Financial Aid Eligibility

Maintain Financial Aid Eligibility

Monroe Community College students must maintain an acceptable SAP (Satisfactory Academic Progress) in order to keep their financial aid eligibility. The term "financial aid" includes both grant and loan programs. Monroe Community College's SAP standards are within accordance with state and federal government mandates.

Students must be aware they can lose eligibility for both governed financial aid programs. Appeal options are available:

Federal Aid Eligibility Requirements

In order to maintain financial aid eligibility for such fund sources as: federal PELL grant, SEOG grant, federal work study, federal Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans students must meet the following standards:

Maintain a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA (Grade Point Average)
Must complete at least 67% of a semester's attempted credit hours. To learn more on this requirement please visit our Course Withdraw page.
Complete your degree program by the maximum time-frame, which is 150% of the program's length.
- For example, a full time student attending MCC is expected to complete their program within 2 years. If said student, is still enrolled in the same degree program for more than 3 years, they would have reached the 150% max time-frame.
Stay matriculated in a degree - seeking program and take classes associated with that program
Have not reached federal loan aggregate limits and or the PELL lifetime limit.
- PELL lifetime limit is 6 years of full time PELL disbursements
- Federal Loan Aggregate Limits
- To see if you've reached your limits, please visit the National Loan Student Database System.
Have not received a bachelor's degree (This only effects PELL)

Student Type	Subsidized Loan	Unsubsidized Loan	Total Loans Borrowed
Dependent without Parent PLUS Denial	$23,000.00	$8,000.00	$31,000.00
Dependent with Parent PLUS Denial	$23,000.00	$34,500.00	$57,500.00
Independent Student	$23,000.00	$34,500.00	$57,500.00

If a student (dependent or independent) is not eligible to borrow Subsidized Stafford loans, they can borrow additional Unsubsidized funds (these additional funds cannot exceed the previously mentioned aggregate loan limits).

State Aid Eligibility Requirements

Students who wish to receive funding from New York State Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) must maintain good academic standing and full time enrollment. To learn more about TAP requirements, please visit the Catalog & Student Handbook.

Failure to Meet Satisfactory Academic Progress Requirements

Federal Aid

Students who fail to maintain any of the following will be placed on Academic Warning.

Minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0, including remedial and repeated courses
Minimum semester completion of 67% attempted credit-bearing courses
Education program completion by 150% (3 years for full time students) of the published length of the education program

If a student on Academic Warning continues to fails to meet SAP, the student will be placed on Academic Restriction and will be encouraged to submit an appeal. The appeal gives students an opportunity to explain certain events or situations that affected their academic performance. If documentation is required to prove an event occurred, students will be allowed to upload it/them onto the appeal form. Please use the following link to learn more about the SAP requirements and appeal process.

State Aid

Academic eligibility for NYS Financial Aid Programs is determined by New York State regulations. Regaining good academic standing for MCC and federal aid may not automatically reestablish academic eligibility for NYS Financial Aid Programs. Please use the following link to learn more about New York State academic eligibility.

Academic eligibility and SAP for the Excelsior Scholarship is different. To learn more about these requirements, please visit our NYS Excelsior Scholarship page.