Now that you’ve received your financial aid, you’ll want to make sure that you keep it. We call this maintaining eligibility. And your best bet for staying eligible is to learn as much as possible about the aid you receive and do everything you can to keep it.
Initiating Attendance & Academic Engagement
To satisfy the initiation of attendance requirement, students must attend or participate in academically related activities for each class in which they are registered within the first two weeks of the term. For this purpose, class attendance/participation at Portland State University is defined as engaging in a class related academic activity.
What are academically related academic activities?
For the purpose of this policy, academically related activities may include, but are not limited to one or more of the following:
- Attending a scheduled class, lecture, recitation, or field or laboratory, in-person or online, where there is an opportunity for direct interaction between the instructor and students
- Submitting an assignment, taking a quiz, completing an interactive tutorial, or other digital instruction
- Participating in a study group or group project that is assigned by the instructor, if the instructor can monitor and confirm the participation
- Participating in an online discussion about class related academic matters
- Contacting a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course after the course has started
- Contacting instructor when attendance in the first few class meetings is not possible in order to discuss class material and strategies for keeping up in the class.
For the purpose of this policy, other activities that do not represent academically related activity include, but are not limited to:
- Physical presence on campus alone (but not in the specific class)
- Logging into an online class without active participation
- Participating in counseling or academic advising
- Participation in campus residence activities, a meal plan, the recreation center, or other non-academic activities .
Maintain Satisfactory Academic Progress
As a financial aid student you are required to make Satisfactory Academic Progress every term that you enroll. At PSU that means that you must maintain a cumulative GPA of at least a 2.0 and pass at least 2/3s of your attempted credits every term. If you cannot maintain your GPA and pass rate, you may lose access to your financial aid and have to go through the appeal process. Review the Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements and ensure you understand your obligations as a financial aid student.