Institutional Deadlines
Processes and File Formats
- Semester Grade Report
- Semester Enrollment Report
- Balancing Certificate Template (instructions below)
- Refund Roster Template
- Refund Roster Instructions
Submitting Grades
As stated in the General Administration Rules and Regulations:
For continuing college students, the Office accepts the overall cumulative college GPA, as calculated and certified by the registrar at the end of each term or year. The college GPA is reported directly to the Office at the end of each term by the college in a Grade Report. A student should not submit a transcript at the end of each term unless requested by the Office. The Office will not calculate GPAs, but will accept the GPA calculated by the college.
Grades should be reported by the attending institution. The attending institution is the primary institution which administers and disburses the student’s state aid.
Grades can be reported to the Office in two ways:
- All institutions are required to submit a Grade Report at the end of each term.
- Institutions may submit grades for individual students via MAAPP by clicking on the logo above.
State law requires that the GPA used to determine state aid eligibility include grades from “all college work attempted”. The law does not account for institutional policies regarding transfer grades and/or grade forgiveness, etc. Each institution should establish policies for calculating and reporting the overall cumulative GPA for purposes of state aid. An institution should employ the same method of calculation for reporting via MAAPP as for reporting via the Grade Report.
Electronic Grade Verification
A student may be asked by the Office to submit an Electronic Grade Verification.
- The Electronic Grade Verification should be submitted via MAAPP by the attending institution, unless the information is already being submitted via the Grade Report.
- If the college does not have access to the previous Spring grades or the student has experienced a break in enrollment, the attending institution should report the following MAAPP for the previous Spring term: 0.00 Term Earned Hours, 0.00 Term GPA Hours, 0.00 Term Quality Points, and 0.00 Term Pass/Fail Hours. Only the Cumulative Earned Hours, Cumulative GPA Hours, and Cumulative Quality Points as calculated by the attending institution should be reported.
- Institutions must use the same method of calculation for reporting the overall cumulative GPA via MAAPP as for reporting via the Grade Report.
Balancing Reports and Certificates
At the conclusion of each term for which aid is awarded, the Office will post balancing reports on the share portal for each institution. The Office will send an email to the state aid contact at the institution to notify them the balancing report has been posted and to provide the balancing certificate for the term. The institution should reconcile its own record of disbursements for the term with the balancing report. After reconciling, the institution should sign and return the balancing certificate. The balancing certificate MUST be accompanied by any outstanding refunds and the corresponding refund roster.
Refund Roster
Every refund MUST be accompanied by a Refund Roster. A Refund Roster template and instruction document are provided. Included in the Instruction document and on the template itself are a list of Fund codes and a list of Refund Reason codes.
15 Credit Requirement Guidance:
Student Appeals for Individual Exceptions
Students can appeal decisions related to full-time, continuous enrollment for certain reasons. See Take 15! Continuous Full-time Enrollment for more information.
Lock-step Programs Requiring Fewer than 15 Hours:
- In general, a program with a defined curriculum pathway (lock-step program) is a program in which all students in a cohort are expected to enroll in the same courses in the same sequence.
- If the institution offers a program or programs with defined curriculum pathways (lock-step programs) which require fewer than 15 hours per term, the institution should apply in writing to request an exception for all students enrolled in the program at the institution. The request should include the basic rationale, the impacted program’s name, the impacted program/major (CIP) codes, approximately how many students are enrolled and have received aid (MTAG, MESG, or HELP) in the past, and a copy of the curriculum pathway.
- Each institution should assemble a comprehensive list of programs and submit one comprehensive request, rather than multiple requests.
Nursing:
- Nursing in general does not qualify for the exception for lock-step programs.
- However, if an institution offers a specific nursing program in which all nursing students take the same courses in the same order (defined curriculum pathway), then the institution should apply for an exception for all students in that specific nursing program.
Student Teaching, Practicums, Clinicals, and other Special Terms:
- A number of different majors require students to complete a special term for student teaching, a field practicum, or clinicals.
- For these special terms, the institution should identify the students in such a term with a “T” (for student teaching), “P”(for practicum), or “C” (for clinicals) in the co-op field on the enrollment report and grade report. All identified students will be exempt from the 15 credit-hour requirement.
- Students in majors with a special term will only be exempt from the 15 credit-hour requirement during the special term, not all terms.
