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

It depends on the type of financial aid you are being offered. Federal aid can only be applied to courses in your degree plan. State aid and most scholarships do not have this restriction, so those can be applied to any class, like a KINE 199, regardless of whether it is in your degree plan. Contact Aggie One Stop if you have questions about your aid. 

1. Navigate to the Howdy Portal and select “My Dashboard” at the top of the page
2. Select the dropdown menu for “My Record”
3. Select “Degree Evaluation”
4. Select Generate New Degree Evaluation

Federal financial aid can be paid for courses that count towards the program of study only.  These aid programs include: Pell Grant, TEACH Grant, Direct Loans (including PLUS), Federal Work Study and FSEOG.  
 
State aid (e.g.: TEXAS Grant, TPEG, Regents’ Scholarship, 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.

The Cost of Attendance is an estimate of what it could cost for you to go to school full time.  If you are not enrolled full time, your cost of attendance will be reduced to match your enrollment level, which could require that federal aid and some state aid be reduced.  Enrollment status for federal financial aid is based on  courses that count only. Visit the Maintaining Eligibility webpage for more information on how enrollment status is calculated based on your enrolled hours.

Your enrollment is compared to the courses listed in your program of study as defined by the Registrar’s office. An automated degree evaluation process runs each night beginning at preregistration and running through the census date (the official 12th class day in the long terms and 4th class day in summer terms).  If you make changes to your enrollment, you can expect to see the updated enrollment status information in Howdy the next day.

You will be notified by email. In addition, you can view your courses using the degree evaluation tool. You can review which courses are counting by logging into Howdy, selecting the Student Profile icon, and navigating to the Schedule tab under the Curriculum and Courses channel. If you have questions about courses included in your program of study, you should contact your Academic Advisor. 

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 program of study and replace them with courses that do.

You can review which courses are counting by logging into Howdy, selecting the Student Profile icon, and navigating to the Schedule tab under the Curriculum and Courses channel. 

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.

In order to count for financial aid, all adjustments for undergraduate students must be submitted in the University Adjustment System (UAS) by your Academic Advisor prior to the census date for that term (official 12^th class day, 4^th class day for summer). The census deadline applies to graduate and professional students, as well.  Graduate students should work with the Graduate School to ensure that any degree plan petitions are submitted prior to census, and professional students should contact their departments.

Minors must be officially declared and reflected in the degree evaluation prior to the census date (official 12^th class day for fall and spring, 4^th class day for summer).  Courses counting toward undeclared minors will not be included in the program of study. 

Double majors must be officially declared and reflected in the degree evaluation prior to the census date (official 12^th class day, 4^th class day for summer ). Courses counting toward undeclared majors will not be included in the program of study.

If a 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.

For example, you might have only 2 elective hours remaining in your degree plan and are free to take any course to fulfill those 2 hours, but are taking a 3 credit hour course, that 3 hour course will not count.  The degree evaluation process in this case determines that 3 hours is too many for the available slot, and the 3 hour course is listed as not counting in its entirety as a result.

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 (12th class day, 4th class day for summer).  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. 

If you are in a university recognized coop, it will count for financial aid purposes. Your actual enrolled hours that count will be used to determine federal financial aid eligibility.

Only your major for the current semester will be used when evaluating your courses. Courses counting only toward future majors will not count toward your program of study. 

Certain certificate programs and Teacher Certifications (with other limiting factors) are eligible for federal aid. Certificate programs must be approved for federal aid by the US Department of Education and noted below. Teacher Certification is a special program that is offered through the School of Education & Human Development and has additional factors that affect students' aid eligibility. 

Courses taken for certificates not listed below must also count towards your major or minor in the degree evaluation to be counted for Federal Financial Aid eligibility. 

Texas A&M Bush School
Advanced International Affairs
Homeland Security
Nonprofit Management
Public Management

Texas A&M College of Arts & Sciences
Geographic Information Science
Geoscience Data Management
Geospatial Intelligence

Texas A&M Energy Institute
Energy
 
Texas A&M Health Science Center
Advanced General Dentistry
Dental Public Health
Endodontics/Endodontology
Forensic Health Care
Oral Biology and Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology
Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology
Orthodontics/Orthodontology
Pediatric Dentistry, Pedodontics
Periodontics/Periodontology
Prosthodontics/ Prosthodontology

Texas A&M Mays Business School
Entrepreneurship

Texas A&M School of Education & Human Development
Adult Education
Interdisciplinary Studies (Aggie ACHIEVE)*

Texas A&M School of Law
Business Law and Compliance
Cybersecurity Law and Policy
Energy Law-Environmental and Energy Law and Policy
Energy Law-Oil and Gas Law and Policy
Health Law, Policy and Management
Human Resources and Employment Law, Policy and Management
International Tax Law and Policy
Real Estate and Construction Law, Policy and Management
Risk Management and Compliance
Wealth Management 
 
Texas Consumer Resource for Education and Workforce Statistics (Texas Crews)
Career Path Research

*Eligible for limited federal financial aid programs. Contact Aggie One Stop for more information. 

Only courses that are part of the program of study as documented in the degree evaluation are eligible for federal aid. Your actual enrolled hours that count will be used to determine federal financial aid eligibility.

All courses taken at Blinn Bryan will count in your program of study. Courses taken at Texas A&M University must count toward your listed intended major to be included in the program of study. 

Courses must count toward your intended major to be included in the program of study. 

All education abroad courses will count for federal financial aid. 

Only courses that are part of the program of study as documented in the degree evaluation are eligible for federal aid. 

Most institutional scholarships and private/outside scholarships are not subject to the program of study requirements. 

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. 

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) is based on total hours taken and not federal aid eligible hours taken. Visit the Maintaining Eligibility webpage for more information on SAP. 

If you are a student athlete, you are required to enroll full-time, unless you are certified to be in final hours before graduation or granted a Progress Toward Degree Waiver. If you have federal aid in your aid package and do not have full-time hours (12 for undergraduates or 9 for graduate students) that count in your program of study, we will reduce your cost of attendance. Aid may be impacted, depending on your aid package and source of funds. 

Prior to the degree plan being filed, all graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses will count. After a degree plan is filed, only courses counting towards the degree evaluation will count. 

Only courses that are part of the program of study as documented in the degree evaluation are eligible for federal aid. 

Yes, but for federal financial aid we will only base your aid on classes that count.