*If you have recieved notification regarding your eligibility and must submit documentation to our office, please follow the instructions below.
Students who do not comply with either the grade point average or minimum credit hour completion ratio will receive a single semester of Warning Status. During this warning period, the student must improve their GPA to a cumulative 2.0 and/or complete and make up deficient credit hours reaching a 67% completion rate.
If a student earns a cumulative GPA that is below 1.0 no warning period will be given. If a student earns 2 or fewer credits in a semester no warning period will be given unless earned hours divided by attempted hours are equal to or greater than 67%.
Students who do not achieve a GPA of 2.0 or make up deficient credit hours during a period of warning will be placed on financial aid suspension status.
Students who earn a semester GPA of less than 1.0 will be placed on suspension status unless their cumulative grade point average remains 2.0 or higher.
Students who earn 2 or fewer credits during a single semester will be placed on suspension status unless their earned hours divided by attempted hours is equal to or greater than 67%.
A transfer student who withdraws from all courses their first semester at EAC will be placed on suspension status.
A student whose financial aid eligibility has been suspended must complete the necessary credit hours on personal resources to improve their cumulative GPA to 2.0 or higher, to achieve a 67% completion ratio in order to regain financial aid eligibility.
If a student feels there were circumstances beyond his control that affected their academic performance they may submit a Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) appeal.
Suspended students will receive a suspension notice from the Financial Aid Office with information on the probationary appeals process. Students must submit a complete appeal form with supporting documentation.
If a student is placed on a SAP probation contract, the conditions set forth in the provided email must be met, to remain eligible for financial aid.
If the SAP appeal is denied, a denial notice will be sent to the student’s Monster Mail account through the official college email. The student may appeal this denial to the Financial Aid Committee, within seven days of the date the denial was sent. The appeal must be in writing explaining why the student feels the denial should be reviewed by the committee.
The maximum number of credit hours a student may attempt and still be eligible for financial aid is 150% of the credits required to complete a declared degree. This is generally 96 credit hours for an associate’s degree.
This includes credits accepted as transfers to EAC, however, the transferred credits will not be included in the college’s calculation of the institutional GPA.
A student shall be suspended prior to exceeding the 150% time frame if this time frame will be exceeded during the next semester of enrollment.
Students completing additional hours beyond the 150% allowed by regulation are required to complete the Maximum Credit Appeal (MCA) form.
Max Credit Appeal Form Revised MCA 2023-2024
A student will be suspended from financial aid and will need to submit a Maximum Credit Appeal (MCA) when the maximum time frame of 150% to complete degree requirements has been reached.
The appeal must be submitted to the Financial Aid Office within the specified time frame as indicated in the suspension letter. The appeal will be evaluated to determine if the student’s time frame to complete the stated degree is appropriate within federal guidelines. Generally, EAC may not approve an MCA if a student’s total attempted credit hours will exceed 128 credits at the contract’s conclusion.
If approved, the appeal and courses outlined will be the contract under which the time frame is extended. The student must abide by this contract, without withdrawing or failing from any approved course. No additional course work is permitted beyond what is listed on this contract, even if financial aid does not pay for the additional courses. Failure to do so will result in suspension without the opportunity to further appeals. The Financial Aid Office will notify the student of the outcome of the appeal by the official college student email.
If the maximum credit appeal is denied a denial notice will be sent to the student by the student’s official college email. The student may appeal this denial to the Financial Aid Committee, within seven days of the date the denial was sent. The appeal must be in writing explaining why the student feels the denial should be reviewed by the committee.
If an initial Suspension appeal (SAP)or Maximum Credit appeal (MCA) is denied, students may appeal to the Financial Aid Committee.
If a student had extenuating circumstances that prevented them from meeting the terms of a Probation Contract, that student may also appeal to the Financial Aid Committee.
Students will need to provide the following to be considered for committee review:
If you failed to meet the terms of a probation contract, you must explain the circumstances that prevented you from meeting the terms of your probation contract. The circumstances cannot be the same as what you submitted with the previous appeal.
The financial aid committee will review the student’s appeal and letter. The decision of the committee will be communicated in writing to the student within seven working days. The committee’s decision is final and cannot be challenged.
Examples of Documentation
Students seeking additional degrees from EAC are limited as follows. After earning a first Associates Degree of any type, a student may earn an additional 30 credit hours toward a second Associates Degree but may not exceed 150% time frame. Students are limited to three certificates. Hours attempted while obtaining any degree count toward the aggregate of 150% time frame. Students seeking a third associate’s Degree or fourth Certificate are suspended from receiving Title IV financial aid even if they have fewer than 96 total credit hours.
Includes: Withdrawals (W), Incomplete (I), Fail (F), Pass (P), A, B, C, and D grades.
Successfully completed credits that count towards the required percentage of completion (67%) as defined by the quantitative measure. Earned credits include grades of A, B, C, D and P.
Courses dropped without record before expiration of the add/drop period are not counted towards SAP measurements.
Eastern Arizona College does not offer ESL courses therefore they are not included in SAP measurements unless accepted as transfer credit by the EAC Registrar
Students must maintain a 2.0 cumulative grade point average (GPA). Passing (P) grades do not count toward GPA but do count as completed coursework. Withdrawals (W) and Incomplete (I) courses do not count towards GPA. The GPA calculation includes all remedial and college-level coursework.
Students must complete their program of study in a 150% time frame. Transferred credit hours, as determined by the Registrar, will be added to the total hours attempted and earned when calculating the completion rate and 150% time frame. A student may change majors as often as desired but 150% time frame does not renew with each major change.
The pace of progress requires students to complete a minimum of 67% of all credits they’ve attempted. The completion rate is calculated by earned completed credit hours divided by attempted hours equals completion rate.
All repeated course work will be calculated as attempted hours. In accordance to federal regulations students can repeat a failed course until it is passed. A student can repeat a passed course once to improve the grade. However, once a student earns a degree a course within the completed degree cannot be repeated for a higher grade.
Transfer credits which are accepted by Eastern Arizona College shall be counted as attempted and completed credits for calculation pace and maximum time frame. Transfer credits will not count towards GPA.