Clock Credit

Federal regulations require colleges to convert hours for certain diploma programs based on a federally regulated formula. Most often the conversion process results in lower Pell payments per term. What this means is, the determination of enrollment status (full-time, half-time, etc.) for financial aid awarding, by federal regulations, is different for diploma programs.

This determination of enrollment status is different because the program has one or more courses that cannot be used toward a two-year associates program. Enrollment status determination for diploma programs involves taking each course's clock/contact hours a student takes each semester and dividing it by 30. These converted credits are used to determine the enrollment status, and your award status will be based on the financial aid converted hours, NOT the actual credit hours.

Example: If you are enrolled in a 3 credit hour course that has 75 clock hours, you would divide 30 into the 75 clock hours (75/30=2.5). Therefore, you would end up being eligible for only 2 financial aid credit hours. *SPECIAL NOTE: DO NOT ROUND UP WHEN TOTALING HOURS.

Click on the programs below to determine the converted hours for your program.

You may be enrolled full-time academically; however, your financial aid will be calculated using converted hours. Please use the tables in the program links above to determine your financial aid enrollment status. These tables contain specific course names with their actual number of "payable financial aid credit hours” for those courses. These payable financial aid credit hours determine how much your Pell grant award will be based on the Department of Education's Clock Hour to Credit Hour Regulations. The reduced hours may result in reduced federal Pell grant awards.

The Office of Financial Aid created these tables for use when scheduling courses, and enrollment specialists are available to help you when determining Pell grant awards. Please review the scholarship section of our website to look for additional funding opportunities.

It is the student's responsibility to ensure program of study and enrolled courses are correct. Financial aid cannot pay for courses outside of the official program of study listed in the College Catalog. Contact your advisor or go to your LoLA account to change your program of study and select appropriate classes.