[Oasfaa] 2007-2008 OTAG Program - Work Copy Pre-Populated Reports Are Available

[Joyner, Shiela]

We invite institutions that use "work copy" pre-populated OTAG Award Claim Forms to identify their potential OTAG awardees for 2007-2008 to submit their requests to reports at otag.org at their convenience.  Unless your institution is processing early disbursements; however, we ask that any reports issued at this time be used as work copies for your internal office processes only.  The OTAG database changes daily as new ISIR records are loaded.  Holding a "stale" report for any length of time to complete and submit when you are ready to disburse funds to your students can create data mismatches when we process your completed Award Claim Form, and we are very much interested in avoiding as many mismatches as possible.  

Please be reminded that pre-populated Award Claim Forms are provided upon request by the institution only, and OTAG does not routinely provide pre-populated Award Claim Forms to all institutions.

Excel spreadsheet reports will be created in Excel 2003.  If your institution uses Excel 2002 or later, you should be able to benefit from features such as being able to delete entire rows when processing pre-populated Award Claim Forms.

As announced earlier, April 30, 2007, is the FAFSA receipt date cutoff for fall 2007 awards.  Pre-populated reports will include records for students who met this cutoff and have a 1500 or lower EFC.  The FAFSA receipt date cutoff and possibly the EFC cutoff will be re-evaluated for the spring semester after fall disbursement activity has concluded, and we are able to determine funds availability.

The statutory requirement for awarding priority to eligible renewal applicants appears to apply to only one institution and one student in 2007-2008.  The only "lucky" institution we will be contacting regarding a renewal applicant this year is Cameron University. 

As a reminder, OTAG policy amendments that were first effective in 2006-2007 include:  

*	Undergraduate students are no longer limited to 10 FTUG disbursements.
*	Eligibility for undergraduates is limited to students who have not already received their first bachelor's degree.  Note:  Students who meet the 1500 EFC cutoff and the April 30 FAFSA receipt date cutoff will appear in pre-populated Award Claim Forms, even if they have reported on their FAFSA that they would have their first bachelor's degree by July 1.  They will be highlighted in yellow on the Excel Award Claim Form to call your attention to them; if they have indeed received their first bachelor's degree, you should delete them from your report before submitting it to OTAG for awarding and disbursement of funds.
*	Pro-rated awards have been discontinued.

The only remaining difference in OTAG eligibility and Pell eligibility is OTAG's Oklahoma residency requirement.  All other Pell and general Title IV eligibility requirements are applicable to OTAG.  Of course, OTAG continues to have a lower EFC and receipt date cutoff for awarding purposes due to limited funds availability.

We are in the process of updating for 2007-2008 operations the OTAG section of the OSRHE Financial Aid Resources for Institutions site, and will make an announcement when this process has been completed. 

More information will be forthcoming regarding the 2007-2008 OTAG program.  Please contact our office if you have questions or if we can provide more information.

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Shiela Joyner, Director
Oklahoma Tuition Aid Grant Program
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
P. O.  Box 108850
Oklahoma City, OK 73101-8850
Internet:  sjoyner at otag.org
Voice: (405) 225-9378    Toll Free (877) 662-6231
Fax: (405) 225-9392