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Financial Aid

University of Nebraska at Omaha

Office of Financial Aid

Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy

2011/2012 Academic Year


Federal regulations require a student to maintain satisfactory academic progress in the course of study he/she is pursuing in order to receive federal financial assistance.

In order to comply with these regulations, the University of Nebraska at Omaha has established the following Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) Policy. The standards listed below are checked upon receipt of your electronic Student Aid Report and after final posting of Spring semester grades.

  1. You must be in “good academic standing” at UNO. This is defined as having an earned UNO cumulative GPA of at least 2.00.
  2. You must have successfully completed (“D” grade or higher) at least 67% of the total credit hours for which you have attempted at UNO, plus any transfer hours accepted from other schools, through the Spring 2011 semester. Grades of Failing (F); No-Credit (NC); No Report (NR), Unsatisfactory (U); Incomplete (I); In Progress (IP); Audit (AU); and Withdraw (W); are considered unsuccessful completion of credit hours attempted.
  3. If you are pursuing an undergraduate degree program, no more than 188 undergraduate credit hours can be attempted as of the end of the 2011 Spring semester. For a graduate degree program, 70 graduate credit hours is the maximum. For a doctoral program, 125 hours is the maximum. Attempted hours include both hours attempted at UNO and any transfer hours accepted from other schools you have attended. All credit hours for repeated courses will be included in the attempted hours calculation. If the number of credit hours you still need to graduate, in addition to the number of hours you have already attempted exceeds the maximum attempted hour total above, your aid eligibility will be cancelled.
  4. A course retaken beyond the first retake of a previously passed course cannot be included in the credit hour total when determining the total number of hours for disbursement of aid.

Reinstatement of Eligibility

If you fail to meet one or more of the SAP standards, you will be ineligible to receive financial aid, and will be notified by email. If you have incurred circumstances such as a death of a close family member, serious illness or injury to yourself, or other serious extenuating circumstances that you feel have significantly contributed to your academic situation, you may appeal your cumulative GPA issue (#1) or your failure to meet the 67% completion rate criteria (#2). Appeals will not be allowed for maximum credit hour issues (#3), or multiple retake issues (#4).

Appeal Procedures

  1. Appeals must be typed and submitted to the UNO Office of Financial Aid using the UNO SAP Appeal Form. The appeal should be submitted within 30 days of your SAP email notification.
  2. The appeal must provide a full explanation of why the standards were not originally met, and what changes you have made to ensure all SAP standards will be met in future semesters. Supporting documentation may be supplied with your appeal submission.
  3. No more than three appeals will be allowed per student per entire academic career at UNO.

Possible Appeal Outcomes

  1. Appeal Denied – If your appeal is denied, you will receive an email notification as to what steps you can take, if any, to regain your aid eligibility.
  2. SAP Probation – financial aid eligibility is reinstated for one semester only, with the expectation that all SAP standards will be met after that semester. Upon review, if all SAP standards are not being met in that timeframe, you will then become ineligible for aid.
  3. SAP Academic Plan – in cases where your appeal is approved, but it is not possible to meet all SAP standards in one semester, you will be prescribed an individualized academic plan. You will remain aid eligible as long as you continue to meet the plan. If you cease to meet the plan criteria before you meet the minimum SAP standards, you will then become ineligible for aid.

Click here to download the appeal form


ALL APPEAL DETERMINATIONS BY THE OFFICE OF FINANCIAL AID ARE FINAL