Financial Aid Policies

Federal regulations require Title IV financial aid funds to be offered under the assumption that a student will attend the College for the entire period in which federal assistance was offered. However, in the event a student withdraws from all courses for any reason, including medical withdrawals or stops attending class, the College is required to determine if the student has fully earned the awarded Title IV aid. The return of funds is based upon the premise that students earn their financial aid in proportion to the amount of time in which they are enrolled. A pro-rated schedule is used to determine the amount of federal student aid funds he/she will have “earned” at the time of the withdrawal and return the “unearned” disbursed funds to the appropriate federal program.

Financial aid is available only for courses within a student’s program of study. Financial aid may be limited for students who are nearing completion of their degree/certificate program.

For one time only, financial aid will cover a repeated course that has been previously passed. For this purpose, passed means any grade higher than an “F,” regardless of any school or program requiring a higher qualitative grade or measure to have been considered to have passed the course.

A student may be repeatedly paid for failing/withdrawing from a course. However, if a student passed a course once, then is repaid for taking it, and fails or withdraws the second time, that failure counts as their paid retake, and the student may not be paid for retaking the course a third time.

If a program of study requires students to retake all the coursework for a term in which a student fails a course, any courses retaken that were previously passed in this case are not eligible for Title IV aid.

Financial Aid recipients must make SAPFA in order to retain financial aid eligibility. The standards for SAPFA are specific to the financial aid program and are both qualitative and quantitative.

The standards measure a student’s cumulative grade point average (CGPA) and their “incremental” progress in terms of completing a minimum amount of work at stated intervals.

When a student is reviewed for SAPFA, all credits in all the student’s enrollment periods at Great Bay Community College are included in the review. This includes ALL enrollment periods regardless of whether the student received financial aid or not. All academic history at Great Bay is included in the SAPFA review, even approval under the college’s academic amnesty policy does not remove that academic history from review. SAPFA is reviewed by the Financial Aid Office at the end of each semester.

A student must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average (CGPA) as noted below to meet the SAPFA standards.

A student must successfully complete at least two-thirds (67%) of the total credits they attempt throughout their academic career at Great Bay Community College. All attempted credits will be included in the quantitative calculation. 

For example, a student who has enrolled in 36 credits throughout his or her academic career at The College must pass at least 24 credits in order to meet SAPFA standards.

A student may receive student federal aid for any attempted credits towards his or her program of study as long as those credits do not exceed 150% of the published length of the student’s program of study.

For example, a student enrolled in an eligible 24-credit certificate program may receive financial aid for up to 36 credits attempted. Likewise, a student enrolled in a program of study that requires 64 credits to earn the degree can receive student federal aid for a maximum of 96 credits attempted.

The qualitative and quantitative components of the SAPFA policy will be reviewed at the end of each semester of the student’s program of study.

Academic Periods Included in the Review

In general, all coursework at Great Bay Community College is considered when determining SAPFA. This includes periods when the student did not receive financial aid funds, and periods for which the student has received academic amnesty.

There are some exceptions. Please refer to the table below for a breakdown of how each type of course or credit is treated in the review.

*Only the most recent attempt of the repeated course is counted in the Cumulative GPA. Credit for a course can only be earned one time.

Students who meet SAPFA standards are making Satisfactory Academic Progress for Financial Aid and retain eligibility for student financial aid for the following semester.

Students who do not meet SAPFA standards will be placed on warning for one semester. At the end of the warning semester, the student’s record will be reviewed. If the student meets SAPFA standards, the student will be eligible for student financial aid for the following semester.

If the student does not meet SAPFA standards, the student will be ineligible for future financial aid unless they submit an appeal. 

The student may appeal an ineligible decision by completing and submitting the SAPFA Appeal/Academic Plan Form (PDF), and carefully following the instructions on the form to include the following information:

• Student name and ID#
• Circumstances which prevented the student from making SAPFA in the past
• An Academic Plan which describes how the student will regain SAPFA in the future, and complete his or her academic program within the maximum timeframe component (see above)

If the appeal is granted, the student will be eligible for financial aid for the following semester but will be on SAPFA probation.

At the end of the probationary period, the student’s record will be reviewed again. Students meeting SAPFA standards will be eligible for financial aid for the following semester, if they meet all other eligibility standards.

Students not meeting SAPFA standards will be ineligible for financial aid at Great Bay Community College. Financial aid eligibility may be regained by meeting published SAPFA standards.