Reporting grade change data to LOFSA

Owned by Denise Kidd
Last updated: Aug 30, 2024
3 min read

TOPS (Taylor Opportunity Program for Students) provides funding to graduates of Louisiana high schools. On a monthly basis, we report grade change data to the LOSFA (Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance), which is the custodian of the TOPS program. This grade change data can affect credits earned and GPA, which can affect the amount of funding a student can receive.

The peak periods of requests are generally the beginning and end of the semester.

Grades are reported both monthly and weekly (if necessary) to LOSFA and entered manually in their website.

Monthly

A monthly report is emailed to Michelle Landry and Nicole Westerfield on the 8th of each month. This report includes all retroactive grade changes for all TOPS eligible students that must be reported to LOSFA by the 15th of each month. A copy of this report can also be requested at help@tulane.edu.

NOTE: If a grade change for the current term is included on the monthly report, it does not need to be reported as the Master file for that term has not been reported to LOFSA yet.

Recalculate hours

Each student’s earned hours, quality hours, and quality points must be recalculated without +/- for the term needed prior to being reported to LOSFA. This is automatically done in the monthly report.

Collect biographical data

If not provided in the report, collect biographical data from SPAIDEN.

Enter on the LOFSA website

Enter information on LOFSA website for each student.

  1. Once logged into https://www.osfa.la.gov/, go to the ACADEMICS tab and click the “TOPS Grade Submit” Button.

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  2. Click the “Add” button.

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  3. Enter each student’s information individually using their SSN from Banner or the report:

Field

Value

Field

Value

Academic Term

Term codes are by academic year ending with the Spring term. Coding is by semester followed by the year of the Spring term.

  • Fall – 1s

  • Spring – 2s

  • Summer – 3s

  • Year Long – 4s

Examples:

  • Fall semester 2021 (academic year 2021-2022) = 1s2022

  • Spring Semester 2021 (academic year 2021-2022) = 2s2022

Program Type

Academic

Ethnic Code

Provided on report or available in SPAIDEN

Academic Standing

  • ALMOST ALWAYS “00-Continuous Enrollment”

  • Only choose “10-Officially Resigned” if we are being asked to report for a term that the student has withdrawn AND we are reporting all 0s for quality points, GPA hours, hours earned, and incomplete hours.

  1. Click “ADD” and “CLOSE” – This will take you back to the yellow box screen, where you will have to click “ADD” again to add the next student.

  2. Repeat each step for every student that needs to be reported.

  3. Upload spreadsheet to Registrar Box folder for correct month and year. https://tulane.app.box.com/folder/202911632191

Weekly

If there are students who need their grades sent to LOSFA prior to the monthly update, our Financial Aid partners will enter the students’ information into the TOPS folder.

  1. Access the Box folder to identify new grade changes. This should be done on a weekly basis and is usually done on Mondays.

  2. Recalculate hours. Each student’s earned hours, quality hours, and quality points must be recalculated without +/- for the term needed prior to being reported to LOSFA. This is done using the unofficial transcript in Gibson for the term requested.

A, A-: 4 quality points

B+, B, B-: 3 quality points

C+, C, C-: 2 quality points

D+, D, D-: 1 quality point

F: 0 quality points

  1. Collect biographical data. Collect biographical data about requested student from SPAIDEN.

  2. Enter data on the LOSFA website. www.osfa.la.gov/AwardSystem

LOSFA access is provided by the TU TOPS representative, currently Roland Keller, Jr.

Semesterly

The end of term report is submitted by Stephanie Davis.