Courses that count towards a degree or certificate are set in the catalog and then tracked through DegreeWorks. If a course doesn’t count towards that degree or certificate, LBCC cannot award financial aid and the college cannot meet the expectations of the Department of Education for the awarding and release of federal financial aid.

Summer 2025.

This is not a new federal financial aid requirement, but now that our college systems can determine course eligibility for financial aid, we are expected to use it to meet the requirement. What is new today is that we now have the technology and software available to implement a systematic DAC monitoring program that the Department of Education expects of all colleges that disburse Title IV funds.

DAC is for students who receive federal financial aid. While only students who receive federal financial aid will be affected by a DAC evaluation, the DAC functionality in DegreeWorks will apply to all students. Faculty and academic advisors will not know which students receive federal financial aid (and need to follow DAC guidelines) and which do not. Therefore, academic advisors will advise all students to follow DAC guidelines.

If you are not a federal financial aid recipient, you do not need to follow the DAC guidelines.

While faculty and academic advisors have a role to help answer questions and guide students, you will ultimately be responsible for making sure you are taking courses that apply to your program of study for the receipt of federal financial aid.

Your program of study includes the graduation requirements for an associate degree or one-year certificate, which are comprised of the following curriculum blocks:

• One or more majors (which may have concentrations or emphases) and
• Any minors or certificates

The graduation requirements for an associate degree may include general electives if they are needed to complete 90 hours. A minimum of 90 hours are required for a bachelor's degree. The credit requirements for some associate programs of study exceed 90 hours.

You are eligible for federal financial aid for courses that are meeting your program of study requirements.

You can take courses that do not apply to your program of study, but you must enroll in 12 credits that do apply to get full-time federal financial aid (i.e. once you enroll in 12 credits that apply to your program of study, you will receive full-time federal financial aid, and any additional hours do not need to be DAC. 

Enrollment intensity is the percentage of full-time enrollment at which a student is enrolled, rounded to the nearest whole percent. For example, full-time enrollment is 12 credit hours, and you are enrolled in seven DAC hours, so the enrollment intensity would be 7 ÷ 12 × 100% = 58.3% (rounded to 58%). You would have Pell eligibility of 58% of the award amount and are considered to have half-time enrollment for all other federal aid considerations.

Credit Hours	Enrollment Intensity Formula	Enrollment Intensity	Enrollment Status Equivalent
12 (or more)	12 ÷ 12 = 1.0	100%	Full-time
11	11 ÷ 12 = 0.917	92%	Three-quarter-time
10	10 ÷ 12 = 0.833	83%	Three-quarter-time
9	9 ÷ 12 = 0.75	75%	Three-quarter-time
8	8 ÷ 12 = 0.667	67%	Half-time
7	7 ÷ 12 = 0.583	58%	Half-time
6	6 ÷ 12 = 0.50	50%	Half-time
5	5 ÷ 12 = 0.417	42%	Less-than-half-time
4	4 ÷ 12 = 0.333	33%	Less-than-half-time
3	3 ÷ 12 = 0.25	25%	Less-than-half-time
2	2 ÷ 12 = .0167	17%	Less-than-half-time
1	1 ÷ 12 = 0.083	8%	Less-than-half-time

A dependent student has an Student Aid Index (SAI, formerly EFC) of zero and enrolls in 12 credits. Of the 12 credits, nine credits are considered eligible for financial aid.

As a full-time Pell recipient, a student would be eligible for $2,465 per term. They would also be eligible for state funding from the Oregon Promise Grant (OPG) and the Oregon Opportunity Grant (OOG).  If only nine of the 12 credits are eligible for aid, the student would realize a reduced amount of $616 for the Pell grant.

Type of Aid	Aid at 9 DAC Credits	Aid at 12 DAC Credits
Pell	$1,848.75	$2,465.00
OOG	$1,300.00	$1,300.00
OPG	$686.00	$686.00
Total	$3,834.75	$4,451.00

One thing to keep in mind is that just because a course doesn’t have a direct place on the audit does not necessarily mean that the course is not degree approved. Courses which work towards pre-reqs a student needs in order to take a course are called “Remedial Courses” by DAC. These courses will receive federal financial aid, and will be degree approved, for up to 20 credits in total. By default, any course that doesn’t have a place in a student’s audit and begins with a zero is considered to be a remedial course.

Students who are a part of the DPP program with another school and ours can sometimes fall into a special exclusion for our Degree Approved Courses. If the student’s homeschool isn’t LBCC then our DAC does not affect their financial aid and instead that student’s financial aid would be determined by their homeschool. Students who do have LBCC as their homeschool will be processed as normal by DAC.

For students who have LBCC as their homeschool and are taking courses at another school, DAC won’t be run on those external registrations, however registrar’s office staff will perform case-by-case analysis on each registration to determine if the course would be Degree Approved or not for their degree here at LBCC.

With DAC, all exceptions/petitions/substitutions must be submitted, approved, and applied before the final day to add or drop courses for the term in order to be considered by DAC. This only applies directly to exceptions/petitions/substitutions that directly affect a student’s current registration. That could include moving a course taken in the past in order to make room in the audit for a new registration that is a better fit for a student. 

This process is unchanged from previous terms but is especially important for Degree Approved Courses. When a student submits a change of program request during an active term, and after the deadline to add or drop courses, that request will take effect at the start of the next term. This means that a student needs to be aware of when their change of program actually takes place and make sure that they are taking courses that benefit whatever their current program is. A student who takes courses for what their program will be in a future term is unlikely to receive all of their financial aid as it is unlikely that all of their registrations will benefit their current program.

You will see it in DegreeWorks in the top box.  It will show the courses not approved for the degree/certificate and the number of credits that count towards the degree or certificate.

 

You can contact your advisor or the Advising Center.