You must pass a minimum of 24 Mines credits each year (fall/spring) with a minimum 2.500 cumulative GPA to renew your scholarship.  Foundation scholarships, athletic and ROTC may have other requirements; check your award letter or the awarding department for details.  Example: You pass 11 credits in the fall term and have a 2.400 cumulative GPA.  You must pass 13 credits in the spring with a semester GPA high enough to bring your cumulative GPA to a 2.500 or above to retain your scholarship for future semesters.

If you are in your final semester at Mines, you must be at least a half-time student to keep your scholarship for that semester.  The amount may be adjusted; contact Financial Aid for information specific to your scholarship.  The 24 credit requirement does not apply because you will not be attending Mines the following term and your scholarship will not renew.

Financial Aid evaluates your scholarship academic progress in May after spring grades are posted.  If you do not meet the minimum requirements you will be notified that your scholarship eligibility has been terminated and cannot be regained through improved academic performance.  The only way to reinstate your scholarship is through a successful appeal to the Financial Aid appeals committee. Approval will be based on the circumstances that prevented you from performing at your potential, such as personal illness or family difficulties as well as your plan to mitigate these effects in the future.  Complete the Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal Form and submit with your personal statement and any supporting documentation in OnBase.

A student must make satisfactory progress toward the completion of their course of study in order to maintain eligibility for financial aid in future semesters. It is important to note that scholarships may have their own standards.  The satisfactory academic progress (SAP) standing is set at the end of each semester, including summer, once grades are finalized by the Registrar’s office. An undergraduate student may be in good academic standing with the institution, as outlined in the CSM Bulletin, but be placed on financial aid warning or termination.  It is important for the student to understand both policies. To maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress for financial aid a student must:

• maintain adequate pace toward graduation.  Students will be required to always maintain a 75% credit hour completion rate.  Pace is measured by dividing the overall credit hours earned by the overall credit hours attempted.  Transfer hours count toward attempted and completed credit hours. Example – A student who has attempted 100 credit hours and has completed 80 of those credit hours would be meeting this requirement.  This student’s pace would be calculated at 80%; they have completed 80% of credit hours attempted.  Likewise a student who has attempted 100 credits and has completed 50 due to withdrawing, failing or receiving incomplete grades in courses would not be meeting SAP due to a 50% pace rate toward graduation.
• always achieve and maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.000.
• complete all course work for graduation within 150% of the minimum graduation requirement for your program. Please visit the undergraduate catalog for information on credit hours to complete for your program. All transfer credits counted toward the completion of degree requirements will also be counted toward the maximum attempted credits.

Financial Aid Warning:  If a student does not meet either of the first two requirements, they will receive a warning notification via their Mines e-mail and will have one additional semester of eligibility in which to return to satisfactory standing. This is the student’s warning semester. If the student has not returned to satisfactory standing after this additional semester, they will be terminated from further financial aid until the satisfactory progress standards are met.  See below for further details.

Financial Aid Termination:  If a student does not meet the third requirement or has not returned to satisfactory standing after their warning semester, they will be immediately terminated from financial aid eligibility.

To regain eligibility – Probation:   When mitigating circumstances occur, such as prolonged illness, a death in the immediate family, etc., the student may appeal in writing to the Office of Financial Aid. The Financial Aid Appeals Committee will act on the appeal in a timely manner, and if approved, financial aid eligibility may be reinstated for one additional probation semester after which the student must return to satisfactory standing.  The student will be eligible to receive financial aid for the probationary semester. The Office of Financial Aid may also require an academic plan that must be followed if returning to good standing is not possible in one semester’s time.  A student may appeal the termination of eligibility only twice during his or her career at Mines. If mitigating circumstances do not exist and/or the appeal is denied, the student may secure alternative funding until the satisfactory academic requirements (see above) have once again been met.  We recommend that students register in at least 6 credit hours at Mines per semester when selecting this option.  If you have received any student or parent PLUS loan funding in the past, the lenders require students to be in at least part-time attendance to keep the loans in deferment.

Calculation Information 

• All students will be evaluated each term, regardless of whether they receive a financial aid award.
• It is the student’s responsibility to inform the Financial Aid Office of any grade changes, including a grade of incomplete, that could impact their SAP status.  The student’s status will be re-evaluated once the Financial Aid Office is made aware of the change.
• Transfer credits are included in the Pace calculation, but excluded in the GPA calculation.
• Repeat courses are counted in both the Pace and GPA calculations.  The Registrar’s office manages the grade replacement policy.
• A student’s SAP status does not change when a student pursues a new major.
• Students pursuing a second Bachelor’s degree are evaluated based on the undergraduate SAP policy; the SAP status does not reset with a new Bachelor’s degree.
• Upon completion of an undergraduate degree program and enrollment in a graduate degree program, students will begin a new SAP status of “pass”, e.g. BS to MS program.
• Courses dropped prior to census will not be included in the Pace calculation.
• Courses dropped after census will be included in the Pace calculation, whether it be one course or a complete semester withdrawal.

Maximum Time Frame

• Transfer credits are included in the maximum time frame calculation.
• Undergraduates pursuing a double major are expected to graduate within the maximum time frame.

A student must make satisfactory progress toward the completion of his or her course of study in order to maintain eligibility for financial aid in future semesters. A student is considered to be making satisfactory progress if they:

• achieve and maintains a cumulative GPA of 3.000 at the end of each semester
• maintain adequate pace toward graduation. Students will be required to maintain a 75% credit hours completion rate at all times. Pace is measured by dividing the overall credit hours completed by the overall credit hours attempted.  Example – A student who has attempted 100 credit hours and has completed 80 of those credit hours would be meeting this requirement.  This student’s pace would be calculated at 80%.  They have completed 80% of the hours he/she has attempted. Likewise, a student who has attempted 100 credits and has completed 50 due to withdrawing, receiving F or PRU grades, or receiving incomplete grades in courses would not be meeting SAP due to a 50% pace rate toward graduation.

As stated in the CSM Graduate Grading System, PRG and NC grades count toward successful completion of credits. Upon completion of a graduate degree program and enrollment in another degree program, students will begin a new SAP status of “pass”, e.g. MS to PhD program.

Financial Aid Warning:  If a student does not meet either of the requirements, they will receive a warning notification email, via Mines email address, and will have one additional semester of eligibility in which to return to satisfactory standing. If the student has not returned to satisfactory standing after this additional semester, tey will be terminated from further financial aid until the satisfactory progress standards are met.

Financial Aid Termination:  If a student does not return to satisfactory standing after being on warning, eligibility for further financial aid will be immediately terminated.

To regain eligibility – Probation:  When mitigating circumstances occur, such as prolonged illness, a death in the immediate family, etc., the student may appeal in writing to the Office of Financial Aid. The Appeals Committee will act on the appeal in a timely manner, and if approved, financial aid eligibility may be reinstated for one additional probation semester after which the student must have returned to satisfactory standing. The student will be eligible to receive financial aid for the probationary semester. The Office of Financial Aid may also require an academic plan that must be followed if returning to good standing is not possible in one semester’s time.  A student may appeal the termination of eligibility only twice during his or her career at Mines. If mitigating circumstances do not exist and/or the appeal is denied, the student may secure alternative funding until the satisfactory academic requirements (see above) have once again been met.  We recommend that students register in at least 4.5 credit hours (4 credit hours if reduced registration eligible) at Mines per semester when selecting this option. If you have received any student or parent PLUS loan funding in the past, the lenders require students to be in at least part-time attendance to keep the loans in deferment.

Calculation Information 

• All students will be evaluated each term, regardless of whether they receive a financial aid award.
• It is the student’s responsibility to inform the Financial Aid Office of any grade changes, including a grade of incomplete, that could impact their SAP status.  The student’s status will be re-evaluated once the Financial Aid Office is made aware of the change.
• Transfer credits are included in the Pace calculation, but excluded in the GPA calculation.
• Repeat courses are counted in both the Pace and GPA calculations.  Grade replacement policy is maintained by the Registrar’s office.
• A student’s SAP status does not change when a student pursues a new major.
• Upon completion of one degree program and enrollment in a next level graduate degree program, students will begin a new SAP status of “pass”, e.g. MS to PhD program.
• Courses dropped prior to census will not be included in the Pace calculation.
• Courses dropped after census will be included in the Pace calculation, whether it be one course or a complete semester withdrawal.

Maximum Time Frame

• Transfer credits are included in the maximum time frame calculation.
• Undergraduates pursuing a double major are expected to graduate within the maximum time frame of their undergraduate program.