Pharmacy SAP

The following SAP standards must be met:

• Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA)—Qualitative Component
  • A student must be in good academic standing to receive federal financial aid. Students enrolled in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences prior to Fall 2022 must earn a cumulative GPA of at least 2.500.
  • A GPA component will not be calculated for students who entered the program in Fall 2022 or later (graduating class of 2026).
• Minimum Completion Rate for Attempted Credit Hours—Pace (Quantitative) Component
  • A student must demonstrate progress by accumulating academic credits at a rate that indicates graduation in a timely manner. A student who is not progressing toward graduation at the defined Completion Rate will not receive federal financial aid regardless of his/her GPA.
  • A student must complete at least 75 percent of all cumulative attempted credit hours in order to be eligible for federal financial aid.
  • The following designations are considered to be attempted credit hours but are not considered to be successfully completed: I, J, R, U, W and F grades.
  • Courses repeated for any reason will be counted as attempted credit hours. Repeated courses with passing grades will not be counted as completed credits unless they would also appear on the official transcript.
  • Transfer credit hours posted to the official transcript record and all courses removed through the academic clemency process (Second Chance Policy (PDF)) will still be counted as attempted credit hours. Students should talk to their financial aid advisor to learn the potential impact participating in this program may have on their financial aid eligibility.

Each taking of a course counts towards the total number of attempted credit hours for SAP review purposes. However, the credits from a retaken course can only be counted once in the total number of earned credit hours. Students should be cautious when repeating courses as it can have a negative impact on pace standard and federal aid eligibility.

A student who fails to maintain the cumulative GPA and/or meet the Pace Rate standard is automatically placed on Federal Financial Aid Warning for the next registered semester.

• A student will receive an electronic notification to their UB email address regarding the Satisfactory Academic Progress standards that must be met by the end of the warning period in order to retain eligibility for future federal financial aid.
• If the student is still not making Satisfactory Academic Progress after the probationary period, he/she will become ineligible for federal financial aid until all SAP standards are successfully met.
• A student will receive electronic notification regarding the Satisfactory Academic Progress standards that must be met by a specific term in order to retain eligibility for federal financial aid.

The SAP review will take place after the semester is over and the close of term processing is completed by the Office of the Registrar. Any student that did not meet the minimum requirements for SAP will receive an electronic notification to their UB email address detailing the appeal process for mitigating circumstances. A student has the right to appeal the loss of federal financial aid eligibility only if mitigating circumstances (events totally beyond the student’s control) occurred during the preceding payment period/semester.

Some examples of appealable circumstances include: serious illness or injury of student; serious illness, injury or death of an immediate family member or guardian; being victim of a violent crime or house fire.

• The student must submit the Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeal form and required documentation by the deadline date given. Appeals received after the deadline can be automatically denied.
• A student can only submit an appeal the semester directly following their Warning period.
• Appeals are only granted once per a student’s academic career.
• A student must be registered for courses during the semester/term they are submitting the appeal for. Appeals will not be considered for students that have dropped or resigned all courses prior to the financial aid census date.
• A student is responsible for all tuition and fee charges at the time the balance is due, even if they are planning to appeal or are waiting for a response from the SAP Appeal Committee.
• The appeals are reviewed by the SAP Appeals Committee. The decisions are final and students will receive an electronic notification to their UB email address regarding the outcome. Approval of an appeal does not dictate removal of any late payment fees that may have accrued.

A student who fails to maintain the cumulative GPA and/or meet the Pace Rate standard is placed on Financial Aid Probation only if the student has had their appeal approved.

• The student will continue to receive federal financial aid for one payment period/semester (referred to as the financial aid probationary period).
• A student will receive an electronic notification to their UB email address regarding the Satisfactory Academic Progress standards that must be met by a specific term in order to retain eligibility for federal financial aid.
• If it is determined that it will take more than one semester in order to regain good SAP standing, a student may be placed on an Academic Plan, or Federal Financial Aid Contract for Satisfactory Academic Progress. This contract will outline what milestones must be met each semester in order to retain federal financial aid eligibility. The signed contract must be returned before any federal aid can be reinstated. The plan cannot be deferred to another semester. It must be signed at the time it is offered.
• If the student is still not making Satisfactory Academic Progress after the probationary period, he/she will become ineligible for federal financial aid until all three SAP standards are successfully met. No subsequent appeals are allowed.

The School of Pharmacy’s academic policies define the Maximum Timeframe for students to complete their educational program. Therefore, the Maximum Time Frame requirement not to exceed 150% of the published length of the educational program is enforced accordingly.