What are university's communication responsibilities regarding Financial Aid?

Paying for College
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On the issue of the individual university’s responsibilities (thus student’s rights) on the issue of communication?

But let me say up front that the situation that has motivated this email has been addressed and the mistake will not occur again. This post is on the more general issue of communication.

(1) The university publishes a two-page document titled Satisfactory Academic Progress Standards that purport to explain its policies in determining SAP required for maintaining eligibility for financial aid. The PhD educated parent misunderstands this document (on the issue of “percentage of total attempted hours that are completed”) which results in registration choices that cause the student to declared ineligible. Importantly, the frontlines financial aid helpers at the university also are unable to explain the confusion with the document.
Question: What are the university’s responsibilities regarding the communicating of these SAP standards?

(2) University financial aid office calculates SAP at the end of each semester. The first time that a student fails to meet a SAP threshold, the student is categorized as being on Warning status and this status is communicated with a single email. It is not posted anyplace on the student’s online account. Really, not posted anyplace at all.

(3) The second time that a student fails to meet the SAP standards, the student is categorized as being on Probation, is no longer eligible for financial aid, and again, this new status is communicated in a single email. It is not posted anyplace on the student’s online account, except if one looks very hard, under one of the approximate 8 financial aid tabs, IF the student is currently enrolled, it will indicate that the financial aid was denied.

The student has no recollection of ever receiving either email and after an extensive email search (by the parent), no email could be located. While this does not mean with 100% certainty that the student never received either email, it is concerning.

Is this method of communication acceptable? Email is notoriously unreliable. Students are known for “missing” single email notifications. At this university, even some university-generated emails go right into spam. Can the university be pushed to provide better, more reliable information to its students? Are there any federal guidelines that could be used to persuade the university to make simple changes?

There IS easily visible information at the student’s online account concerning overall academic standing and any financial holds on the account. WHY would a university fail to communicate better information of such critical importance?

Really, I am looking for experiences of other families and wondering if the Feds have guidelines on communication responsibilities. To repeat - The particular situation for this specific student occurred due an unfortunate intersection of an important misunderstanding for a new transfer student. It will not happen again. Lesson learned. FYI, the student has a good GPA.

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I’ll give my opinion.

First…I’m glad this situation was a misunderstanding…and was cleared up for your student.

It is the student’s responsibility to understand the SAP guidelines at their school. Any student whose GPA or number of courses/hours completed is low…needs to be very aware of the potential consequences. The financial aid office should be able to accurately answer any questions.

Surely any student should know that his academic stats are not very good. They got a report card at the end of first term…and the GPA likely was pretty low or they wouldn’t have been put on probation. Wouldn’t the student realize there was an issue…some awareness on the part of the student and parents?

Then…second time…this student clearly did not make sufficiently high grades to bring the GPA up…or didn’t complete enough courses. Again…was wouldn’t be a surprise to the student.

Even without an email…or two or even five…this student should have been painfully aware of their lack of satisfactory progress. Simply put…they were not doing very well in their courses at all.

With regard to emails…how many emails Would you expect a student to expect to receive? You say this info was clearly visible on the students online account. So…if the student was doing poorly…perhaps the student should have checked there. Or given the parent access to this account so the parent could check.

It sounds like you feel the college bears some responsibility. But my opinion is…your student really needed to bear the responsibility for doing well enough in his courses to maintain his financial aid status. He was not doing well…and he should have been very aware of that…all along.

Each school has its own SAP guidelines and appeals processes, etc. The only thing that the feds say is…if the student doesn’t meet SAP, they can’t get aid until they do.

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I agree that the onus is on the student to understand the credit hours and grades needed for their FA.

I’m also very glad that it all worked out for your student as I’m sure transferring to a new university with different policies could make things challenging.

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I think it would be helpful if the academic advisers knew more about the financial aid requirements because I think students get into trouble by picking the wrong classes and not knowing the consequences of dropping a class. If they at least had to give a warning to the student that this change MIGHT have financial aid consequences and the student has the responsibility of looking into it, it might prevent a disaster. Flashing lights on the drop/add page? Requirement to have FA sign off on withdrawals?

My daughter got some kind of a notice that her gpa had dropped below a 3.0 and she was losing her merit scholarship. She had looked into it, written the appeal, and had it reinstated before I even knew about it. This is not a kid who is good at those kinds of things so it must have been made very clear to her in an email.

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The student knows how well (or not so well) they are doing. The student is responsible for understanding the rules of the game for keeping their financial aid. The staff at the college should also understand the rules and be ready to explain them to any student asking for clarification (so you do have beef here).

Emails are, IMHO, much more reliable than snail mail. The exception is that an email may get identified as spam. One should check their spam folder once in a while to at least see the titles of those emails.

Many email systems will automatically and permanently erase emails in the spam folder. Check the dates of the mail that is in her spam folder to see if the college’s email would have been in the timeframe of the emails that are still in the spam folder.

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@thumper1 Thanks for your detailed reply. Unfortunately, your comment is totally off the mark. Life is not always so simple.

First, the eligibility problem was not a GPA problem. NOT a GPA problem. Be clear on that. That is the easiest way to see that one is in academic/financial aid trouble and it is NOT descriptive of this situation. FYI, the student’s current GPA is a 3.0.

The university’s published guidelines on Satisfactory Academic Progress SEEM to say that transfer credits are included in the total attempted hours used to calculate “percentage of total attempted hours that are completed.” This percentage must be at or above 67% to maintain eligibility. I have a PhD and I THOUGHT the darn document said that transfer credits are included. Importantly, we had to go through GREAT length to find someone in the financial aid office to explain the misunderstanding to us. FYI, I continue to believe that the document is misleading and will be attempting to persuade the financial aid folks to edit the document to remove the ambiguity.

Here is the actual version of the story: The student transferred to XXX University, Chose to take just two classes in the first semester. One of the two classes was a repeat class - the student had taken one class at this university two years previously and had earned a DC grade. So the student chose to retake the course to replace the lower grade with a higher grade. Because transfer credits are NOT included in the calculation of that critical percentage - now the student has just registered for a course load that will DEFINITELY result in a percentage that falls below the required 67%. Neither I the PhD parent nor the student’s advisor had a clue.

The student earns a B in one course and a CB in that dastardly repeat course. GPA at XXX University is now at 2.7 give or take.

But sadly, now “percentage of attempted credits AT XXX UNIVERSITY that are completed” is at 7/11 or 63%.

University SAYS it sent an email to the student warning about the failure to meet the 67% threshold. NEWS FLASH: At XXX University, it is common for both students and faculty members find university-generated emails in their spam filters. Email is not a reliable means of communication. I am not going to argue that snail mail is a ton better, but there are other ways to communicate this status, starting with the student’s online portal.

Student and parent continue to think that the percentage is calculated with the transfer credits included. The student registers for 3 courses in the spring, one course being a weeder course in a major that the student is considering. The student is “successfully weeded” out of the course and withdraws after close consultation with the course instructor who is also the student’s advisor. Clearly the advisor was not aware that there could be a financial aid problem… At the end of this semester, the student now is at 65%, below the 67% threshold.

University SAYS it sent an email to the student on a specific date to notify that the student is no longer eligible for financial aid. This is unlikely to be true since at that point, one of the student’s two course grades had not yet even been posted. No incomplete, no nothing. It was an A but had not been posted. The professor posted the final course grade nearly 2 weeks late.

Again, no information visible at the student’s online account. If one logs in, and views the academic record, it says very clearly: ACADEMIC STANDING: GOOD. There is no indication of the separate financial aid standing. Folks can blame the student and parent all they want but this is simply ludicrous and flies in the face of XXX University’s frequent claims of concern about its relatively low graduation rates.

The student had no clue about the financial aid problem until well into the first summer session, way too late to drop a course. To add insult to injury, the moment the new summer tuition bill was generated (the original bill had been paid in full the previous month), the student’s account was put on hold, making it impossible to access the unofficial transcript or do much of anything else online.

It took two full days, multiple phone calls and two in-person meetings to figure out WHY the new bill had been generated. It took probably another 3-4 days for someone to explain the misleading information on the university’s official document titled Satisfactory Academic Progress Standards.

The situation is in the process of being resolved. However, even now, the student’s online record contains no posting of the financial aid ineligibility.

Lesson? It is a tough one. The PhD parent cannot be relied upon to decipher official documents. The university employees tasked with deciphering those documents cannot be relied upon to decipher the documents. The student’s advisor does not understand the rules (actually it was two different advisors who did not know the rules). NOBODY knows anything, the documentation is unclear, no information is posted online,sure hope you receive and notice that one email, and it is all the student’s fault and only the student and his/her family will pay the consequences.

QED.

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@momofsenior1 Good thing that the onus is on the student, in your view, because the professor PhD dad could not figure it out. Nor could those paid to figure it out.

One thing about these online forums is that it is SO easy to type out quick messages - know the rules or don’t play the game (so to speak), personal responsibility, etc etc. But the real world is more complex. Sometimes the rules are NOT clear. Sometimes perfectly decent students get caught up in these situations and it changes their entire life trajectory. I’m not being dramatic. This particular student is going to fine and would have been fine whether the bill had to be paid or not. But for MANY students, this would have been the end of their collegiate careers. Does that matter? Does anyone care? I’d argue that it matters and that we all should care. Surely, the universities themselves care, even if it is only because their graduation rates are published.

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FOLKS! Sorry to post AGAIN!!! But I really, sincerely, had a question.

Universities must comply with federal guidelines in order for their students to be eligible for federal financial aid programs.

Do these guidelines include any information about how to communicate with students? I’m not asking so that I can go “be mean” to the university. I just think that it could be useful in an effort to improve a process that is a critical element in facilitating student success.

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Again…the SAP policies are set up by each college…not the federal government…and there are not federal guidelines…except that if the student doesn’t meet SAP, they can’t receive aid.

Also, every school has a SAP appeal process…and many times things are reconciled in that process.
I understand the issue now. It was not clear in your OP.

So in this case, it was %age of courses completed…and the courses from the previous school didn’t count…and neither did the repeat course.

So basically, this student, for SAP purposes, took only one course the first semester. Is that correct?

I’m glad the the situation has been resolved for this student.

I will say…I do think a timely notification that financial aid was suspended should have happened. Apparently it did…via email. I agree with the above poster. Perhaps it went to spam…and was auto deleted because it was not read. I know…that’s not a good thing…but it does happen.

The same thing could have happened with a regular snail letter. The student could have picked it up…and not read it…or just left it in his mailbox.

You could ask you son to give you access to his email…then you could check for important notices…and check his spam folder. But really…better to encourage him to check his spam folder daily…this might not be the only important thing he missed.

ETA…SAP policies are usually for that college only. However someone should have been able to explain that to you. I think the ball drop might have been that it was hard to get an explanation once this all occurred. That shouldn’t have happened.

@kelsmom can you add anything?

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@thumper1 Thanks for your reply. On your question of how many courses taken in the fall semester: Two registered courses, one of which was a repeat. And of course, the repeat was the 4 credit course.! The result was 7 completed credits out of 11 attempted credits at the end of the semester.

I understand the “relationship” between the Feds and the individual universities. There IS some guidance coming from the Feds, however, so I wondered if there had been some sort of specific directive addressing communication requirements. Like, if it were a lender trying to repossess a house, there would be rules about communicating the late payments first.

I feel like this one little issue with one unimportant family is not the interesting story. The big story is that there are a handful of easy, low cost solutions to these communication glitches. And effective communication can improve student outcomes. It very well may be the case that there are more guidelines about communicating safety features on consumer products (for example), than exist for communicating financial aid warnings. Despite the fact that universities presumably now consider their students to be customers. .

I’m a better professor for my students having gone through lots of different sorts of trials and tribulations with my college age children.

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I didn’t not mean to come across as tart and didn’t have substantially more to add from thumper’s post, but wanted to say I was happy it worked out for your student, hence the brevity.

Your further explanation shows a disconnect between advising and financial aid as one would hope the student’s advisor would have caught the problem as well.

I wonder if it would be worth a letter to the financial aid office and the bursar to explain what happen so they can review and update their procedures? It could save another transfer student the headache you experienced.

Again, I’m very happy it worked out for your student.

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@momofsenior1 FYI, I deleted that “tart” reference" because it was harsh. Guess i did not delete it quickly enough!

I do hope to follow up in some sort of meaningful, non-confrontational way in the hopes of encouraging some changes that seem to make sense and should be easy to implement.

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Your situation was unique because you were including courses from another institution. I don’t think there is any way an adviser could know how those classes are considered for financial aid.

I don’t know if there is a program that would warn a student that only 62% of attempted courses have been completed, or even a general warning that dropping a class MIGHT result in loss of FA. I’m not sure if this information is part of the initial student loan orientation because my kids did that on their own. I didn’t even know that dropping or taking an incomplete could cause a problem with FA and I spent an insane amount of time learning FA and tax rules. I don’t have a PhD, but I’m pretty good at reading rules and regulations.

Most people aren’t paying attention to the rules about SAP. I know a student who lost his merit award because the awards required 12 courses per semester, but they have to be courses that ‘count’, no remedial courses, no repeats, no experimental courses. Well, he screwed up and dropped a class. Next semester took a class considered remedial. Oops.

Would your daughter have made another choice than to drop the ‘weed-out’ class? Perhaps the solution is before the student can drop a class, the student not only has to have the academic adviser sign off but the FA office too. The student could then decide if she wanted to drop the class to preserve the gpa or call the parent (with or without the PhD) to ask to drop the class and lose the FA.

To answer your original question, there is no requirement for FA offices send an email or letter that something will trigger losing FA, but most do. They do not send students a letter saying if you plead guilty to this drug charge you will lose FA. It still happens if you do it and the student is expected to know the rules.

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@twoinanddone I don’t understand why you think that the advisor couldn’t know how/whether transfer credits are considered in the calculation of the percentage of courses attempted that are completed. They should know just as we should have known. The SAP document is just two pages. Maintaining financial aid eligibility is critical to student retention. Advisors are concerned with student retention and they are typically the ONLY access point (for advice, guidance, etc) for students.

This student DEFINITELY would not have withdrawn from the weeder course had the information about financial aid eligibility been known. The grade was not going to be awful (probably a C). It just was not going to count for much since the major was going to change.

Advisors and students should NOT have to guess these things. The current financial aid status should be displayed clearly on the student’s online portal. Period.

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@profdad2021 The university software systems seem to be stuck in the 1990’s. How difficult can it be to flash a warning message to state that “dropping this class will result in X credits and may affect your financial aid” ? Poor communication from the universities needs to be one of the things that should be addressed to increase retention rates. They spend money for flashy enrollment and recruiting software but systems the students deal with for registration are clunky, both at my institution and at the one my kid attends (only marginally better - and that’s an R1 institution specializing in engineering and tech(!)). If there are any university administrators on this thread, please take note!

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@momprof9904 DEFINTELY!!! There is not even now any sort of alert or notification at the online portal, now that the student is (temporarily) ineligible for financial aid. That should be even easier than the warning in advance of dropping the course. Tell the students their status. Let them make informed choices. Not that difficult.

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@profdad2021 I think that nowadays email is the official means of most university communication. It is one of my main bits of advice to incoming freshmen who roll their eyes at email as communication (or listening to voicemail but that’s another thread). My Ds big state school only sent snail mail home for a few things - like a reminder to cancel housing by certain date, etc. all else came email.

She actually got one of these emails at the end of one year because a professor hadn’t turned in a grade so looked like she completed less than 30 credit hours in that year. Now it was a soft warning since if she really had dropped the ball, she had all summer to take another class. In this case it was a call to registrar or financial aid. This was for state “lottery” scholarship administered thru state. So rules were sent to us from state dept of education at beginning of freshman year.

I don’t know of any standards for how schools have to communicate.

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I don’t think the academic adviser has access to the student’s FA information. It should just be a general warning for every student thinking of dropping a class. The program the advisers use tell them the students need X number of credits and which courses are needed for a history major or an art major. It’s not designed to show if the student is losing FA, if it’s going to take 5 semesters or 6 to graduate.

My daughter dropped a class. Since some of her FA was paid per credit, that meant she lost a few hundred dollars. Not really a problem but she then had an amount due for that semester and got a late charge on it because it wasn’t paid before the deadline. Her responsibility.

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@twoinanddone Most critically, the student himself needs access to his own FA information. If there is a warning or ineligibility, that information must be conveyed. Clearly. The information must be posted clearly at the student’s online portal. The FA eligibility information should appear in the very same place that ACADEMIC STANDING is displayed. It is not complicated. But if THAT is too tough for this university, then the warning should flash as soon as the initial financial aid tab is clicked.

We can go back and forth all day long on the relative effectiveness of different modes of information (email versus snail mail), but that discussion ignores the biggest problem which is that, even today, it is nearly impossible to find even any hint of the financial aid problem on the student’s online portal.

Folks at CC are VERY big on personal responsibility. This is a life value to which we all ascribe. Yet it can be taken too far, This ignores that experts have accumulated enormous evidence of the years about HOW to convey information, what works and what does not work. There is much research on minimizing the impact of individual errors and changes have been made in many ways in our society, particularly as it relates to safety and health care… (E.g., when I had eye surgery years ago, in the 10 minutes up to the surgery, as I was being wheeled down a long hall and different pre-surgery steps were being taken, I was asked MANY times to repeat…who am I? Why am I here? What is the surgery for? And WHICH EYE??? Asked over and over and over. Were humans not prone to error, this question would not have needed to be asked.)

Additionally, this situation is not just one viewed from the individual student’s perspective. The university also has a vested interest in student success.

Finally, as it turns out, the academic advisor at this university DOES have access to the financial aid information. The information can be obtained by logging into a separate system (to which the student does not have access), a system that requires a separate log in and apparently is too much effort for advisors. But again, this effort should not be required.

And all parents should care how these things are handled, even if some parents are convinced that their offspring would never even be in that situation. Why care? First, most obvious, 'there but for the grace of God go I" Really - these administrative / information glitches do not affect you until they DO affect you. “Insiders” become “outsiders” quickly… Second, all parents of college students should care because these unnecessary situations raise costs to all students. The college’s bottom line is damaged every time it tosses aside a potential graduate, every time it creates a scenario that requires multiple student contacts / meetings / appeals. Invest a little up front, save down the road. Helps everybody.

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I asked my friend who is a professor at a directional NY state university and an academic adviser if she gives FA advise when a student wants to drop a class or take an incomplete. She said she does NOT have access to the financial aid portal or the ‘what if I drop this class’ type of calculation, but she advises her student to go to the FA office before making any final decision. She doesn’t even know if the student has financial aid to worry about losing and can’t ask. She just tells them to go to the FA office. She warns them, they don’t listen. They don’t even need her permission to drop a class.

She said in most of her cases the most common fix is that the student takes a class in the summer and has to pay for it himself. That gets the SAP back into compliance and FA is reinstated.

SAP isn’t reviewed until the end of the semester. After the class is dropped, the file is reviewed for the NEXT term when more FA is needed. Now the student is not making SAP. The computer is not going to run the warning for all situations (drop a 3 credit class and you are okay, but a 4 credit class will put you out of compliance? you have an incomplete from last semester that hasn’t been input yet so you may be okay?) but could just have a general warning that:

‘A change in the number of course credits attempted but not finished MAY result in failing to make SAP and your financial aid eligibility could change; check with FA office BEFORE dropping a class’

I bet most students will still go right ahead and drop that class. Parents have no right to that notice. It is between you and your student to share that information.

My daughter’s portal had a graduation program and it told her what she had taken, her gpa, and what was needed for graduation in her major, but it did not say anything about SAP or financial aid. That’s the program her adviser could see. My daughter’s adviser had a PhD from Harvard but that didn’t make her good in math and it didn’t mean she knew all the ins and outs of financial aid. Her job was to advise on academic classes, not FA.