Satisfactory Academic Progress | Satisfactory Academic Progress | TJC
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Satisfactory Academic Progress

To maintain financial aid eligibility, students must meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). Federal regulations require all financial aid students to maintain progress toward an academic degree. If a student fails to meet these standards, they will be placed on financial aid suspension and unable to receive any state and federal financial aid.

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)

Students must maintain the following requirements to maintain financial aid eligibility and avoid suspension consequences:

  1. Maintain a Financial Aid cumulative GPA of 2.0. Students receiving State grants such as TEXAS Grant & TEOG must maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.5. Financial Aid GPA includes college developmental courses in your GPA.
  2. Maintain a minimum Pace rate of 67% of cumulative passed hours divided by cumulative attempted hours. Students receiving State grants such as TEXAS Grant & TEOG must maintain a 75% completion rate of all attempted* hours.
  3. Completion of degree/certificate within a maximum timeframe, including transfer hours, repeat classes, and institutional attempted* hours. Students may not receive financial assistance beyond 150% of their degree program requirements.
    • Credit hours are cumulative; therefore students with multiple degrees or many major changes may reach this maximum time frame before completing their study.

*Financial attempted hours include all courses listed on a student’s transcript including classes with grades of W, F, FD, I, IP, repeated courses, and college preparatory courses.

SAP Warnings & Suspensions

The first semester a student does not meet the GPA and/or PACE requirements outlined above, they will be issued a warning. Students receiving a warning will receive financial aid for the next semester and should use that semester to make the necessary adjustments to avoid suspension. Students who have reached their maximum time frame to complete their degree will not receive a warning and are automatically placed on financial aid suspension.

After receiving a warning, students who fail to meet any one or a combination of the SAP requirements will be ineligible for financial aid. Students on financial aid suspension will no longer receive financial aid for the next semester or subsequent semesters.

Students are allowed to appeal their financial aid ineligibility when placed on suspension. Please see How to Appeal for more information regarding appeal requirements. If an appeal is approved for financial aid reinstatement, students will be placed on financial aid probation and will receive only one probationary period of aid. Students then must meet all three SAP requirements at the semester's end to continue receiving financial aid. If students do not meet the terms of probation, eligibility for financial aid will cease and all remaining aid will not be disbursed. Subsequent financial aid suspensions will not be permitted to appeal. Once a student loses eligibility, the only way to regain eligibility for financial aid is to make up for the deficit that placed them on suspension to meet SAP requirements.

All students are notified of their warning and suspension status at the end of each semester, including summer, to their TJC student email account. Students can also view their eligibility status from the financial aid main menu on Apache Access.

Return to Title IV (R2T4)

Students earn their Title IV federal financial aid by attending class. Students who do not attend class but receive Title IV financial aid will be evaluated on how much financial aid was not earned. Students cannot ‘earn’ all their financial aid unless they attend and participate in class for at least 60% of the term. If it is determined that a student did not earn a portion of their financial aid, a student might have to repay any unearned aid. Funds that are not repaid promptly may be reported to collection agencies. Outstanding balances can also result in a student being unable to register for classes.

Developmental Overload

Students are only allowed 30 credit hours of college preparatory classes to be funded by financial aid. Students who exceed 30 credit hours will result in an adjustment of funded hours. The possibility of changes in a student’s disbursement may be prorated.

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