Calculating the Financial Aid Status

Calculating the Financial Aid Status

Your Financial Aid status is calculated using your entire academic record from all schools attended, even if you did not receive financial aid. This includes dual-enrollment credits from high school.

• Newly admitted transfer students, your Financial Aid status is calculated based on final academic transcript(s) from all schools attended, which may result in warning or ineligible status.
• Newly admitted graduate students financial aid eligibility is determined based on previous graduate/professional credits.
• If your Academic standing is (Dismissed) or/and your Financial Aid status is ineligible (Suspended or Termination), you must pay all expenses for enrollment by the payment deadline

Grade Calculation Details

*Issuance of “I” Grades:

Instructors may issue an “I” or “Incomplete” grade to students who, for legitimate reasons, have not completed coursework at the time final grades must be submitted. At the time the request is made, the student must be passing the course with the required minimum grade for the course. At the discretion of the instructor, an “I” grade may be given to a student who is experiencing extraordinary personal challenges but who has not formally requested an Incomplete grade.

The “I” grade is similar to an “F” grade until it can be resolved or revert back to a letter grade. An incomplete grade can last up to six weeks into the following semester. At such time that the grade change is made, the student’s financial aid eligibility status will be reevaluated and the updated status will be recorded. It is the student’s responsibility to notify the Office of Financial Aid of the approved grade change once the grade has been updated by the Office of the Registrar.

**Repeated Courses As per federal policy, courses being paid for using federal financial aid dollars, and which are successfully completed with a grade of "D" or higher, can only be repeated once. For courses repeated, only the most recent grade is included in the student’s cumulative GPA. However, each time a student attempts a course, even if that course is part of a forgiveness or amnesty policy whereby credits attempted and grades earned in prior semesters are excluded from the GPA, it must be included as part of the cumulative attempted credit record for the measuring of pace of progression. Therefore, repeated courses, regardless of the prior grade, reduce a student’s capacity to meet the pace of progression standard. See the Universities Course Repeat Policy for further clarification.

Financial Aid policy allows for a student to receive Title IV funds for retaking a course he or she has 3 failed (“F”), and if a student withdraws before completing the course that he or she is being paid Title IV funds for retaking, that is not counted as his or her one allowed retake for that course. However, if a student passed a class once, then is repaid for retaking it, and fails the second time, that failure counts as their paid retake, and the student may not be paid for retaking the class a third time.

Transfer Credit Hours

All students attending Bethune-Cookman University institution are required to stay within the maximum time frame of 150% of program pursued that is required by federal regulations. Transfer credits that are accepted and that count toward a student’s degree do not count in the calculation of the GPA, however will be included in the calculation of both attempted and earned credit hours (In other words, transfer credit hours are only included in the pace of progression calculation and not GPA or Maximum Time Frame calculation).

Minor

Student’s seeking a minor while completing an undergraduate program cannot exceed maximum time frame of 180 credit hours. If the student has exceeded maximum timeframe, the student may apply for loans to complete the minor.

Second Bachelor’s Degree or Second Master’s Degree

Student’s seeking a second undergraduate or second graduate degree must appeal in order to receive federal financial aid. A student must be able to graduate with a second bachelor’s degree without going over a total of 225 undergraduate hours and have a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA. All undergraduate hours, including the hours used to earn the first bachelor’s degree will be included. A student must be able to graduate with a second master’s degree without going over a total of eighty-one (81) graduate hours and have a minimum cumulative 3.0 GPA. All graduate hours, including the hours used to earn the first master’s degree will be included.

• Students seeking a third Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree are not eligible for federal aid.
• Doctorates are considered terminal degrees thus no federal aid is available for additional degrees.

Change of Major:

If a student changes majors, the hours from the previous major that count towards the student’s new degree requirements are included in the calculation of attempted and earned hours. It is the student’s responsibility to request a financial aid review when a major has been changed.