Student Financial Aid

Undergraduate Catalog Contents
For many SMU students, scholarships and other aid make the cost of attending this distinguished private university no more taxing – and often less so – on their families’ financial resources than attending a public university.

SMU strives to provide the financial assistance required for an undergraduate education to any student who is offered admission and who has been determined by the Division of Enrollment Services–Financial Aid to have need for such assistance.

More than 77 percent of all students receive some type of financial aid. SMU has a generous program of merit-based scholarships, grants, loans and part-time jobs to recognize academic achievement and talent in specific fields and to meet financial need.

Certain special SMU scholarship and grant programs offer awards to the following types of students:
  • Entering first-year, transfer and continuing students with high academic achievement or with talent in the arts.
  • National Merit finalists and certain International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma recipients.
  • Dependent children and spouses of ordained United Methodist ministers engaged in full-time, church-related vocations.
  • Texas residents.
Primary consideration for merit scholarships and need-based financial aid will be given to the following:



To obtain additional information contact this office:
Division of Enrollment Services
Southern Methodist University
PO Box 750181
Dallas TX 75275-0181
214-768-3417
enrol_serv@smu.edu/financial_aid, www.smu.edu/financial_aid

SMU Satisfactory Progress Policy for Federal, State and Institutional Financial Aid Eligibility

The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended October 6, 1983, mandates that institutions of higher education establish minimum standards of “satisfactory progress” for students receiving federal financial aid. The standards given below are also used for state and institutional funds. Students who are enrolling for a fifth year of undergraduate studies and are seeking institutional financial assistance must provide a written appeal to the financial aid office and, as appropriate, must file financial aid applications (FAFSA and CSS/PROFILE) as well as obtain degree completion plans from their academic adviser.

Undergraduates Formal Satisfactory Academic Progress is measured at the end of the spring term of a student’s second academic year of enrollment at SMU (and at the end of every spring term thereafter) until student graduates OR, for a transfer student, at the end of a the first spring term of enrollment at SMU (and at the end of every spring term thereafter) until student graduates. Qualitative Measures and Quantitative Measures are taken. The end of each spring term represents the end of each academic year at SMU.

Qualitative Measure of Satisfactory Academic Progress. At the end of the spring term of a student’s second year of enrollment (or first spring term for a transfer student), a student must be making Satisfactory Academic Progress measured by the student’s cumulative G.P.A. of 2.0 or better since that is the standard for graduation at SMU.

Quantitative Measure of Satisfactory Academic Progress. At the end of the spring term of a student’s second academic year (or at the end of the first spring term for a transfer student) a student should have met or exceeded these yearly federal guidelines:

Year 1 – 13% – 16 hours
Year 2 – 25% – 31 hours
Year 3 – 43% – 53 hours
Year 4 – 60% – 74 hours
Year 5 – 80% – 98 hours
Year 6 – 100% – 124 hours

SMU policy (implemented end of Spring Term 2007) will measure Quantitative Satisfactory Academic Progress by determining if a student has earned 80 percent of the classes he/she attempted.

These students who are not making Quantitative or Qualitative Satisfactory Academic Progress will be sent a letter that explains what action is necessary to make an appeal. A student who is denied federal aid funds because that student is not deemed to be making satisfactory progress toward the student’s degree goal according to this policy will have the right to appeal to the Financial Aid Appeals Committee.