Kristin Welsch
Assistant Director of Financial Aid
Oregon State University
Elaine Robinson
Assistant Director of Financial Aid
Linn-Benton Community College

• Student must apply to each individual partnership program
• No additional application fees for students already admitted into OSU
• Admissions information, deadlines and application can be found at www.oregonstate.edu/dpp

• Admissions information is transmitted electronically to partner community colleges admissions offices weekly or biweekly
• Contains specific admission information needed by the partner school
• Changes in admission status are reported

• Student has been admitted to a degree partnership program but has not yet declared a home school
• Coded when the OSU Financial Aid Office is notified by Admissions that the student has been admitted to a degree partnership program
• Stops everything at OSU
– No packaging aid
– No processing of requests
– No disbursements

• Student has declared the partner school as the home school
• Stops everything at OSU
– No packaging aid
– No processing of requests
– No disbursements

• Student has declared OSU as the home school
• Financial aid activity resumes at
OSU
– Aid will be packaged
– Requests are processed
– Disbursements will be made

• Online questionnaire (Preferred)
– Sent initially to students when admitted into program
– Also available through a link on OSU student online services
• Home school declaration form
• In writing: email, letter, fax
• OSU is notified by partner school

• Upon receiving admissions information, code the student as dual enrolled to ensure that
OSU is receiving enrollment information
• Place a hold on the aid until receiving confirmation of home school declared by student
• Notify OSU of any home school changes requested by the student
• OSU will notify partner school of any home school updates

• Parameters vary by partner
• Emails, online questionnaires and forms are tailored to a specific partnership
• There is an educational component to declaring a home school

• Multiple-enrollment data exchange for financial aid purposes
• Allows combination of enrollment from multiple institutions for financial aid

• Level of enrollment
• Student Status Confirmation Report (SSCR)
• Withdrawals
• End of Term grades/credits (SAP)
• Monitoring for aid-eligible courses
• Institutional policies and deadlines for drops, adds, receiving W’s, etc.
• **ESTABLISH TIMELINES FOR SHARING**

• Participating schools send in their data via a secure web site
• OFAX server processes file
– Match on SSN
– Return matching records sent in by other schools via password protected email attachment

• Data is sent/received in a text file.
• The full layout is available from OSAC’s web site. http://www.osac.state.or.us/ofax_faq.html
• This file can be loaded into Excel and processed manually, or loaded into a database and automated via local programming.
• This allows schools to process the OFAX data any way they see fit.

• We’ve written a local process that the Financial Aid Office runs
• It loads up the file returned from
OFAX and assigns the correct local
OSU term code
– term codes are unique to each school yet we have to associate data for corresponding terms

• Verify/More reporting. Report on
– Home institution discrepancies
– Continued enrollment at partner institution
– Any other “oddball” things (like same course at two places at once)
• Disburse aid based on sum of OSU hours plus qualifying hours at participating institution(s)
• Report SSCR data accurately for those whom
OSU is their “Home institution”
• Satisfactory Academic Progress processing after term has finished
• We’ve also written a display-only data form that the FAO can query…

• Student must complete FAFSA for the correct academic year and have no outstanding financial aid requirements
• If student has declared OSU as home school, aid will pay onto the student’s account on the first day of classes
• Aid will 1 st pay OSU account balance, remainder will be refunded to student
– It is the student’s responsibility to pay the partner school

• The student release on the FAFSA indicates okay to share data for determining financial aid eligibility
• The student authorizes sharing the data on the admission application
• Institutions may not report a student to
OFAX unless they have signed up at that institution
• The data may only be used for
Financial Aid purposes

• Memorandums of Understanding
– Agreements by partner institutions to provide programs, services, etc.
• Consortium Agreements
– Developed by partner offices of Financial Aid
• Purpose
– Required by USED to ensure compliance with regulations
– Must determine “home school” for financial aid purposes
– Definition of “home school” varies

• Admitted to degree program
• Enrolled in eligible courses, transcription
• Level of enrollment (full time, part time)
• Combined enrollment
• Student budgets
• Changes in enrollment or program
• Satisfactory academic progress
• Academic calendar, deadlines
• Start/End dates
• Types of information systems
• Multiple partner schools

• OFAX Website
– www.osac.state.or.us/ofax.html
• Contacts
– Joyce Eaton joyce.y.eaton@state.or.us
– Kristin.Welsch@oregonstate.edu
– John.Snyder@oregonstate.edu