S tudents must be mindful of the classes they drop if they want to keep their financial aid.

Under the current method for determining financial eligibility taking the option to drop, audit, or failing has equal negative consequences. The decision to implement this method was reached in December 2007 for all colleges in the University of Alaska system. Basically, the method is needed in order to stay in compliance with the national standards. It was implemented for the spring semester for students who already have a red flag.

The new method of SAPs (satisfactory academic progress) or method for determining financial eligibility is now being based not only on GPA but by dividing the credits we earned by credits we attempted. Under this new policy a student can have a good GPA but still be considered financially ineligible, for example, they have 21 earned credits total and 29 attempted total which means they have earned a total of 72% of the credits they enrolled in. To be academically eligible they need to have earned 75%. The students then need to put in an appeal with financial aid to get funding for the semester. The student will then be financially inellegible until his overall pass rate is increased to 75% or better. Overall, means every class the student took will be used to tally the average even the classes taken before this method was implemented.

What this means for us as students is that we have to be very careful with class selection. Don’t pick a class unless you know you can handle it. Do your research and talk to other students about the class material and the teacher. Before dropping, calculate if it will affect your semester and/or overall SAP and talk to your advisor. You may also pick up a late start class to help improve the semester SAP. In the end you might haveto fight tooth and nail for a D which is bad for your GPA but at least you won’t have to risk an appeal with financial aid.