SEM Scholarship Proposal
This is a proposal to coordinate the scholarship and financial aid awarding processes by
combining the authority of both merit scholarships and need based financial aid with one entity,
the Scholarship Committee. The Director of Financial Aid will serve as the Administrative
Coordinator at the pleasure of the committee chair. Through the implementation of this program
ALL scholarships will be reconciled through the authority of the Scholarship Committee.
Combining these functions, the goals of the scholarship committee will include:
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Improved retention
Improved Customer service to all scholarship applicants
Earlier deadlines for awards
Spending as much scholarship money as possible
Broader spectrum of input with a more complete financial picture of all
student awards including institutional, federal, state, and third party
funding.
Better response time to donors and more consistent adherence to the
donor’s Memorandum of Understandings, (MOU’S).
An opportunity to leverage financial aid awards to impact student
enrollment to meet institutional objectives.
To implement these goals, the following schedule will be adopted:
For Fall Semester awards:
January 1st
New Student (including transfer) scholarship application deadline.
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January 15
Fund-balances provided to scholarship chairperson by foundation, departments
and endowed funds held by institution.
January 20th Department heads deliver New/Transfer student awards to Scholarship
Committee.
February 1st Award/Notification to all new/transfer student scholarship recipients.
February 1st Continuing Student Scholarship application deadline.
March 1st
FAFSA Priority Deadline for all students.
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March 15
First round notification of federal awards to students with complete financial aid
files.
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March 20
Department heads deliver continuing student awards to Scholarship Committee.
March 15th Award all continuing student scholarships (committee).
May 1st
Deadline to accept scholarship awards for new and continuing students (consistent
with the Statement of Principles of Good Practices).
May 10th
Re-award declined scholarships
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June 15
Audit to ensure all students met conditions and criteria of their scholarship
awards.
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June 30
Re-award scholarships after audit where students didn’t meet conditions and
criteria of awarded scholarship.
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Dec 17
Banner audit for meeting satisfactory academic progress standards.
Dec. 30th
Funds identified for scholarships and tuition waivers to be awarded for Spring
Semester.
Issues:
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Continuing Student awards prior to posting of spring grades. This issue will be addressed
with conditions in award notification and audits ran over the summer.
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The scholarship committee will review the scholarship formulas for both new and
continuing students to ensure processes fit institutional goals. For example the new
student formula is widely considered to be too heavily weighted toward class rank and
not standardized test scores. Also, the continuing student formula may need to be
changed due to the recommended change in the awarding process.
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Students with less than 24 Montana Tech Credits. Often students starting in the spring do
not have access to new student scholarships and are also not considered for fall
scholarships because they have fewer than 24 Montana Tech credits. (Issue needs the
immediate attention of the committee)
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COT students transferring to Montana Tech. Students are currently not considered for
new or continuing student scholarships. ( Issue needs the immediate attention of the
committee)
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Need to work with IT staff to update current databases into a more integrated
system.