Student Financial Services
Students must meet the following standards to demonstrate satisfactory academic progress. These standards will be evaluated at the end of each academic term (including summer term, if applicable) and a student will be notified if the SAP evaluation affects his or her financial aid eligibility.
Students enrolled in dual degree programs with Suffolk University Law School will be subject to the Law School SAP policy.
Graduate students (full or part time) are required to maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0. Students enrolled in dual degree programs with Suffolk University Law School will be subject to the Law School SAP policy.
All students have a maximum time frame for which they have financial aid eligibility in an academic program. A student will not be considered to be making SAP if his or her enrollment exceeds a timeframe equal to 150% of the published minimum credit requirement of the academic program. Refer to the academic catalog for specific program lengths. Suffolk University measures a student’s timeframe in attempted credits. Students who change majors are subject to the same 150% maximum time frame. Additional degree programs, however, will be evaluated independently.
Students not meeting the minimum SAP requirements are placed on financial aid warning and will receive a written warning indicating they have not met SAP standards. Financial aid warning lasts for one academic term. During financial aid warning, financial aid will be awarded and the student will be given one term to improve his/her academic standing and meet SAP requirements. No action is required of the student who is placed on warning status and no appeal of the decision to place a student on financial aid warning is permitted.
If at the close of financial aid warning the student has not met SAP standards, the student will be notified in writing that he/she is ineligible for financial aid for future terms. Students should be aware this includes all federal, state, institutional and many alternative loan aid programs. If a student is ineligible for financial aid due to the failure to make SAP during the warning term, he/she may request a review by submitting an appeal to the Office of Student Financial Services for a probationary semester.
Students who fail to meet SAP requirements at the end of the warning semester may appeal in writing to the Office of Student Financial Services if extenuating circumstances existed which negatively impacted the student’s ability to make SAP
Appeal Applications can be found on our forms page.
Examples of situations where appeals will be considered include serious illness, hospitalization, or death of a family member. A student’s appeal must address why the student failed to make SAP and what has changed that will now allow the student to satisfy academic progress requirements at the end of the next academic term. Appeals must also include supporting documentation (i.e. hospital records, doctor’s note, etc). Students who submit an appeal will be notified in writing of the outcome. In evaluating an SAP appeal, the Office of Student Financial Services considers both the extenuating circumstances that led to the failure to make SAP and whether the student will be able to meet SAP standards by (i) the end of the following academic term or (ii) a specific later date by adhering to an academic plan.
The Office of Student Financial Services will respond to all written appeals by mailing a letter of decision to the student’s permanent address on file with Suffolk University. If an SAP appeal is granted, the student will be placed on financial aid probation. Conditions may be imposed on the student’s continued eligibility through an academic plan, which is developed in conjunction with the Academic Deans Office in the appropriate school. An academic plan may include requirements such as a reduced course load or the taking of specific courses. At the end of the first financial aid probation term, the student must be either making SAP or successfully completing the conditions of the academic plan in order to be eligible for further financial aid.
