At the end of your second year, you must have a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or better, otherwise you will be placed on Financial Aid Warning for one quarter if you are otherwise in good financial aid standing. If your cumulative GPA remains below a 2.0 after the warning quarter, you will be placed on Financial Aid Suspension and will have an opportunity to petition to regain eligibility. During your first two years, you can remain eligible for financial aid even if the cumulative GPA falls below a 2.0 as long as you are meeting the university scholarship standards to rebuild your GPA. University scholarship standards provide for a continuing academic probation status allowing you to use multiple quarters to rebuild your GPA as long as you achieve at least a 2.3 quarterly GPA each quarter. Please review the university catalog for more information about the university scholarship standards

For financial aid eligibility, you must complete 80% of your cumulative attempted credits to be on pace to graduate. All students are monitored for pace at the end of every quarter. If your completion rate drops below 80%, you will be placed on Financial Aid Warning for one quarter. If your completion rate remains below 80% after the warning quarter, you will be placed on Financial Aid Suspension and will have an opportunity to petition to regain eligibility.

Some definitions

Attempted credits -- All credits that appear on your academic history record including repeated, failed, incomplete, withdrawals (XM), and transfer credits. Pay close attention to the Registrar’s Office important dates and deadlines. The last day to withdraw from a class without incurring a “W” is the ninth day of every quarter. However, since XM grades count as attempted credits you must withdraw from a class sooner to avoid incurring an “XM” grade on your academic history record. The last day to withdraw from a class without incurring an “XM” grade is the fifth day of every quarter.

Completed credits -- Credits for which a passing grade is received such as A through D-, P, or S.

Transfer credits -- All credits transferred in to Western are considered as completed credits. For example, a new transfer student coming in with a direct transfer AA degree is considered to have 90 attempted and completed credits for a completion rate of 100%.

Here are some examples of how the 80% Pace requirement works:

Example 1: Imanue Student is a new freshman who has no transfer credits or previous credits from WWU. Imanue enrolls fall quarter for 16 credits, but needs to drop a four credit class. At the end of fall quarter Imanue completes 12 out of 16 credits for a rate of completion of 75% and is placed on financial aid warning.

During winter quarter Imanue completes 12 out of 12 credits. At the end of winter quarter Imanue returns to good financial aid standing because over the course of two quarters, Imanue completed 24 credits out of 28 cumualtive attempted credits for a completion rate of 85.7%.

Summary Table -- Example 1

Quarter	Fall	Winter
Attempted credits	16	12
Completed credits	12	12
Completion rate	75.0%	100.0%
cumulative attempted	16	28
cumulative completed	12	24
Completion rate	75.0%	85.7%

Example 2: Anothernue Student is a freshman who has no transfer credits or previous credits from WWU. Anothernue enrolls for 16 credits during fall quarter and withdraws from a four credit class. At the end of fall quarter, Anothernue completes 12 out of 16 credits for a completion rate of 75% and is placed on Financial Aid Warning for winter quarter.

During winter quarter, Anothernue completes 12 out of 15 credits for a quarterly completion rate of 80%. However, the pace requirement is based on cumulative credits. For fall and winter quarters combined, Anothernew completed 24 out of 31 attempted credits for a completion rate of 77.4%. Since Anothernue did not meet the 80% pace requirement while on warning, Anothernue is placed on Financial Aid Suspension. If Anothernue submits a petition to regain eligibility for spring quarter and the petition is approved, Anothernue will be eligible for financial aid on a probationary status.

In this example, if Anothernue had successfully completed 12 out of 12 credits during winter quarter, then the completion rate jumps to 83.7% (36 completed credits out of 43 attempted credits) and Anothernue would be back on pace and in good standing for spring quarter financial aid.

Summary Table -- Example 2

Quarter	Fall	Winter	Spring
Attempted	16	15	12
Completed	12	12	12
Completion rate	75.0%	80.0%	100.0%
cumulative attempted	16	31	43
cumulative completed	12	24	36
Completion rate	75.0%	77.4%	83.7%

Example 3: Pat Moorecredits is a new transfer student with 90 credits and a completion rate of 100% (new transfer students begin with a completion rate of 100%). During fall quarter, Pat experiences health concerns that affect Pat's academic progress and Pat only completes six out of 15 credits for a quarterly completion rate of 40%. Even though Pat only completed six credits at the end of fall quarter Pat remains on pace because Pat successfully completed 96 out of 105 cumulative attempted credits for a completion rate of 91.4%. This example shows that as students build up their completed credits, they can weather a tough quarter and still be on pace for financial aid eligibility.

IMPORTANT NOTE: although Pat is meeting the Pace requirement, Pat has not met the credit completion requirement. A long standing policy requires students to complete the minimum number of credits for which they receive aid. For example, an Undergraduate full-time aid recipient must succcessfully complete 12 credits each quarter to avoid being placed on warning or suspension. To view additional details about the Satisfactory Academic Progress policy, review the financial aid bulletin.


Summary Table -- Example 3

Quarter	transfer or prior year credits	Fall
Attempted		15
Completed		6
Completion rate		40.0%
cumulative attempted	90	105
cumulative completed	90	96
Completion rate	100.0%	91.4%

If you previously passed a course, but wish to retake it to earn a better grade you are allowed to repeat the course one time and have the repeat credits count toward your enrollment status for financial aid eligibility. Should you choose to repeat the course for a second time, the credits will not count toward your enrollment status. The number of credits you enroll in determines your enrollment status (e.g., half-time, three-quarter time, full-time). Your enrollment status affects your financial aid eligibility. An undergraduate student is at a full-time enrollment status if enrolled in 12 or more credits. Please view the financial aid bulletin to see the credit completion requirements for other enrollment statuses.

Example: Pete Repeat received a C in a four credit course. During the next quarter, Pete repeated the course for a second time to get a better grade and earned a B. When Pete repeated the course the first time, the credits were included in determining the enrollment status. However, Pete is striving to get an A in the course and repeats it for a second time. This time the credits for this course do not count in determining Pete’s enrollment status. In order to be eligible for financial aid at full-time status, Pete would need to enroll for a minimum of 12 credits in addition to the four credit class Pete is repeating for the second time.

The university has additional policies on repeating courses. Please review these policies on the Registrar's web page on Records and Grading.