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Financial Aid Satisfactory Progress

All students who receive any type of financial aid must maintain Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress. Golden Gate University is required to evaluate periodically your progress toward your degree. As of the 1998 fall trimester/semester, we will begin to monitor this on a trimesterly/semesterly basis. GGU's Satisfactory Academic Progress policy evaluates your qualitative progress (GPA) as well as your quantitative progress (courses completed) as follows

All financial aid recipients must demonstrate a certain level of academic achievement, as measured by the cumulative grade point average (GPA). The following GPAs represent the minimum required cumulative GPA required to maintain your financial aid eligibility:

• All graduate (non-law) degrees/certificates: 3.00
• All JD degrees: 2.00
• All LL.M. degrees: 2.50

All students on financial aid must successfully complete at least 80% of the units attempted. Attempted units include all graded & transcripted units, all incomplete units, all units from prior terms dropped or not completed after the first week of classes, and all transfer units. Completed units are those units for which the student has received grades and degree credit, including all transfer units. Repeat courses will be eligible for financial aid and will be counted in attempted units. However, you will not receive degree credit twice for the same course, so a repeat course will not be counted in completed units. Courses taken in audit or non-credit status are not included in either the number of units attempted or units completed. Likewise, courses taken in Open Enrollment status are not included, unless those course(s) are subsequently applied towards a degree or certificate program. Satisfactory progress always measures what has happened in prior terms, so all registration and enrollment activity for the current term is excluded from the evaluations.

In addition, all students on financial aid must complete their degree programs within 125% of the timeframe required for the degree (rounded up to the nearest whole number of units) as measured by the number of units required for the degree. For example, undergraduate degree programs require 123 units for graduation. Students may attempt 154 units towards this degree before losing financial aid eligibility. Law school student must also complete all degree requirements within the maximum timeframe as required by American Bar Association (ABA) accreditation standards. If you fall below either measure, you will be placed automatically on financial aid probation for one trimester/semester. If you have not met the minimum GPA requirement, you will have this one trimester/semester of probation to raise your GPA back up to the minimum required level. If you did not achieve the 80% completion rate, you will have one trimester/semester of probation to raise your completion rate back up to 80%. If, at the end of this probationary trimester/semester, you have not regained satisfactory standing, your financial aid will be subject to cancellation. If you have regained satisfactory standing at the end of this period, you will be removed from financial aid probation. However, you are allowed only one probationary period. Therefore, if you again drop below the minimum progress requirements, you will not be given a second probationary period and your financial aid will be subject to cancellation immediately. If you are not able to regain satisfactory standing at the end of a probationary period or if your financial aid is otherwise subject to cancellation, you have the right to petition for an additional probationary period. If you feel there were truly exceptional and/or unavoidable circumstances which prevented you from meeting the eligibility requirements, you should submit a letter of appeal to your Financial Aid Counselor stating in detail the basis of your appeal along with supporting documentation. Such documentation must be detailed and specific as to its relevance to your request for an exception to this policy, as well as providing information about your ability to continue in your program. In addition, you should provide documentation from your faculty advisor or an advisor in GGU's Office of Student Affairs. Your Financial Aid Counselor will then make a recommendation to the Financial Aid Review Committee for a final decision. You will be notified in writing of the outcome of your petition. If your financial aid is cancelled after failing to maintain satisfactory academic progress, you will need to regain your satisfactory standing in order to have your financial aid eligibility reinstated. You can regain your satisfactory standing in two ways. First, you can raise your cumulative GPA to the minimum required for your degree level, or, second, you can increase your completed-to-attempted units percentage by transferring additional units from another institution.

In certain circumstances, the Financial Aid Review Committee will consider requests for reinstatement of eligibility from students who have not been able to regain satisfactory standing. In such cases, you will need to submit a letter and documentation to your financial aid counselor explaining your circumstances and why you feel that we should approve your request. Some examples of situations for which the Committee would consider such a request are the serious illness of the student or the serious illness or death of an immediate family member. In all such cases, you must be able to provide detailed documentation that is specific to the situation and to your ability to return successfully to classes.

Students who are returning to GGU after being academically disqualified will be evaluated on a term by term basis. In such cases, the minimum required GPA will be the term GPA rather than a cumulative GPA. Students in this category will be evaluated at the end of every term.