2016-2017 Catalog > General Information > Financial Aid > Maximum Time Frame (Pace):

Maximum Time Frame (Pace):

At Occidental, if you are a full-time, first-year student you are eligible to receive institutional and state financial aid for eight semesters of full-time study. Transfer student eligibility is pro-rated based on the number of units transferred at the time of admission. Students who require additional semesters to complete their degree are only eligible for federal assistance for no more than four additional semesters as long as they meet other progress standards and remain federally eligible.

As a full-time student at Occidental you are considered to be making adequate progress toward your degree if you complete a minimum of 12 units each semester and earn a total of 128 units by the end of your eighth semester. However, since institutional financial aid eligibility extends for only four years and graduation requirements are based on satisfactory completion of 32 units each year, students should complete 16 units per semester to graduate on-time. For federal eligibility, you must complete a minimum of 12 units per semester and 128 units by the end of your 12^th semester. Students who are eligible to graduate prior to exhausting financial aid eligibility are not eligible to continue to receive financial aid.

Repeated courses do not count as courses completed and do not contribute to maintaining SAP. Attempted courses are those for which you are officially enrolled after the last date to drop courses. Withdrawals showing as a W on your academic transcript are counted as attempted courses. All courses count in calculating a student’s academic progress, including any for which the student did not receive financial aid.

• Grades of W are counted as courses attempted and count toward the maximum time frame.
• Audited courses do not count in the calculation of attempted courses as no units are earned.
• Academic policy at Occidental states that if a student does not receive a passing grade for a course, the course may be repeated for credit. Repeating a course does not remove the original course from the academic transcript. Both the grade for the original course and the repeated course will be posted and will calculate into the student’s GPA. Both the original course and the repeated course will be considered as attempted in the calculation of “attempted courses” for purposes of determining SAP.
• Courses taken on a pass/fail basis count toward the total of attempted and completed courses.
• Transfer credits from another institution accepted by Occidental College are counted when measuring the maximum time frame to complete the degree. Occidental does not accept for credit any transfer grades lower than 2.0. Consult the Occidental College Course Catalog for information on how transfer credits are evaluated.
• Students who pursue double majors or minors are expected to complete all degree requirements within their 128 units.

Your academic records will be reviewed at the end of each semester to determine that you are making SAP. Making SAP means you must have at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA by the end of each semester and you must have made progress toward you degree as outlined below:

Minimum of: