Requirements for Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)
Satisfactory Academic Progress means the student is proceeding in a positive manner toward fulfilling certificate requirements in the expected length of time.
Students who do not make the required SAP standards may become ineligible for financial aid.
In order to make Satisfactory Academic Progress, the student must demonstrate the following qualitative and quantitative standards:
Qualitative Standard
Students must maintain a cumulative grade of at least a “C”. The following grades will not be counted as curriculum completed:
- I – Incomplete
- F – Failing grade
- W – Withdrawn
- WP – Withdrawn/Passing
- WF – Withdrawn/Failing
Francis Tuttle calculates withdrawn/passing and withdrawn/failing in the same way. All grades of W, WP, or WF have the same impact on the student’s GPA.
If a student repeats curriculum, only the highest grade will be counted toward the student’s cumulative GPA.
Quantitative Standards
Students have a maximum timeframe of 150% of the published length of the program in order to complete the certificate requirements. Students enrolled halftime will take twice as long to finish the program. For example, a program has a published length of 9 months will take 18 months for a part-time student to complete. A halftime student has 27 months, or 150% of the timeframe, to complete the program.
Students must successfully complete a certain number of clock hours in order to remain in good standing. Unexcused absences are not considered successful completion. Excused absences will not be counted against the student unless the excused absences exceed 10% of the scheduled clock hours within the payment period; the excused absences beyond 10% are not considered successful completion.
The institution’s attendance policy states that students are allowed to have unexcused absences of no more than 9% of each term. The federal government requires the SAP standards to be at least as strict as the academic policies, and it requires us to review the student’s cumulative enrollment. Therefore, in order to remain in good standing for SAP purposes, the student must have 9% or fewer unexcused absences for his/her cumulative enrollment (not just for each term). Students are allowed to have excused absences in excess of the 9% unexcused absences as long as they can complete their program within the maximum timeframe of 150%. Excused absences are only granted for special circumstances, so students will rarely reach the 150% timeframe.
View full standards here.