Students at most colleges and universities are expected to maintain a minimum level of satisfactory academic progress in order to receive and retain need-based financial aid. Both institutional (the word commonly used to refer to a specific college or university) and federal academic rules are almost always referred to as an aid office's "Satisfactory Academic Progress" -- or SAP -- regulations.

Grade point average (GPA) and credit hour requirements vary depending on the type of aid a student receives. Generally speaking (again, for most - though not all - schools) merit scholarship recipients are expected to maintain an overall B average.

For need-based federal aid, federal regulations require a minimum 2.0 GPA and 12 credit hours per semester for full-time students. In addition, federal regulations mandate that federal financial aid may not be extended to any undergraduate student who takes longer than 150% of the published length of his or her program of study.

For the Federal Perkins Loan, Federal Supplemental Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), and Federal Work Study Program (FWSP), these awards require a student to achieve a minimum C (2.0) or better GPA, while also registering for and completing the number of credit hours for which a student's budget and award(s) were based. For example, full-time undergraduates must complete a minimum of 12 credits.

For the Federal Pell Grant, recipients must achieve a C (2.0) or better GPA in the number of credits on which their payment was based:

Full time: at least 12 credit hours per semester
Three-quarter time: 9-11 credit hours per semester
Half-time: 6-8 credit hours per semester
Less than half-time: 1-5 credit hours per semester

Check with your student's college for the specific institutional regulations as they apply to school-specific loans or grants. The same federal rules should be recognized and followed at any school that participates in any federal aid program.