New financial aid rule limits course flexibility for students 

In an email sent on Mar. 18, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette announced that, beginning in the Fall 2025 semester, financial aid money will not be allowed to pay for classes outside of a student’s degree plan for their declared major and/or minor. According to the University’s website, the Course Program of Study (CPoS) is a federal requirement set by the U.S. Department of Education that the University is required to follow. It uses DegreeWorks to determine if the registered courses for a student are a part of their degree plan. 

Federal aid, like the Pell Grant, federal student loans or federal work study, will not be eligible to pay for classes outside of a student’s program of study. 

Students may take courses that are outside of their current degree plan, but those courses cannot be covered by federal financial aid. 

According to the email, students are responsible for registering for classes that are a part of their degree plan. Students who are registered for courses outside of their degree plan will be notified by the Office of Financial aid by email. 

This mandate is only for undergraduate and graduate students who receive federal financial aid and does not apply to University scholarships or the TOPS scholarship. 

Alyssa Regis, a sophomore majoring in political science, explained why she thinks this new program is not beneficial for students.“I think it’s pretty detrimental. I mean, college is the time when you’re… supposed to figure out what you wanna do for the rest of your life,” Regis said. 

She added that she was interested in taking a theology class, but now, since payment would have to come out of pocket, she will not be able to take it. According to the University, the estimated tuition and fees for the 2024- 25 school year are about $1,130 per class, excluding additional course and lab fees. 

Jadyn Mims, a freshman majoring in criminal justice, said she has changed her major three times so far, so this requirement is discouraging for her exploration in college. “Going through high school, they were like, ‘Oh, you have time, college is your time to… experiment, … broaden your worldview.’ So now, we’re kind of limited to one track, so to speak,” Mims said. 

In a 2017 report, the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) found that within three years of enrollment, about 30% of undergraduate students in associate’s and bachelor’s degree programs had changed their major at least once. 

About one in 10 students change majors more than once. 

Corey Toliver, a senior majoring in electrical engineering, said he doesn’t agree with the mandate. 

“I can see why they’re doing it, but I don’t necessarily agree with it just because you’re kind of constraining people to do one thing and they may have interests in multiple things,” Toliver said. 

Clavern Adams, a senior majoring in electrical engineering, said he understands that this requirement will save federal money and “push people to actually… finish they major faster,” but one of his concerns is if students will be able to handle their major’s workload at once. “Sometimes you don’t wanna overload yourself with all the important classes at the same time. If you overload yourself with all your major classes, then it’s gonna cause your grades to… go down,” Adams said. 

In a separate report, NCES found that 44% of first-time undergraduates completed their degree in four years. 

Though the University is just now implementing this program, it has been found at other universities around the country as early as 2019 and is said to have been a federal requirement before then. 

Federal financial aid money comes from federal taxes paid by the general public. According to the Department of Education, 45% of students at the University receive federal loans and 40% of students receive a Pell grant. In 2024, the department’s budget was 2% of the U.S. federal budget. 

According to a White House fact sheet, a large part of President Donald Trump’s platform is “cutting federal expenditures and promoting governmental efficiency.” 

On Mar. 20, Trump signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the Department of Education after his longtime criticism of the organization though there has been no information provided to show how that would actually work. 

For more information about the CPoS program, visit the University’s website and search CPoS.