Financial Aid Appeals

To appeal your satisfactory academic progress (SAP) status, you must submit an appeal form detailing the extenuating circumstances that contributed to not meeting SUNY Orange's SAP Policy. 

Considerations for appeals exist if you had:

• A severe illness, medical condition, injury, or other medical emergency
• Traumatic life altering experience, including financial, and/or personal catastrophe
• The death of a parent, spouse or immediate family member
• Domestic Violence
• Involuntary call to active military duty
• Other extenuating circumstances beyond the control the student (case by case basis)

The following are not considered extenuating circumstances beyond the student's control:

• Not knowing the deadline or procedure
• Work conflicts
• Incarceration resulting from a guildity verdict
• Voluntary overtime
• Not needing or wanting a class, not doing well in a class, or having too heavy of a course load
• Difficulty adjusting to college life

Supporting documentation is required with all appeals to substantiate your claim of extenuating circumstances. Appeals submitted without supporting documentation may be automatically denied. Here are some examples of supporting documentation:

• Letter from a physician or counselor on letterhead indicating the dates you were under their care
• Copy of a death certificate, obituary or third-party documentation of death
• Accident reports, police records, court records, etc.
• Voluntary overtime
• Not need or wanting a class, not doing well in a class, or having too heavy of a course load

Submitting an appeal does not guarantee approval to reinstate of your eligibility for receiving financial aid. In addition, letters from physicians, counselors, or third-parties must clearly state the situation is under control and will not be a cause of future failures to meet the SAP policy. Please note you can not use the same circumstance for more the one appeal.  

Appeal Form(s)

The appeal form(s) you are required to complete will be posted on your mySUNYOrange Banner Self-Service financial aid outstanding requirements. If you are unsure how to check your outstanding requirements, please review our step-by-step guide here: How to Check your Outstanding Requirements. Please only submit the form that is being requested.

Appeal Form for Federal Aid (T4A)
Appeal Form for State (SAA)
FED150 Satisfactory Academic Progress Review Request (F150)

Deadlines

SAP appeal reviews may take a minimum of 7 to 15 business days to review.  During busy times of the year, reviews may take longer. Submitting an appeal does not guarantee approval or reinstatement of financial aid eligibility.  Appeals submitted after the deadline will automatically be denied for that term.

SUMMER SEMESTER:  July 1st
FALL SEMESTER:  October 1st
WINTER/SPRING SEMESTER:  March 1st

Submitting an appeal does not automatically save your courses from being dropped for non-payment.  Payment arrangements must be in place by the deadlines posted on the Student Accounts Payment Deadline website or you may be dropped from your upcoming courses.  Classes will not be held due to an appeal pending review.

SAP Appeal Approval

Appeals can only be approved if the Financial Aid Appeals Committee determines that the student will be able to meet SUNY Orange’s Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) policy after the next payment period.  If an appeal is approved, the student must sign an appeal agreement which outlines their academic plan & conditions in order to meet our SAP policy.  The appeal agreement will ensure that the student can meet the college’s satisfactory academic progress guidelines by a specific point in time. 

Appeal agreements, in most cases, are for one semester only. You will receive aid on a conditional basis and this is known as the probationary period. Depending on the situation, a multi-semester plan may be needed.  Multi-semester plans are not guaranteed and are at the discretion of the appeals committee. 

Students who fail to meet the conditions outlined in their individualized appeal agreement during their conditional semester will not be allowed to submit a subsequent appeal.

Appeal Limits

Students are limited to the number of approvals they are allow to.  T

For federal aid, students limited to two (2) appeals while attending SUNY Orange.  Student who have already received their two appeal approvals will automatically be denied. 

For state aid, there are two types of waivers: Good Academic Standing Waiver and C-Average waivers. 
New York State permits only one (1) Good Academic Standing Waiver at the undergraduate level and one at the graduate level.  This applies to all institutions attended.

Unlike the good academic standing waiver, it is possible, should circumstances warrant it, for a student to receive more than one C-Average waiver. In order to maintain eligibility, a student must have a minimum GPA of 2.0 after receiving two academic years, or 24 points, of TAP. TAP points used at other institutions count toward the 24 points. Therefore, a student who has used TAP at another New York State college will reach the 2.0 GPA standard faster than a new student at SUNY Orange who has not previously received TAP at any other institution.