, and/or maximum timeframe are evaluated to determine whether the student has met the minimum probationary requirements:
- Students who meet overall SAP measures will be reinstated to satisfactory status.
- Students who meet the probationary requirements but have not yet met overall SAP measures will remain on financial aid probation.
- Students who fail to meet the probationary requirements are ineligible for financial aid in future semesters. Students may continue to enroll in courses and pay expenses out of pocket or submit a new SAP financial aid appeal if extenuating circumstances prevented them from meeting the probationary requirements.