Affordable Colleges in Louisiana: Tuition and Financial Aid

Colleges to explore

Louisiana prices a term by your credit band, your residency and your program’s tier, and the online route is priced separately again. The rows below cover a community college, three public universities and one fully online degree path.

TOPS is decided before you enroll; the term bill is decided after

Louisiana’s TOPS scholarship is awarded from your high-school record and has to be kept through college, while the price of a term at a public university depends on your residency, your program’s tier and your credit band. The award levels below are the university’s description of the state program; LOSFA makes the eligibility decision.

Louisiana’s TOPS scholarship

TOPS is the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students. Per the UL Lafayette financial aid page, it provides Louisiana high school graduates meeting specific eligibility requirements with a scholarship if they choose to attend a Louisiana public college or university, and it is administered by the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance (LOSFA) — not by the university.

That distinction matters for what you can expect. The same page says LOSFA evaluates the records of all Louisiana high school graduates whose parents are also Louisiana residents, and that eligibility is determined through high school transcripts and student ACT scores. TOPS is therefore decided from your high school record before you ever enroll, and applying for TOPS requires completing the FAFSA.

The award is quoted per semester, and each level has its own thresholds:

These are the amounts this university lists, and its page states no academic year for them. Treat them as published award levels rather than an offer: LOSFA decides eligibility.

Keeping TOPS matters as much as earning it. The UL Lafayette page says you must be enrolled full time on the 15th class day to be paid for that semester, and must earn at least 24 credit hours per academic year. You must also keep a 2.0 cumulative GPA after each fall, intersession or summer term, and meet a spring GPA check: 2.30 after the first year and 2.50 after that for Opportunity, and 3.0 for the other levels. A part-time online student would usually not be paid. The university says part-time payment is possible only in special circumstances and tells students to ask a financial aid counselor first.

If you graduated outside Louisiana, or your parents were not Louisiana residents, the university’s description suggests TOPS may not apply. Confirm your situation with LOSFA (the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance), which runs the program.

How a Louisiana term is actually priced

Term totals by credit band, not a per-credit rate

The UL Lafayette current undergraduate schedule is published as a credit-hour band table with four residency and citizenship columns. The Summer 2026 Tier 2 schedule looks like this, with one row for each credit band and category:

Read the table by its unit: these are totals for the credit band, not a rate per credit, and the columns do not simply scale — the schedule shows the non-Louisiana-resident and international columns diverging sharply from seven credits upward. Ask the cashier’s office which row your planned load falls into rather than dividing a total by its credits.

Fees that sit outside this table are listed separately by the university, including a $7.50 Initial Enrollment Fee for first-time freshmen, a late registration fee of $50.00 (non-refundable), and Course and Lab fees. The university also warns that most courses are 3 credit hours, however it depends on the courses taken — so the credit band you land in is not fully under your control.

The pricing pages do not define residency. They classify students as Louisiana resident or non-Louisiana resident without explaining who qualifies, so ask the admissions office which category applies to you.

High-cost programs carry a different rate

Louisiana law allows universities to charge more for designated programs. Per the Differential Tuition page, under Act 790 amending R.S. 17:3351(A)(5)(a), Louisiana universities may establish differential tuition rates for undergraduate programs deemed high-cost (Tier 2), while low-cost programs are Tier 1. Accounting, Computer Science, Engineering and Nursing appear in the Tier 2 list; Criminal Justice and Elementary Education appear in Tier 1.

The Fall 2026 Louisiana resident table is again a credit-hour band table: 1 credit is $1,343 (Tier 1) and $1,382 (Tier 2); 12 credits is $5,580 and $5,736; 22 credits is $7,032 and $7,189. Because the tier follows the major, one rate cannot be multiplied across a whole degree — and a student who changes majors changes tier.

Online is priced separately, and some online degrees are packages

The Online and Hybrid Programs page states that all students enrolled in 100-percent online courses pay a flat-rate, per-credit-hour tuition: $380 per credit hour for undergraduates and $480 per credit hour for graduates, and out-of-state students pay the same rate as in-state students. That is a genuine uniform online rate — but additional course fees and lab fees are not included, so it is not a complete price.

Not every online degree works that way. The same page describes an MBA and an RN to BSN program sold as a package price that includes total tuition and course materials. A package price cannot be divided into a per-credit rate, so compare it as a package rather than a rate.

The other campuses on the shortlist

• Delgado Community College. The catalog prints the schedule as totals by credit count with the fee columns, so the marginal cost per credit changes between 12 and 13 credits. The academic excellence fee is charged at $7 per credit hour and stops at $84, and an access fee of $75 each fall and spring semester ($50 each summer session, capped at $150 per academic year) applies to all students outside the per-hour total. The table describes estimated rates that the LCTCS Board of Supervisors can change at any time, and online proctoring charges vary from $2 an exam to $20 an exam (Delgado catalog).
• Louisiana State University. The yearly figure is an estimate the university says is based on the current year’s actual cost and is subject to change, and it is a yearly total at a 15-credit-hour load rather than a per-credit rate. LSU publishes separate 2026-2027 schedules for undergraduate study, student mandatory fees, LSU Online and differential tuition, so check the schedule for your college and campus (Fee schedules).
• LSU New Orleans. The bursar page prints the $10,518 and $15,354 yearly estimates as tuition and fees at 15 hours per semester for the fall and spring semesters, and states no academic year for them, so confirm the current schedule with the bursar before you budget. An academic excellence fee of $10 per credit hour is capped at $120 per semester, which shows that programme charges sit outside the yearly estimate.
• LSUA online. The about $353 per credit hour figure is the online accelerated rate for declared online students only, not the campus rate for on-site study. It is built from $290 per credit hour of tuition plus $14.33 academic excellence, $14 student excellence, $5 technology, $12 athletic and $1 health per credit hour, plus a $50 charge per course — so a three-credit course carries $150 in course fees — and a one-time $20 application fee. Textbooks and publisher site access are not included, and some classes require proctored exams.

What to do next in Louisiana

1. If you are a Louisiana high school graduate, check your LOSFA status and complete the FAFSA — the UL Lafayette page notes that applying for TOPS requires the FAFSA. Plan for full-time enrollment, 24 credit hours a year and the GPA checks if you want to keep the award.
2. If you are planning a UL Lafayette term, look up your exact credit band, residency column, and program tier on the cashier pages rather than computing an average.
3. If you want the online rate, confirm your program actually runs as a 100% online program; package-priced degrees do not use it, and LSUA’s online rate applies only to declared online accelerated programs.
4. Ask the admissions office which residency category applies to you. The pricing pages classify students as Louisiana resident or non-Louisiana resident without defining who qualifies.