Am I on track to finish?your road to the stage

Your credits

Your degree audit (in your student portal) or your transcript has these numbers. Everything stays on this device.

Where you are

This counts credits only. A degree also needs the right classes, so check the requirement buckets below and your degree audit. Twelve credits is usually full time for aid; taking 15 a term is what gets most students to 120 credits in four years.

Your requirements

Optional. Copy the sections from your degree audit, with the credits each needs and what you’ve done.

How the aid time limits work

Federal aid has two clocks. Knowing them early means they never surprise you.

1. The 150% limit (maximum timeframe).For federal aid, you must be able to finish your degree within 150% of its published length. For a 120-credit degree that’s up to 180 attempted credits. Attempted usually includes classes you failed, withdrew from after the deadline, repeated or transferred in. Once you can no longer finish inside that limit, aid stops unless an appeal is approved.
2. Pace.Your school also checks that you complete enough of what you attempt. Many schools use about two thirds (67%), which is what keeps you inside 150%, but your school sets its own rule.
3. The Pell Grant lifetime limit.You can receive Pell for up to the equivalent of six years of full-time awards (600%), about 12 full-time semesters. A full-time semester uses about 50%. See how much you’ve used in your account on StudentAid.gov (Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Used).
4. If you’re close to a limit, ask financial aid about an appeal and an academic plan, and see Write my appeal. Check EFF Pell Grant Protector too.

These are the federal rules in general. Your school’s Satisfactory Academic Progress policy, on the financial aid website, is the one that applies to you.

Questions for my advisor

Print this page and bring it, or copy the questions into an email.

1. Can you run my degree audit with me and show me exactly what I still need?
2. Are any of my credits not counting toward my degree? Why, and can any be petitioned?
3. Which classes are only offered in certain terms, so I don't miss them?
4. Do any of my required classes have prerequisites I need to take first?
5. If I take summer or winter classes, which ones would help most?
6. Am I meeting Satisfactory Academic Progress for financial aid, including the 150% limit?
7. If I changed my major, how many of my credits would still count?
8. When do I apply to graduate, and what's the deadline?