Enrollment Appeals for Continuing Students
The Enrollment Appeals Committee convenes approximately six times per year to review undergraduate Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) suspension appeals, undergraduate SAP dismissal inquiries, and undergraduate and graduate tuition refund appeals. Students wishing to submit an appeal or inquiry must adhere to the dates and deadlines listed at the bottom of this page. Late submissions are not accepted.
SAP Suspension Appeal Process
Appeal forms are accepted on a rolling basis, but will not be reviewed until the Enrollment Appeals Committee convenes. A full list of scheduled deadlines and committee review dates are provided at the bottom of this page.
Form questions:
- Your basic personal information.
- Provide a detailed explanation about your last semester of enrollment, which resulted in your lowered satisfactory academic progress.
- Describe which support services you utilized during your most recent semester of enrollment and how you used them (such as tutoring, meeting with your student success advisor, counseling services, establishing accommodations, etc.). If you did not use any services, please explain why you did not utilize these supports at the college.
- What has changed since your last semester, or what will change during your next semester of enrollment? Provide an explanation of how your circumstances have changed and how these changes will allow you to perform at a satisfactory level.
- Provide a detailed plan of action, including long-term and short-term goals, that you will follow to achieve academic success.
- Provide required supporting documentation and additional information for consideration.
- Students appealing for reinstatement: Students who are completing or have completed transfer credits for reinstatement consideration must submit an appeal only after they have successfully received grades for their transfer semester(s) of enrollment. Students must upload a PDF of an official or unofficial transfer transcript, including the name/seal of the institution, the semester(s) the courses were completed, and all courses attempted with their final grades. The Enrollment Appeals Committee will not consider appeals with missing transcript information.
Appeal decisions will be sent by the dates listed in the calendar at the bottom of this page.
SAP Dismissal Inquiry Process
SAP Dismissal from Berklee is considered final, and inquiries should describe highly extenuating circumstances which prevented a student from being academically successful in their most recent semester of enrollment.
Inquiry forms for undergraduate are accepted on a rolling basis, but will not be reviewed until the Enrollment Appeals Committee convenes. A full list of scheduled deadlines and committee review dates are provided at the bottom of this page.
Dismissed graduate students should appeal to graduatestudies@berklee.edu for further enrollment and aid consideration.
Form questions:
- Your basic personal information.
- Explain in detail any extenuating circumstances impacting your ability to successfully fulfill all terms of your Academic Recovery Contract or meet Satisfactory Academic Progress.
- Describe any academic progress since your last semester of enrollment, if applicable.
- If you are inquiring about your academic dismissal after one or more semesters away from the college, please provide details of your academic and/or professional progress since you were last enrolled. Be sure to include any personal accomplishments that you wish to be considered.
- Reflect on your specific plans to significantly improve prior academic difficulties.
Inquiry decisions will be sent by the dates listed in the calendar at the bottom of this page.
Tuition Refund Appeal Process
Appeal forms are accepted on a rolling basis, but will not be reviewed until the Enrollment Appeals Committee convenes. A full list of scheduled deadlines and committee review dates are provided at the bottom of this page.
Form questions:
- Your basic personal information.
- Explain the reason for your request.
- Provide a detailed description of your current academic standing. This description should include information about how many additional semesters you may need in order to complete your degree requirements.
Examples of Required Documentation
Students are responsible for providing documentation that meets the standards listed below. In the event that a student is unable to secure documentation prior to an appeal deadline (for instance, appointments with a medical provider are unavailable until after an upcoming deadline), they may submit an a personal statement in lieu of this documentation. However, the committee may not come to a final decision until the documentation is provided by the student at a later date.
| Examples of Extenuating Circumstances | Examples of Supporting Documentation |
| A student's physical, mental, or emotional illness or injury. | Documentation from a medical provider, or a personal statement if medical documentation is not immediately available. |
| Loss of a family member or close significant person in a student's life. | A copy of an obituary or death certificate and a personal statement. |
| Illness, accident, or injury of a family member or significant person in a student's life. | Documentation (for instance, a letter from a medical practitioner, a police statement, hospital documents) related to the individual, and a statement from the student about how this incident impacted their studies. |
| Natural disaster | A personal statement and written documentation of the event (a news article, insurance paperwork, police statement, etc.). |
| None of the above | A personal statement detailing why you feel that continued enrollment and aid eligibility should be considered for your situation. |
Standards for Acceptable Medical Documentation
In order for medical documentation to be considered acceptable, it must meet the following criteria:
- Must be from a U.S.-licensed medical doctor (doctor of osteopathy, doctor of medicine, or licensed clinical psychologist),
- Must include doctor’s signature and medical license number,
- Must be current and on official stationary from a doctor’s office or a hospital,
- Must include the semester for which the letter is applicable (fall, spring, summer),
- Must include the diagnosis and severity of condition or illness,
- Must include a statement that the medical condition/illness warranted withdrawal,
- Must include specific types of coursework that may have been affected by or exacerbated the diagnosed condition or illness.
Appeal Escalation
In rare cases an appeal may be escalated for additional review. This may occur for two reasons:
- The student provides new information or documentation not contained in the original reviewed appeal. New information should be sent to the attention of the chair of the Enrollment Appeals Committee at enrollment@berklee.edu and can only be considered if received prior to the check-in deadline for a given semester of enrollment.
- A student believes their due process rights, as described below, were not honored. Specifically, was the student:
- Provided an unbiased tribunal?
- Provided notice of the proposed action (academic suspension/dismissal) and reasons for it?
- Provided the opportunity to supply reasons for why the proposed action should not be taken?
- Issued a decision based exclusively on the appeal materials presented and the information contained in the student's educational record?
- Provided notification of the appeal decision?
Due process appeals should be sent to the attention of enrollment@berklee.edu and can only be considered prior to the check-in deadline for a given semester of enrollment.
Please note, requests to revisit an appeal decision based solely on dissatisfaction with the outcome will not be considered. We are obligated to give students final answers on their cases in a timely manner and have set up a system which accomplishes that goal.