Skip to Content    Skip to Footer

Maintaining Your Aid

In order to maintain your financial aid award, you must meet several ongoing requirements. Failure to do so can result in the loss of funds — and in some circumstances, you may be obligated to pay back part or all of your reward package.

Things that can have adverse effects on your financial aid include:

Some programs, such as career and technical programs measured in clock-hours, have additional requirements you must also meet to maintain your aid.

In order to ensure that your financial aid remains up-to-date, you should keep your personal info (such as your name and address) current with the Admissions and Records Office and inform the Financial Aid Office of any major changes and relevant life events, such as:

  • Changes to your financial circumstances
  • Changes to your residency status
  • Divorce of parents, or you from your spouse
  • Death of a major wage earner
  • Loss of employment of a major wage earner

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)

You must meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) eligibility standards in order to receive federal financial aid and the Florida Student Assistance Grant (FSAG). For more information on SAP requirements, see the EFSC Catalog information for Credit-Hour programs and for Clock-Hour programs based on the program you are taking.

SAP Minimum Standards

Federal and state regulations require you to meet three minimum standards in order to be eligible for financial aid funding:

  1. GPA: You must maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0.
  2. Completion Ratio: You must complete 67% of the credit hours you attempt during the academic year. This includes both transfer credit and coursework attempted at EFSC. It applies to new applicants and applicants renewing their financial aid.
  3. Time Frame: You must complete your college credit certificate or degree program within 150% of the credit hours it requires. For example, students in the 60 credit-hour Associate in Arts program lose eligibility after attempting 90 credit hours. Career and Technical Certificate Clock-Hour programs are funded for program length only. See CTC specific aid information. Because the time frame equation can vary based on individual program requirements, you should review your situation with the Financial Aid office if you have questions.
How to Check Your SAP Status
  1. Log in to the myEFSC Portal using your Titan Single Sign-On (SSO) credentials
  2. Click or tap on Titan Web → Financial Aid Services → Eligibility → Academic Progress
  3. View your SAP status along with the term it was last reviewed

If your status doesn't say "Making Progress," please contact the Financial Aid Office to ensure you understand your eligibility for financial aid.

Failure to Meet SAP Minimum Standards

The Financial Aid Office conducts an audit of your SAP at the end of each term to ensure that you are meeting the three minimum standards. If you're applying for financial aid for the first time, we'll review your entire academic record (including any transfer credits), then evaluate your SAP at the end of the following term.

Failure to meet the SAP requirements will result in one of the following:

  • Warning: If you fail to maintain a cumulative 2.0 GPA and/or a 67% completion ratio for one term, you'll receive a warning, which remains in effect until the next end-of-term review.
  • Suspension: If you fail to maintain a cumulative 2.0 GPA and/or a 67% completion ratio for two terms in a row, or if you reach your maximum number of hours (both attempted and earned), you will be denied additional financial aid and placed on suspension.

SAP Notice Distribution Dates

Appeals and Reinstatement

If you fail to maintain SAP and you financial aid eligibility is terminated, you may appeal your status under the following circumstances:

  • A death in your immediate family
  • A medical emergency or accident
  • Parental divorce or separation
  • Personal tragedy
  • Other circumstances beyond your control that prevented you from meeting the minimum standards

You may also appeal if you have exceeded the maximum time frame by providing an explanation and a description of your plan for graduation.

Appeal Procedure

To appeal a SAP decision, you must submit your request in writing using the Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal form, which is accessible through the myEFSC Portal in the Financial Aid Forms & Upload section.

Log in to myEFSC

Your appeal must clearly state:

  • The circumstances that prevented you from meeting SAP minimum standards, including documentation to support this claim (e.g., a death certificate, physician's statement, or other verifiable information)
  • What has changed that will allow you to make progress now

Once your appeal has been reviewed, we will notify you of the outcome via your Titan student email. To receive a response before the add/drop period, you must submit your appeal by the deadline for each term.

Following a successful appeal, if you once again fail to meet SAP standards during a subsequent review, you will be suspended from receiving further financial aid.

SAP Appeal Deadlines

Eligibility Reinstatement

If your financial aid eligibility is suspended and/or your appeal is denied, you may regain eligibility once again meeting the three SAP minimum standards. Once you have done so, please notify the Financial Aid Office in writing.

How Withdrawal and Enrollment Status Affect Your Aid

If you wish to withdraw from one or more courses, you must follow EFSC's official withdrawal policy—but you should be aware that doing so can have unintended consequences to your financial aid.

If you withdraw from or fail to attend either full-term or part-of-term classes (either through the official process or unofficially), you may:

Enrollment Status

If you withdraw from enough courses that your enrollment status changes to less than half-time, the remaining balance of any loans you have will be canceled.

This doesn't preclude you from applying for additional loans moving forward, but the Financial Aid Office processes only one loan per student per academic year, so please plan accordingly.

Clock-Hour (CTC) Programs

Rather than using traditional credits, Career and Technical Certificate (CTC) programs — also known as clock-hour programs — assess tuition using vocational credits, with 30 hours of attendance equaling one vocational credit.

Financial aid for CTC programs only funds the total number of clock-hours required for a single, declared program (up to 450 per term and 900 in an individual award year) and cannot be applied to courses outside of that program. Once you have received aid for the total number of clock-hours in your program, you must pay out-of-pocket for any additional coursework, such as repeat attempts at failed classes.

CTC programs are reviewed and funded on a per-semester basis. To remain eligible for vocational aid, you must do the following during each payment period:

If you have questions about financial aid for CTC programs, please contact the Financial Aid Office.