In wake of the reduction in TOPS payments last week, Nicholls State University will be required to make up 20 percent of the TOPS student awards obtained from nearly half of the current student body.

“For 2015-2016 academic year, 3,636 Nicholls students received TOPS for a total of $10,876,939. TOPS recipients were awarded $2,989,093 in additional scholarships from private, institutional, foundation or athletic sources,” Brandy St. Pierre, Assistant Director of Financial Aid/University Scholarships said.

The university itself also gives out additional scholarships to eligible students.

“Nicholls awards private, institutional, foundation, state and athletic scholarships. In 2015-2016, we awarded $16,926,278 in scholarships. Of this amount, $2,739,195 was institutional and $2,579,795 was in athletics. All of these numbers have increased over the last five years,” St. Pierre said.

Last week, the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance announced to recommence payment of 80 percent of student TOPS awards, while Nicholls State University will be responsible for paying back the other 20 percent.

“At Nicholls this loss of TOPS funding amounts to a $1.04 million budget cut that must be wholly absorbed in the final four months of the year,” Stephanie Verdin, a spokesperson for Nicholls State University said.

Students will not be responsible to pay back TOPS money this semester; however, under a “worst case” budget scenario proposed by Gov. John Bell Edwards, TOPS criteria is likely to change.
According to the Advocate, only those high school students with an ACT score of 28 or higher would be eligible to receive TOPS. This would mean that only about 9,000 students would meet these new requirements. The TOPS statistics from the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance report approximately 52,743 students are currently using TOPS, so an estimated 43,743 of students would no longer be qualified for the scholarship.

“It sucks because I really worked my ass off for TOPS, GPA and ACT-wise, but I think it’s a good idea to raise the standards instead of completely getting rid of it because people worked hard for it,” Lexi Coleman, a freshman nursing major from Lutcher said.

There are students whose families could cover for the loss of TOPS; however, this possibility poses a threat to some students pursuing higher education.

Tarrah Mills, a freshman dietetics major from Metairie said, “I know without TOPS, a lot of students would not have the opportunity to go to school. A lot of students wouldn’t have certain resources. This would also mean after college they would have even more student loans, which would affect them and their families. I think it is important to students in college now, and if it were to be taken away, that would really hurt, and there would be a lot of students who have to drop out and wouldn’t get the education they had been working for.”

Still, students remain determined to continue finishing their degrees at Nicholls.

“My family wouldn’t cover it, and I would have to take out loans, but it wouldn’t be all that tragic,” Jordan Bourne, a junior accounting major from Thibodaux said, “Sure, you’d have to pay back a little more when you get out of school, even if it would definitely be more beneficial to not have to. I don’t want to go anywhere else because it would be the same everywhere else, and Nicholls is the cheaper of colleges, so you’d pay more going anywhere else.”

Despite the possible decrease in availability for TOPS, students are willing to resort to alternative methods of payments to support their college educations.

Alyssa Ross, a junior biology pre-med from Houma said, “I lost TOPS from transferring from LSU to Nicholls, and with or without TOPS, I think you should definitely go to college. There are student loans and private companies that can give you loans. Nothing should stop you from getting your education. You find a way.”