Course Program of Study (CPoS)

A course program of study is the list of courses you must successfully complete in order to be awarded an approved degree. You may also see it referred to as a degree plan or degree audit.  A course must count in the evaluation of your degree using the degree evaluation tool to be counted as part of your course program of study.

Federal aid can only be applied to courses in your degree plan. State aid, institutional aid, and most scholarships do not have this restriction, so those can be applied to any class, regardless of whether it is in your degree plan. Contact the Office of Financial Aid if you have questions about your aid.

You can view your degree evaluation by logging into myGateway then selecting DegreeWorks.

Federal financial aid can be paid for courses that count towards the course program of study only.  These aid programs include: Pell Grant, TEACH Grant, Direct Loans (including Parent and Graduate PLUS), Federal Work Study and FSEOG. 

State aid (e.g.: TEXAS Grant, TPEG, Regents’ Scholarship, etc.), institutional aid (Tarleton scholarships, Tarleton Tuition Grant, etc.), as well as private/alternative loans, are not subject to the same rules, and can be paid for courses not included on the degree plan. However, these awards could be reduced if your overall cost of attendance is reduced due to courses not counting for federal aid.

Your enrollment is compared to the courses listed in your course program of study as defined by the Registrar’s office. An automated degree evaluation process runs each night beginning at pre-registration and running through the census date (the official 12th class day in the long terms and last census date in summer terms).  If you make changes to your enrollment, you can expect to see the updated enrollment status information the next day.

Students enrolled in courses impacted by CPoS will be notified via their Tarleton State student email. Students will only be notified if CPoS impacts their federal financial aid eligibility. Please note, some portion of your federal aid may be prorated/reduced based on less than full-time status.

Until the official census date, you may add additional courses that count in order to be considered full-time.  You may also drop courses that do not count in your course program of study and replace them with courses that do. After the census date, no further adjustments will be made and your enrollment is considered to be frozen for federal financial aid purposes. It is imperative that all changes to the degree evaluation affecting courses that count be made before the census date.

Undergraduate students with an Undeclared program of study may only include courses that count toward the Core Curriculum toward their financial aid eligibility requirements. Exploratory students should seek to declare their major as early as possible to avoid impacts to their financial aid.

If a minor is required for your degree program, the courses counting toward the minor are eligible to count toward financial aid.

If you are pursuing an optional minor, the minor coursework would also need to count toward your general degree requirements (Core, Major, or required free elective hours) to be eligible for financial aid.

Minors must be officially declared by the Census date for a term in order for the courses to count. Courses taken toward an undeclared minor will not count in the financial aid evaluation process.

Double majors must be officially declared and reflected in the degree evaluation prior to the census date. Courses counting toward undeclared majors will not be included in the program of study.

If a course program of study has listed specific courses that can count as electives, then only those will be eligible unless an adjustment is made by your academic advisor.  If there is no specified list, then any course will count as long as enough open elective hours exist in your program of study to cover the entire course.

Courses only counting toward a certificate do not count toward financial aid eligibility hours. Courses needed for the certificate may count toward financial aid eligibility if they also apply to a student’s degree requirements, including any free elective hours needed.

These courses can only be covered if they are included in your program of study as documented within the degree evaluation tool.  This is based on their current program of study at the time of payment up to the census date. If they are “extra” courses to get you into a major and not part of your current program of study, then they are not eligible for federal aid.

If a course must be taken as a prerequisite before taking a required course in a student’s degree plan, the prerequisite course could be approved for financial aid purposes. For instance, if a student’s degree plan requires Calculus I, but they must complete Precalculus in order to satisfy the Calculus I prerequisite, the student’s Precalculus course can be included in their financial aid hours. If the Precalculus course does not apply toward the student’s degree requirements, the student’s academic advisor may need to verify that it must be completed as a prerequisite in order for it to count toward financial aid eligibility.

A student may only have a maximum of 30 hours of prerequisite and/or remedial coursework approved to count toward their financial aid eligibility.

A repeated course will count for the program of study evaluation if it is in the program of study as documented by the degree evaluation.  However, the course would then also need to pass repeated coursework evaluation to be eligible for federal aid. Visit the Maintaining Eligibility webpage for more information on repeated courses.

As long as you remain enrolled full-time in courses that apply toward your degree, you will be offered full-time financial aid.