Frequently Asked QUestions
Any type of assistance used to assist with the Cost of Education is considered Financial Aid. (i.e. grants, loans, scholarships, waivers, vouchers, work-study jobs, etc…)
To apply for federal financial aid (Pell grant, SEOG grant, Direct Loans, Federal Work-Study) a student must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. You may complete the FAFSA electronically at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Once you complete and SUBMIT your application electronically, you will receive a Student Aid Report within two weeks. Each school you listed on the FAFSA will also receive your information electronically and will then be in contact with you. We will notify you electronically (see item b. below).If you do not receive an email from BPCC within two weeks of receipt of your Student Aid Report, contact us at 318-678-6026 to confirm receipt by the school.
- Upon receipt of your FAFSA information, a “Student Requirements” Notification will be sent electronically to the email address listed on the FAFSA and also to the BPCC student email address instructing you to view your Financial Aid Student Requirements on LOLA.
- All students must complete an Authorization Form.
- Once you submit all documents required, your information will be reviewed by Financial Aid counselors. Based on your FAFSA information, a financial aid package listing all awards for which you are eligible will be determined and an award notification will be sent via email to your email address listed on the FAFSA and also to the BPCC student email address. (If you indicated on your FAFSA that you are interested in student loans, your package will include student loans.) You may access your awards and “accept” the loan awards via LOLA.
To apply for other types of aid such as scholarships, waivers, etc…, students may access the BPCC Financial Aid webpage and select Scholarships. Information about each scholarship and/or waiver is displayed on the Scholarships page along with the criteria for each scholarship or waiver.
BPCC offers grants, Direct Loans, work-study and scholarships. All programs are designed to assist students with the resources necessary to further their education at BPCC.
Cost of Attendance is an estimated budget of costs for attending college. This includes tuition, books, transportation, etc. Your total aid package (grants,scholarships, loans, etc.) cannot exceed the Cost of Attendance budget. You may view the Cost of Attendance by accessing Award Information.
At least 30% of all FAFSA applicants are selected for verification by the Department of Education. This merely means that you are asked to supply additional paperwork to “verify” income, family members, untaxed income, etc. BPCC is required by the Department of Education to verify this information before aid can be awarded to you. If you are unable or unwilling to provide requested documentation, BPCC will be unable to process any Federal aid for you.
EFC – Estimated Family Contribution is a number determined by the U. S. Department of Education (based on your FAFSA information) that is subtracted from your Cost of Attendance to determine eligibility for Pell Grants and other need-based aid.
In the past, the FAFSA was made available January 1 and students/parents had to complete their prior year tax return before completing the FAFSA.
Now, the FAFSA is available to students on October 1 each year. Students may complete the FAFSA on or after October 1 and will use the tax information from the “prior-prior” year. Example: If you are completing the FAFSA for the 2018-2019 award year, you will use 2016 federal tax information. By allowing students to use the “prior-prior” year tax information, students no longer have to wait to complete his/her tax return in order to complete the FAFSA.
Priority Deadlines
If you submit your FAFSA AND all other documents requested by the financial aid office prior to the Priority Deadline, your aid will be processed and posted on LOLA prior to the semester begin date. Priority Deadlines for Financial Aid are dependent upon the type of aid of which you are applying:
Grants and Loans for Fall -June 1
Grants and Loans for Spring -October 1
Scholarships for Fall -March 31
Scholarships for Spring -October 1
LOLA (Log On Louisiana) is your 24/7, one-stop resource that allows you to completely manage your college career. You can use LOLA to: monitor your financial aid application, register for classes, review your class schedule, review your work study or student worker schedule, check on important upcoming dates, and catch up on campus news and announcements.
Follow the login instructions found here.
All Financial Aid recipients are subject to the policies concerning Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). Satisfactory Academic Progress is defined as passing the required number of hours, obtaining the required grade point average, and not exceeding a maximum attempted hours.
A student must appeal to receive financial aid after failure to obtain standards required by Satisfactory Academic Progress by reading/accepting the criteria and completing a Financial Aid Appeal Form.
All students must pay their tuition and fees – either self-pay or payment via Financial Aid funds. Do not assume that you are eligible for aid simply because you completed a FAFSA. Your financial aid awards will be posted to your LOLA account. If you have submitted a FAFSA along with all documents requested by the Financial Aid office and the Admissions office, and after 10-14 days you are unable to view financial aid awards, please contact our office to determine why your awards are not posted.
The Master Promissory Note (MPN) essentially opens a line of credit for education expenses during your academic career. When you sign a Federal Direct Loan Master promissory note, you promise to repay your student loan(s). The note also includes important language about your rights and responsibilities as a borrower.
As a dependent student, the amount of aid is determined by eligibility and need. You may be eligible for additional grants or apply for a Parent PLUS Loan. If a parent is denied a Parent PLUS loan, additional loan proceeds may be certified for the student.
Your dependency status determines whose information you must report on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®).
- If you’re a dependent student, you will report your and your parents’ information.
- If you’re an independent student, you will report your own information (and, if you’re married, your spouse’s).
The federal student aid programs are based on the concept that it is primarily your and your family’s responsibility to pay for your education. And because a dependent student is assumed to have the support of parents, the parents’ information has to be assessed along with the student’s, in order to get a full picture of the family’s financial strength. If you’re a dependent student, it doesn’t mean your parents are required to pay anything toward your education; this is just a way of looking at everyone in a consistent manner.
Federal and State rules state that a student cannot receive aid in excess of their Cost of Attendance budget. Any time a student receives any federal, state, or institutional aid in excess of their Cost of Attendance, funds must be returned or adjusted to accommodate the overage.
Pell Grants for summer
The Department of Education has announced that students that are eligible for Pell Grant may be able to receive a third disbursement of Pell Grant each academic year.
Bossier Parish Community College will implement “Year Round Pell Grant” beginning in the summer of 2018. Students must be eligible for Pell Grant as determined by the Department of Education, and must be enrolled at least half-time (6 hours) for the summer semester.
Here is an example of how Year Round Pell Grant will work:
A student with a zero Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is eligible for $6,095 in Pell Grant for the year, or $3,048 for the fall semester and $3,047 for spring semester (based on full-time enrollment both semesters). Under the old rules, that student would not receive any Pell Grant if they enrolled for the summer semester. Under the New Year Round Pell Grant initiative, that student would receive an additional $3,047 disbursement if they were to enroll full-time (12 credit hours) for summer or up to a maximum of $9,143 for the entire academic year. If the student enrolled half-time, he or she would receive $1,524 of Pell Grant for summer, or one-half of a full disbursement.
It is important to note that this change will not result in extra Pell Grant being awarded to a student over the course of their undergraduate enrollment. The maximum time frame that eligible students may receive Pell Grant is for the equivalent of twelve full-time semesters. In the past, a full-time student could receive only two disbursements per year. Now that student will be able to receive up to three Pell disbursements in one academic year. Students that have been awarded Pell Grant for the 2018- 2019 academic year are encouraged to contact the Financial Aid office for assistance with financial planning for the summer of 2019.
Loans for summer
Loan recipients who accept the maximum annual loan limit for the fall and spring semesters combined will have NO loan eligibility left for the summer semester.
Summer visiting students
If you are a “visiting” student and are attending BPCC for the summer semester “only”, you are not eligible to receive any type of federal aid.
After an official or unofficial withdrawal from the College, a refund and/or repayment evaluation must be performed on students’ account to determine eligibility for refund or repayment. Federal Regulations require that we determine the amount of time enrolled at the institution and apply appropriate refunding. You must earn more than 60% of your aid by attending more than 60% of your registered class time to keep all aid disbursed. NOTE: If a recipient of federal aid stops attending class without officially resigning from the College, a last date of attendance will be applied based on information received from the instructors and appropriate refunding applied.
You must maintain attendance in at least one class beyond the 60% date. The 60% date is posted on the financial aid web page.
Attendance requires the student to participate in academic related activities (exams, discussion boards, assignments, etc. Logging into the class without participating in an assigned activity is not considered as an “academic related activity”. Attending a face-to-face class without participating in an assigned activity is not considered as an “academic related activity”.
Once you submit all required documents (i.e. Authorization form, Verification form, tax transcripts, birth certificates, etc.) please allow at least one to two weeks for processing.
“Received, not yet reviewed” means that we have received your document(s), but your verification counselor has not reviewed your file information. Since we process files in date order, other students may have submitted documents prior to the date you submitted your documents. Those student files will be processed first (in date order). During peak processing times, your status may be “…not yet reviewed” for one to two weeks due to the volume of files to be processed.
Keep checking LOLA and watch for all requirements to indicate “Requirement Satisfied”. Once the requirements are satisfied, an award notice will be sent to you via email. Check your BPCC student email often.
Yes. When you call our office to inquire about your financial aid file, we are accessing the information on LOLA. You are able to access this same information via LOLA. LOLA is an excellent tool that will give you all the information you need. If LOLA indicates that you have missing requirements, you need to submit the required documents. If all your documents are “completed, pending review”, this means your verification counselor has your file and will process your file in date order.
The Financial Aid office cannot estimate the date you will receive your refund. The BPCC refund process is outlined on our web page at Financial Aid Refunds.
Yes. You may access the Student tab and then select Student Account. Select “Student Account Summary by Term” to view your charges, credits, and refunds. If your aid has been applied to your account and a refund is due to you, your account summary will indicate “BPCC System Generated Refund”. If you would like to view the date the refund was generated, you must select “Account detail for Term” from the Student Account menu. The Refund Generated date does not indicate the date your refund was submitted to BankMobile Disbursements. Refunds are submitted to BankMobile Disbursements by the Business Office each week.
See Financial Aid Refunds for more information about BankMobile.
Financial Aid recipients who are due a credit balance for the semester (after tuition/fees/housing charges are deducted) will be allowed to participate in the electronic book voucher process.
Students should go to the bookstore to utilize the electronic book voucher process. Students will not need to go to the Financial Aid office to obtain a paper voucher. Please access this link for more information regarding the electronic book voucher process.
NOTICE: Students with Scholarships, Exemptions, or Waivers will not be able to utilize the electronic book voucher process. If a scholarship, waiver, or exemption will be providing your books, you must go to the Business Office to obtain a paper book voucher.
To avoid being removed from your classes for the spring semester, you should access the information about the purge process.
YES! Go to class. If you do not go to the first class, your instructor will report you as a “no-show”. You will not receive federal aid if you are a “no show”. Additionally, if you do not continue attending your class, your instructor may suspend you for non-attendance. In order to receive federal aid, you must attend class.
Once you submit your documents electronically or via fax, please allow 7 days for the staff to “post” the document(s) to the system and update LOLA. We received hundreds of forms and faxes weekly and it takes time to post these items to student accounts. (Most of these forms are posted as “received” on Fridays) If you mail your forms, allow an extra week.
Yes, you will receive an award notification via email. The award notification will be sent to your BPCC student email address. The notification will instruct you to view your awards on LOLA. (Some awards require your acceptance via LOLA.)
You do not have to “accept” grants or scholarships, as these awards are automatically accepted. Since student loans must be paid back, the student must choose to “accept”, “decline”, or “accept, partial amount” for student loans.
Financial Aid is provided to students for educational purposes only and is not intended to be your source of income.
Our office handles several hundred phone calls per day during peak times. If you are unable to reach our office when dialing the main line, you may try calling your Verification Counselor directly. A good strategy if you are in the area is to stop by in person. You may also email us.
You can obtain an IRS Tax Transcript by contacting the Internal Revenue Service at 800-829-1040 and ask for a tax return transcript. (Do not request a tax summary)
You may also request a copy of your IRS Transcript by accessing IRS Get Transcript.
Yes, you should register for classes. However, you are responsible for the tuition/fees charged to your account. If we determine that you are NOT eligible for federal aid, you must pay your tuition/fees out-of-pocket.
PLEASE NOTE: Your aid will need to be processed (with awards posted on LOLA) prior to the day before General Registration day for that semester. If you submitted your documents late, your aid may not be processed in time. If this is the case, you must make payment arrangements with the Business Office in order to HOLD your class schedule. Beginning summer 2015, students who have not paid in full or have not made payment arrangements will have their classes removed the day before General Registration for that semester.
Your aid will need to be processed (with awards posted on LOLA) prior to the Friday prior to each General Registration day. If you submitted your documents late, your aid may not be processed in time. If this is the case, you must make payment arrangements with the Business Office in order to HOLD your class schedule. Beginning summer 2015, students who have not paid in full or have not made payment arrangements will have their classes removed the day before General Registration for that semester.
Access LOLA and select the Student TAB and then select “Student Account” and then, “Account Summary by Term”.
Yes, you may receive federal financial aid for developmental classes, up to 30 credit hours.
Pell Grants:
Pell grants will be re-calculated for students enrolled in modules/sessions after the first day of class for the module/session and after the “enrollment verification” (or “no show”) period for that module/session. An enrollment verification period will occur for each module.
Example: If you are enrolled for six hours in session A and later add a class in session C, your Pell will be re-calculated after the first day of class for session C and after the “no show” period has ended” (typically prior to the 10th day of class). When Pell is re-calculated, the Pell grant will be increased if your enrollment status has increased. However, if your enrollment status has decreased (due to dropping classes previously paid for session A), your Pell grant will be decreased and you will owe money to the College.
Completing your FAFSA and submitting all missing requirements posted on your LoLA is essential. Registered students who do not set up a payment plan or have financial aid processed will have their classes purged for non-payment. Financial aid is a lengthy process in which any requested information should be completed at least 1-2 months before your semester begins. Review important purge dates by choosing the semester you will be attending here.