Maintain Aid

Meet Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) standards 

FAS has established guidelines, based on federal regulations, for evaluating the progress of undergraduate, graduate, law, and pharmacy students. You must meet these SAP standards to be eligible for financial aid. SAP standards are not the same as the academic standards of the university or of any department or professional school.

Enroll in a minimum number of hours

If you plan to maintain an enrollment of less than 12 hours as an undergraduate or 9 hours as a graduate, professional, or law student, you may still qualify for financial aid, but FAS must receive notification of your enrollment status to determine your financial aid eligibility. It is your responsibility to report your enrollment status to Financial Aid & Scholarships. Once you have updated your enrollment status, your financial aid may be adjusted; this adjustment could result in a cancellation or reduction of certain financial aid programs. 

Appeal your SAP review

If you become ineligible for financial aid because you have not met SAP standards, you may file an appeal if you believe that you have experienced extenuating circumstances. Meet with a financial aid counselor to discuss your situation and, if eligible, get selected for an appeal at ku.studentforms.com.

Within four weeks, a committee will review your appeal and any supporting documents (such as a complete written narrative and any letters of support from professors, physicians, or others involved in the extenuating circumstances), and then notify you by email of their decision, which is final and not subject to review. 

If your appeal is approved, you will review and sign an appeal decision letter with your financial aid counselor. If denied, your email will include criteria for appeal in a subsequent semester. Students with denied, incomplete, or pending appeals at the start of a semester have the following options:

• Pay your tuition, fees, housing, and other KU charges by the due date using any combination of your own funds, private loans, and alternative loans.
• Do not pay and be assessed a late payment fee for each month’s due date missed.
• Go through late enrollment and be charged a late enrollment fee.
• Officially withdraw from your classes (before the first day of classes to avoid adverse implications). If you re-enroll through late enrollment, you may not be able to take the same classes.

Adjust aid

If you drop some classes prior to the first day of class and aid has disbursed, your remaining enrollment status will be evaluated to determine if you meet the criteria for the financial aid you have received. If you do not meet the criteria, your aid will be adjusted or cancelled and you will be required to repay KU the amount for which you were ineligible.

In most cases, you are not expected to repay financial aid awards you received for the semester as long as you remain enrolled in at least six hours. However, dropping hours may affect your future eligibility for financial aid. Dropping too many hours over the course of several semesters could negatively affect your Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) status and result in you becoming ineligible for state, federal, and some institutional financial aid programs.

Repay aid

If you withdraw (drop all classes) prior to the first day of class and aid has disbursed, all financial aid will be cancelled and you will be required to repay KU. If you withdraw after the first day of class, you and the university may be expected to repay some or all of the financial aid you have received for the semester.

The date at which you withdraw determines whether you receive a KU refund, the amount of the refund, and the amount you and the university are expected to repay to federal financial aid programs, which FAS is required by law to determine. Therefore, it is not possible to accurately predict how much you must repay until you withdraw.

Provide documentation of attendance to maintain federal funds

If you are a Federal Pell Grant recipient and you drop some or all classes after the first day of class, FAS will email your instructors requesting documentation of attendance for classes dropped. If you are a federal loan recipient and you drop all classes after the first day of class, FAS will email your instructors requesting at least one hour of documentation of attendance for classes dropped. If necessary documentation is received, and you may be able to retain the funding in question. 

You will be given two weeks from the date you dropped classes to provide documentation before the next phase of account adjustment takes place. Once the Documentation of Attendance phase concludes with necessary account adjustments made, you will receive a letter from FAS indicating aid programs repaid by KU. 

Pay attention to the subsequent eBill sent by Student Account & Receivables for any unpaid balance. You may be required to repay programs directly with your own funds. If you fail to repay or to make satisfactory arrangements to repay within 45 days, you may lose your eligibility to receive future federal and state aid and be subject to collection agency involvement.

For information withdrawal, refunds, and adjustments, visit the Office of the University Registrar website.