LOUISIANA STUDENT FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE COMMISSION
OFFICE OF STUDENT FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) Bulletin
TOPS BULLETIN NUMBER: T2003-9
DATE ISSUED: August 22, 2003
EFFECTIVE DATE: As Indicated
DISTRIBUTION:

College, University, and LAICU Chancellors, Financial Aid Offices, Business Offices, Registrars and Auditors, Technical College Campus Deans and Student Personnel Services Officers, System Governance, Board of Regents, Department of Education, Louisiana Officials, Louisiana Legislators, and Commission Members, Parish Branch Libraries, Loan Program Lenders and Schools

TOPIC:

Procedures for Identifying and Billing for Post Graduate Students' TOPS Awards

To assure that your Scholarship and Grant Program Rules remain current, please record this document on your TOPS Bulletin index and retain it with your manual.

Act 401 of the 2003 Regular Session of the Legislature permits a TOPS award to be used for postgraduate study, provided a student has remaining semesters of eligibility after earning a baccalaureate degree. The general requirements of this act and the procedures for implementing it are described herein.

This Act is retroactive and will benefit any student who was awarded a baccalaureate degree prior to using all terms of their TOPS eligibility and, no later than the fall semester immediately following the award of their undergraduate degree, enrolled full-time to pursue a post-graduate academic degree. Potential candidates for this award are being notified by letter from this office, (Enclosure 2), and may seek your assistance in claiming retroactive payments. Schools may also choose to identify currently enrolled students using the Master Roster code described below.

Students previously awarded TOPS, who are recorded on the Master Roster as having graduated and have remaining terms of eligibility, will have the following designation:

STATUS CODE: 41
AWARD CODE: GO (Opportunity), GP ( Performance), or GH (Honors)
PROCESS CODE: 12
OTE: Semester/term immediately following the graduation semester/term

LOSFA is currently working to get this new status code in place and anticipate that it will be available during the 2003 fall semester/term. The process code will become 12 the week the new status code is available.

The school's responsibilities will be as follows:

Act 401 further provides that a TOPS payment for enrollment in a post-graduate program in a public college or university shall be the cost of tuition and allowable fees charged for the post-graduate study, or that at the highest cost public college or university in the state, whichever amount is less. TOPS payments for post-graduate study at a LAICU institution will be set at the weighted average award amount. Because the award may be paid retroactively, below is the list of approved TOPS Tuition Amounts for which a school may bill if using the highest cost public school tuition amount.

Public Institution
 
LAICU Institution
1S/1999
$1354
1S/1999
$1092
2S/1999
$1354
2S/1999
$1092
1S/2000
$1354
1S/2000
$1108
2S/2000
$1354
2S/2000
$1108
1S/2001
$1479
1S/2001
$1098
2S/2001
$1479
2S/2001
$1098
1S/2002
$1479
1S/2002
$1223
2S/2002
$1479
2S/2002
$1223
1S/2003
$1521
1S/2003
$1226
2S/2003
$1521
2S/2003
$1226
1S/2004
$1569
1S/2004
$1255
2S/2004
$1569
2S/2004
$1255

 

Students who have multiple semesters of TOPS eligibility remaining are required to maintain satisfactory academic progress as defined by the graduate school for the program in which the student is enrolled. The school shall bill only for students who are making satisfactory academic progress. Submission of academic information on TOPS students enrolled in a post graduate program is not required.

If the school cannot ascertain a student's eligibility from the Master Roster, or if there are other questions or comments on these procedures, please contact John Bell, TOPS Program Administrator at jbell@osfa.state.la.us.