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Satisfactory Academic Progress

Financial Aid is contingent upon continued satisfactory academic progress towards a degree or certificate.  The academic performance of students will be monitored once a year.


The specific SAP polices are listed below:

Monitoring Period:  Students will be monitored based on their most recent academic career (undergraduate, Graduate, Law or Medicine) for the year just ending. A review of academic progress is done at the end of each year for all students who have been enrolled as an undergraduate or graduate student. Students in a Law, Medicine and or Dental career are reviewed after the last day to add second session courses for the given year.  

Students who fail to meet the SAP standards will receive communication via their UMail account and will receive a “hold” making them ineligible for financial aid. Any federal financial aid that a student may have received prior to the review will be canceled from the account.  

Students have the right to appeal any decision made by the University Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid. However, the decision of the appeals committee is final, and no exceptions can be made for requests in violation of the Federal and State regulations, which govern financial aid.

SAP Standard Explanation of Standard How to Reinstate Eligibility 
Minimum Cumulative GPA Requirement Students must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.0 A successful appeal may reinstate eligibility. 
Maximum Time Frame to Earn a Degree*

Students must not exceed the maximum time frames reported below:

Undergraduate Students
the equivalent of 153 attempted semester credit hours

Masters and JD Candidates
4 years from entry into a Master's program

Doctoral Candidates
7 years from entry into a Master's program

A successful appeal may reinstate eligibility. 

 

Aggregate Completion Rate (Pace) Requirement Students must complete 67% of all attempted credits at the University of Utah and any accepted transfer credits. Courses that are considered attempted, but not completed, are listed below. For graduate students, coursework attempted as an undergraduate is excluded from this calculation. A successful appeal may reinstate eligibility. 

Credits attempted, but not completed include grades of I, E, EU, W, NC, audited course, repeated courses, blank grades, and any other grade which indicates unsatisfactory performance.  Attempted credits include test and transfer hours.  Please note that "Academic Renewal" does not change our review.  "Discounted" courses will still be considered. 

T grades are viewed as attempted not completed when determining completion rate for undergraduate students, and attempted and completed for graduate students. 

Credits attempted and completed include accepted transfer credits, letter grades of D- or above, and CR grades. For purposes of the Maximum Time Frame to earn a degree, test credits are also considered attempted and completed.

Audited Courses are not acceptable for financial aid purposes. Students changing a registered course to an audit course may be billed for previously received financial aid.

Repeated Courses are counted as credits attempted during each term the student is enrolled in the course. However, they will be counted once as credits completed the first time a passing grade is received for the course.

Financial Aid Appeal Process Students have the right to appeal any decision made by the University Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid.  However the decision of the appeals committee is final, and no exceptions can made for requests in violation of the Federal and State regulations, which govern financial aid.  

Last Updated: 5/20/24