Academic Progress Information For Parents

What parents need to know about the Federal Student Assistance Satisfactory Academic Progress Standard to understand its implications for students.

Satisfactory academic progress for student financial aid purposes dictates that students must successfully complete a specific number of credits within a given period of time. Although the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) confidentiality policies do not allow us to release specific academic-related information to you without the written consent of your student, we encourage you to understand the student aid academic progress standard in general terms and be aware of your student's rights and responsibilities as a recipient of federal student aid.

The Penn State Federal Student Aid Academic Progress Standard is different from academic standards set by academic departments (colleges) at Penn State.

All universities that award federal student aid are required by law to have academic progress standards in place for all federal student aid recipients. The Penn State Federal Student Assistance (Aid) Academic Progress Standard encourages students to work toward an educational objective while completing their program of study within a federally determined time frame. Students who do not meet the student aid academic progress standard are not eligible for most forms of student aid.

Our office strives to make every student aware of our student aid academic progress standard. Comprehensive information is available to students on our Web site and in our print publications.