Appealing Financial Aid Suspension | Office of Student Financial Aid

Undergraduate Student Appeal

Undergraduate students on Financial Aid Suspension may submit an appeal to the Office of Student Financial Aid if extenuating circumstances prevented them from meeting the SAP requirements.
The semester appeal deadline will be included in the notification with the reason for the SAP Suspension.
Students not meeting the minimum GPA, pace of progression, or have exceeded 150% of their published program length must appeal for the reinstatement of their aid.

Basis for SAP Appeal

A student may appeal SAP suspension if there are extenuating circumstances that prevented the student from meeting SAP requirements. Additional documentation to support circumstances reported on the appeal may be emailed to financialaid@iastate.edu. The appeal will look at the student’s prior semester grades, as well as grades earned away from ISU, if applicable. Grades earned during the semester the student is appealing will not be taken into consideration when an appeal is reviewed and cannot be used to overturn an appeal decision.

SAP Appeal Process

Login to AccessPlus and select the “Student” Tab
Select “Grades&Transcripts” from the left-hand menu
Click on “Acad Intrv Slf-Asmnt” from the menu
Submit the self-assessment
Meet with your Academic Advisor after submitting the self-assessment

Returning to ISU on SAP Suspension

Students who leave ISU while on SAP Suspension are required to appeal for the reinstatement of their aid upon re-entry by submitting the Academic Intervention Self-Assessment and providing supplemental documentation. Paying out of pocket, paying with a private loan, or failure to earn academic credit away from ISU due to a non-extenuating circumstance are not grounds for appeal approval. Appeals must include the following documentation for approval consideration:

Academic transcript(s) while away from ISU that show significant, sustained improvement. The rigor of the courses taken, grades earned, and number of credit hours attempted away from ISU will be taken into consideration when the appeal is reviewed.

AND/OR

Official documentation to support extenuating circumstances that prevented the student from attempting coursework away from ISU (i.e.: medical emergency, death of a family member, serving as the primary caregiver for a family member, etc.).

Documentation to support the Academic Intervention Self-Assessment for re-entry students should be emailed to financialaid@iastate.edu.

Please note: Per Federal financial aid regulations, appeals are not automatically approved and may be denied based on failure to maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements set forth at Iowa State University.

Denied Appeals

An appeal for financial aid reinstatement may be denied for the following reasons:

Insufficient academic improvement at ISU or another institution
Appealing more than once and citing the same or similar obstacles
Failure to document extenuating circumstances
Number of appeals submitted for the same suspension reason
Lack of effort on the appeal
Exceeding the length to degree by changing majors multiple times, having one or more withdrawn semesters, and/or exceeding the allowed drop limit
Professional determination that is mathematically impossible for the student to meet SAP requirements within one year of the appeal submission date

Paying out of pocket, paying with a private loan, and/or sitting out of ISU with no academic credit earned due to a non-extenuating circumstance are not grounds for appeal approval and will not be taken into consideration when the appeal is reviewed. Denied appeals are reviewed by a committee, and the committee decision is final. Financial aid options for a denied appeal include private student or private parent loans that do not require that Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements be met for the loan funds to be disbursed to the student’s U-Bill and/or paying the U-Bill out of pocket.

Approved Appeals – Academic Plan Requirements

The Academic Plan is reviewed after one semester after an appeal is approved to determine continuation of financial aid eligibility. The maximum length of an Academic Plan cannot exceed one calendar year (e.g., Fall/Spring/Summer, Spring/Summer/Fall, Summer/Fall/Spring) to meet the minimum cumulative GPA, pace of progression, and/or maximum time frame requirements.

Financial aid will be suspended if any of the following requirements are not met while a student is on an Academic Plan:

Semester GPA is below a 2.00
Semester pace of progression is below 67%

The student will remain eligible for financial aid while on an Academic Plan if the semester GPA is equal to or greater than 2.00 and the semester pace of progression meets or exceeds 67%.

Please note: Some students may also be required to meet with the ISU Academic Success Center (ASC) to fulfill Academic Plan requirements and continue to receive financial aid. The Office of Student Financial Aid will notify students via email upon SAP approval and establishment of an Academic Plan if they are required to meet with the ASC.

At the end of the final semester of an Academic Plan, the student must be meeting all of the following requirements:

Cumulative GPA equal to or greater than 2.00
Cumulative pace of progression equal to or greater than 67%
Maximum time frame less than 150% of published program length

If any of the requirements listed above are not met, the student’s financial aid will be suspended.

Graduate Student Appeal

Graduate students on Financial Aid Suspension may submit an appeal to the Office of Student Financial Aid if extenuating circumstances prevented them from meeting the SAP requirements.
The deadline to appeal for the reinstatement of aid will be included on the targeted message in AccessPlus.