Over Awarded Students For Whom No TOPS Bill Was Submitted

 To assure that your Scholarship and Grant Policy and Procedure Manual remains current, please record this document on your TOPS Bulletin index and retain it with your manual.

Institutions are encouraged to apply the guidance contained in TOPS Bulletin Number T99-16 before submitting the report described in Item 2 of this bulletin. By doing so, institutions will be ensuring that their enrolled students have received the maximum benefit from their TOPS awards.

1.     A student who was eligible for a TOPS award for the 1998-99 Academic Year but who received other aid in amounts that precluded the institution from billing for the student’s TOPS award, is still considered as having been awarded and must be identified for purposes of computing the student’s remaining period of eligibility.

2.     Using the TOPS Academic Grade Report File Format (or via a manual report containing the same data as found in the Academic Grade Report File), institutions are requested to forward a listing of those students who were eligible for TOPS and enrolled at the institution during Academic Year 1998-99, but who were over awarded to the extent that no bill for the TOPS award was submitted on their behalf.

3.     For Academic Year 1999-2000 and thereafter, when a student is eligible for a TOPS award but other aid equals or exceeds the student’s Cost of Attendance, then the institution shall enter on the Payment Request File (or on a manual billing request) a "Tuition Amount" for that student of "999999".

4.     For Academic Year 1999-2000 and thereafter, all students listed on the Master Roster and enrolled at an institution shall be included on the institution’s Academic Grade Report File.