BATON ROUGE - First-year college students are being asked to get their TOPS paperwork in order, now.

The Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance (LOSFA) has started processing 2020 high school graduates for TOPS (Taylor Opportunity Program for Students) eligibility. Students are being asked to set up their Hub account to track their TOPS status and complete the free application for federal student aid, or FAFSA, the primary application for TOPS. The state's priority deadline is July 1.

So far, for the fall semester, Dr. Sujuan Boutte with LOSFA says filing numbers are low.

"We're seeing less people filing the FAFSA right now, we're at about 71.5 percent of the incoming students. Last year we were in the higher 70s," Boutte said.

There's been a change this year for students taking the ACT. Testing dates were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Boutte says students will not receive a semester penalty for having taken the ACT later than the April deadline. The new date to submit an additional ACT score is Sept. 1, 2020. LOSFA will re-process students for eligibility if higher scores are received.

LOSFA notes one of the biggest delays in TOPS processing is using different names on documents. A full legal name must be used on all documents and applications.

TOPS eligibility is based on the TOPS Core Curriculum GPA, not the overall GPA. Students need at least a 2.50 GPA to be TOPS eligible, and a GPA is not rounded up.

To receive virtual assistance from LOSFA staff, click here.