Students receiving NYS awards must show evidence of good academic standing by meeting program pursuit standards and reaching specific benchmarks of academic progress. For financial aid purposes, good academic standing consists of two elements:
Program Pursuit and Satisfactory Academic Progress. Program pursuit is defined as completing a certain percentage of degree-specific course work each term. Satisfactory Academic Progress has two components: students must accumulate credits toward the degree at a certain rate and maintain a minimum grade point average in each term a state award payment is received.
An award recipient who fails to maintain good academic standing by not meeting the program pursuit or the academic progress requirement loses eligibility for further NYS awards until he or she is reinstated in good standing. A NYS scholarship may be revoked if the recipient is not reinstated in good academic standing within a reasonable time.
A waiver from these requirements exists to provide qualified students experiencing temporary difficulty in maintaining eligibility with an opportunity to have uninterrupted participation in the state programs. Good academic standing requirements may be waived once.
Program Pursuit
Program pursuit is determined each time a NYS award is received whether the award is for full-time or part-time study. Half-time TAP awards for accelerated summer study are not considered part-time awards and are factored into the program pursuit calculation differently.
During each semester a NYS award is received, a student must complete a certain percentage of a minimum required course load. The percentage of course work that must be completed each semester becomes greater as a student receives additional payments until the point where a student is required complete the equivalent of 100% of the minimum required course load for any remaining payments.
Students receiving full-time TAP payments are evaluated for program pursuit using 12 semester hours as 100% of a minimum full-time course load. Students receiving APTS are evaluated using 3 semester hours as 100% of a minimum part-time course load.
More specifically, during the first and second semesters of State-supported study, a student must complete 50% of the minimum credits or equated credits required for that payment.
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If receiving a full-time TAP payment, a student must complete at least 6 semester hours of credit to meet the 50% program pursuit requirement.
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For APTS (Aid for Part Time Students) purposes, 50% of the minimum part-time course load is defined as 1.5 semester hours of credit.
During the third and fourth semesters of State-supported study a student must complete 75% of the minimum credits or equated credits required for that payment.
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If receiving a full-time TAP payment, a student must complete at least 9 semester hours of credit to meet the 75% program pursuit requirement.
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For APTS purposes, 75% of the minimum part-time course load is defined as 2.25 semester hours of credit.
After the fifth semester of State-supported study, and for every semester thereafter, a student must complete 100% of the minimum credits or equated credits required for that payment. Both degree credits and credit equivalents awarded for remedial work count toward fulfilling the pursuit requirement. In addition, all grades that indicate a student persisted throughout the semester are counted, including second and subsequent “R” grades received for the same course (which are taken to be the equivalent of an “F” grade when determining pursuit or progress). The grades at CUNY that do not count toward meeting the pursuit requirement are “W”, “WU”, “WA”, “WF” and “WN”.
Students receiving Part-Time TAP (P-TAP) are considered to be receiving a strict proration of a full-time TAP award. Therefore, these students are evaluated for program pursuit using the total enrolled semester hours of credit for the term in question and applying to that number the appropriate completion percentage. For example:
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A student receiving P-TAP for 9 semester hours of credit would have to complete 4.5 (rounded down to 4) semester hours of credit to meet the 50% program pursuit requirement and
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6.75 (rounded down to 6) semester hours of credit to meet the 75% program pursuit requirement.
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A student receiving P-TAP for 11 semester hours of credit would have to complete 5.5 (rounded down to 5) semester hours of credit to meet the 50% program pursuit requirement and
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8.25 (rounded down to 8) semester hours of credit to meet the 75% program pursuit requirement.
Once a student receives his or her first State-aid award, he or she is “placed” on the first step of the undergraduate level progress chart. For each full-time or part-time award received, the student moves up one step on the pursuit chart. A student who fails to meet the required percentage of completed course work may not continue to receive State program funds without first re-establishing award eligibility.
The program pursuit requirements are outlined in the chart section.
Academic Progress
To maintain award eligibility, students must meet the academic progress standard for each full-time award semester (that is, each time the student accumulates 6 payment points).
This standard has two components:
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Students must accrue a specified number of credits;
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Students must achieve a minimum grade point average (GPA).
(See charts)
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