Denied Financial Aid After Academic Suspension Return at Carleton College. Has Anyone Else Dealt With SAP Appeals?

Paying for College
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Denied Financial Aid After Academic Suspension Return. Has Anyone Else Dealt With SAP Appeals?

First time user , so I don’t know how to use this platform.

I’m wondering if anyone else at Carleton has dealt with multiple SAP (Satisfactory Academic Progress) appeals and has any advice.

During my freshman year, I became seriously ill with a respiratory illness and had to take a medical leave of absence. When I returned in Winter Term, I did well academically, but because of the leave, I was notified that I had not met SAP requirements. The Financial Aid Office asked me to submit an appeal, which I did with documentation from my doctor. The appeal was approved and my aid was reinstated.

Later, I struggled academically and was eventually academically suspended after failing one class in a term. I spent the required two terms away from Carleton, took courses elsewhere, and successfully transferred those credits back.

As I prepared to return, Financial Aid informed me that I needed to submit a second SAP appeal because my completion rate was below the required 67%, even though my GPA met the standard. I submitted documentation regarding the circumstances that led to my suspension, including medical documentation related to mental health conditions.

The appeal was denied. The reasoning I received was that the committee viewed my circumstances as similar to my previous appeal and felt that I had not adequately used campus resources following my earlier medical leave.

I appealed again, explaining that my first appeal involved a respiratory illness while the second involved mental health conditions, which I argued were distinct circumstances. I also provided evidence that I had used campus resources. The response I received stated that while the committee recognized the seriousness of my health challenges, I still failed to meet SAP requirements despite knowing about available resources. As a result, I was denied aid for the upcoming academic year.

I was also informed that aid might have been possible if I had been approved to overload credits for two terms in order to restore SAP more quickly, but the academic committee denied that request.

Has anyone gone through something similar? Were you able to successfully challenge a SAP denial or find any alternative options? I’m trying to understand whether there are any paths forward at this point.

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Have you considered hiring a disability advocate? I don’t have experience dealing specifically with Carleton in this kind of situation, but my D22 had a long struggle at her private selective university to obtain health accommodations, and I don’t think she would’ve been successful without an outside consultant. One of her specific requests involved the cost of the meal plan - her school required a very expensive comprehensive meal plan for on-campus residents, but due to various medical issues, she wasn’t using the meal plan at all and instead relying on a grocery list provided by her dietician. She requested that the school allow her to drop down to the commuter student meal plan, which was about half the cost (still a great deal for the school, since she was eating $0 worth of food). They refused, and it took a meeting between the school reps and the disability advocate to get it approved.

These consultants are very well-versed in all of the relevant disability laws and regulations, including often-overlooked state and local regulations that may give you more rights than you realize (especially in a blue state like Minnesota). Our daughter’s advocate was very helpful in providing strategic guidance about how to frame and present her requests and also attended certain meetings alongside her when circumstances warranted. It is an out-of-pocket cost, but it wasn’t exorbitant even for our financial aid family, and it was well worth it in the end.

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SAP policies are required to be established in line with federal regulations, and they must be enforced for all students. This can become problematic when you have an unusual case. My advice is to schedule a meeting with an academic counselor to determine if there might be a path forward. You should also request a meeting with a representative from the SAP committee to better understand whether you have any options to reinstate your financial aid now. You may need to enroll without financial aid to prove yourself before regaining eligibility (but it’s not retroactive). This may not be possible for you from a financial standpoint. It’s important to get meetings set up right away so you will know the outcome as soon as possible.

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This was the situation with my students as well. They were required to maintain a certain grade point average but they were also required to pay for, at least, a year of studies on their own.

They had to show use of the university’s resources.

Everything was documented on spreadsheets including:

  • Office hours visits
  • Tutoring center logs
  • Academic advisors’ meetings
  • Published study sessions hours

According to my friends, in admissions offices at several colleges, the universities spend a good amount of money on support services and resource staff to help students do well.

When those services are not utilized until the end of the quarter or semester, then the resources are underutilized and at times, pointless.

Funding is finite at all of the universities. They want to target those few dollars towards students who they know have actively pursued university resources to be successful. Sometimes, these committee members check to see which students are going to their academic advisors and to the resource centers. They know the names of the students on academic probation. It’s easy enough for them to check.

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