Important Information
Federal Aid
Fall: | June 1 |
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Spring: | October 1 |
Academic Tuition Waiver applications
Fall: | March 31 |
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Spring: | October 1 |
A book allowance is an advance on your financial aid refund that allows you to purchase books and supplies at the BPCC Follett Bookstore. The amount of the book charges will be deducted from your financial aid refund.
When will I be able to purchase books with the electronic book allowance?
Dates for book allowance purchases will be prominently posted each semester in a text box on the main Financial Aid page.
How do I qualify for a book allowance?
In order to qualify you must meet the following criteria:
- Be an undergraduate student registered for the semester
- Have a valid, current FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) on file with Bossier Parish Community College
- Have ALL financial aid requirements successfully satisfied
- Be meeting satisfactory academic progress standards
- Be awarded and have accepted financial aid with an expected credit balance of $100.00 or more for the semester. You may check your expected credit balance on LOLA. Be sure you choose the correct term – (example: fall 2014) and then view “Account Summary by Term”.
How much can I receive?
The amount depends on how much you have available in financial aid funding after your charges have been paid. This includes tuition and fees.
The maximum amount of a book allowance is $1,000.
Do I need to present the bookstore with a paper book voucher?
No. Staff at the bookstore can view your book allowance information online; however, you must show your BPCC Student ID and your schedule of classes.
Do I need to go to the Financial Aid office to obtain a paper book voucher?
No. You will need to go to the bookstore with your student ID and your schedule of classes.
What if I don’t spend the full amount of my allowance?
You will only be charged for the amount that you spend at the BPCC Follett Bookstore. If you do not use the full amount of the allowance, your account will be adjusted to reflect your actual purchases.
If you do not owe a student account balance, you will be issued a financial aid refund for the remaining amount. Refund processing will occur approximately two weeks after the first day of classes.
If you’ve made any changes to your registration or housing charges and your student account balance exceeds the amount of pending financial aid, you no longer qualify to participate in the book allowance program.
Continuously check your Student Account Summary page on LOLA to review your student account balance.
Also, check your financial aid awards. Changes to your financial aid that result in funds being reduced or removed may affect your eligibility.
If your application is selected for review in a process called verification, BPCC must compare information from your application with signed copies of federal tax returns for the student, and/or parents/step-parents/spouses as well as other income information. The law says we have the right and responsibility to require this information before awarding federal aid.
If there are differences between your application and verification documents, corrections may be required. Our office will submit the corrections to the Central Processor, electronically. You will be notified of a change in your EFC by a corrected SAR sent from the processor.
You must submit all documentation requested by the BPCC Financial Aid Office. Incomplete forms will be returned to student. BPCC must have your correct, complete information by your last day of enrollment in the current award year.
Verification for Pell-eligible students must be completed no later than 90 days after student’s last date of attendance at BPCC or August 31, of the applicable award year, whichever is earlier. Verification for Direct and PLUS loan students must be completed 10 days prior to student’s last day of attendance for a semester.
Your aid will not be processed if verification is not completed.
- Provisionally admitted students ARE NOT eligible for federal financial aid. If your Admissions file is incomplete,(i.e. missing documents such as immunization records, transcripts, etc…) you are considered a provisional student. You must have a complete Admissions file in order to receive federal financial aid.
- You must have a high school diploma or its equivalent in order to receive federal financial aid.
Refunds are available to students whose financial aid has been processed by the BPCC Financial Aid Office and who have awards posted and accepted on LOLA. Once the awards have been posted to the student account, the awards will apply to the charges (tuition, fees, books, etc.) owed to BPCC. If, after all charges are paid, a credit balance remains that is owed to the student, BPCC will issue a credit balance refund via BankMobile Refund Service.
Student loan funds for first-time borrowers with fewer than 30 credit hours earned will not be mailed to students until after the 30th day of the semester. Federal regulations require these students to be subjected to a 30-day delayed disbursement on the first disbursement of their loans.
How your Pell is initially calculated:
The Pell Grant is initially based on full-time enrollment. The initial awards posted on LOLA are posted for the Pell grant amount for 12 hour enrollment. Once registration has been finalized, Pell Grants will be adjusted (re-calculated) to reflect the correct Pell grant amount based on the actual number of hours enrolled.
Pell Recalculation:
Pell grants will be adjusted (re-calculated) for the correct enrollment status during the “enrollment verification” period. The “enrollment verification” period typically occurs during the 1st – 9th day of class. This is a period of time when BPCC instructors report all students who are enrolled in classes but did not begin attendance (no shows). After the “enrollment verification” period (but no later than the 9th day of class), the Financial Aid office will “freeze” the enrolled hours. If the enrollment status has changed, for example, the student is no longer enrolled (or attending) 12 credit hours, the Pell grant will be adjusted downward. After the “freeze” process occurs, Pell grants will no longer be adjusted for students in session A.
Pell Recalculation for Modules/Sessions:
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.
Will you owe money?
Yes, you may owe money due to Pell Recalculation.
Example: You enroll in nine (9) credit hours (three classes) for Session A and three (3) hours in a module/session that begins later in the semester. Once the financial aid office is notified that you have begun attendance in the three Session A classes, you will be awarded the Pell grant for nine (9) credit hours. When the module/session class begins (later in the semester) the financial aid office will recalculate your Pell grant. The instructor has verified that you began attendance in the session/module class. However, upon review, we notice that you have withdrawn from two of the Session A classes (dropped six (6) hours). When the Pell grant is recalculated, your new enrollment status is no longer nine (hours). Your enrollment status is now six (6) hours. Your Pell grant will be REDUCED to the six hour Pell amount and you will have to repay a portion of the Pell grant you received for Session A. You will owe money to the College as a result of Pell recalculation.
If I resign from school, will I owe money?
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 the College determine the amount of time each student attended 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.
If you resign from all classes prior to attending 60% of the semester, you WILL owe money. The unearned portion of the federal aid you received must be returned to the federal programs.
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. 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”.
You must maintain attendance (participate in academic related activities) in at least one class beyond the 60% date. The 60% date is posted each semester on the financial aid web page.
The law specifies how your school must determine the amount of Title IV program assistance that you earn if you withdraw from school. The Title IV programs that are covered by this law are: Federal Pell Grants, Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grants, TEACH Grants, Direct Loans, Direct PLUS Loans, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs), and Federal Perkins Loans.
Though your aid is posted to your account at the start of each period, you earn the funds as you complete the period. If you withdraw during your payment period or period of enrollment (your school can define these for you and tell you which one applies), the amount of Title IV program assistance that you have earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula. If you received (or your school or parent received on your behalf) less assistance than the amount that you earned, you may be able to receive those additional funds. If you received more assistance than you earned, the excess funds must be returned by the school and/or you.
The amount of assistance that you have earned is determined on a pro rate basis. For example, if you completed 30% of your payment period or period of enrollment, you earn 30% of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60% of the payment period or period of enrollment, you earn all the assistance that you were scheduled to receive for that period.
If you did not receive all of the funds that you earned, you may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement. If your post-withdrawal disbursement includes loan funds, your school must get your permission before it can disburse them. You may choose to decline some or all of the loan funds so that you don’t incur additional debt. Your school may automatically use all or a portion of your post-withdrawal disbursement of grant funds for tuition, fees, and room and board charges (as contracted with the school). The school needs your permission to use the post-withdrawal grant disbursement for all other school charges. If you do not give your permission (some schools ask for this when you enroll), you will be offered the funds. However, it may be in your best interest to allow the school to keep the funds to reduce your debt at the school.
There are some Title IV funds that you were scheduled to receive that cannot be disbursed to you once you withdraw because of other eligibility requirements. For example, if you are a first-time, first-year undergraduate student and you have not completed the first 30 days of your program before you withdraw, you will not receive any Direct Loan funds that you would have received had you remained enrolled past the 30th day.
If you receive (or your school or parent receive on your behalf) excess Title IV program funds that must be returned, your school must return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of:
- your institutional charges multiplied by the unearned percentage of your funds, or
- the entire amount of excess funds.
The school must return this amount even if it didn’t keep this amount of your Title IV program funds.
If your school is not required to return all of the excess funds, you must return the remaining amount.
Financial Aid Websites
- Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA)
- Louisiana Office of Student Financial Aid Assistance (LOSFA)
- Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS)
- The SmartStudent Guide to Financial Aid
- National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) for Students
- Student Aid on the Web
- U.S. Department of Education
- Selective Service System
Scholarship WebSites
- Peterson’s Education Center
- Fastweb (source for private scholarships and grants)
- Scholarships.com
- CollegeBoard.com
- Career One Stop
- Gates Millennium Scholars
- Hispanic Scholarship Fund
- Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
- LSUS Bridge Scholarship