Pace Requirements

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
• Competed Credits
• Transfer Credits

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 cumulative attempted credits for a completion rate of 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, Anothernue 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.

Example 3: Pat Moore credits 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 successfully complete 12 credits each quarter to avoid being placed on warning or suspension. You may wish to view the Satisfactory Academic Progress policy for more information.