OSU Institute of Technology has created the Hire Education Learning Promise (HELP) to:
You’ve got questions? We’ve got answers!
OSU Institute of Technology’s HELP award is a gap-funding scholarship. OHLAP will pay your tuition charges. After these charges have been deducted, participation in the HELP will provide the amount necessary to cover the remaining fees as well as up to $1,200 per academic year (three trimesters) for a book allowance. OSU Institute of Technology will work with you to cover your remaining costs, except room and board, through other sources-like the Pell Grant, OTAG, institutional grants or scholarships, and work-based programs. Funds awarded through HELP will only cover up to your calculated financial need and can be reduced if you receive private scholarships or other privately funded resources.
If you do not qualify for OSU Institute of Technology’s HELP, you may still receive grants and other types of financial aid. Please see the Student Financial Services website for more information.
We believe that students from all backgrounds should have the opportunity to attend OSU Institute of Technology. Finances should not be a barrier to getting a college degree, especially from a land grant university. With the HELP, OSU Institute of Technology promises to assist you cover the cost of your college degree because without our assistance you may not otherwise afford to attend.
To be eligible for HELP:
The first awards began academic year 2007-08.
Yes!
Just as you would with our other financial aid programs:
OSU Institute of Technology’s HELP is gap program funding, i.e., the gap between the sum of the student’s gift aid and the amount needed to pay for books and fees (excluding room and board, and tools). Required fees will be covered. The book allowance will be limited to $1,200 or the actual amount whichever is the least. Each student must participate in a work-based program (college work study or employer-based internship) and earn a minimum of $900 over three academic terms which is applied toward tuition and fees. The amount of the award may vary each year depending on the other financial assistance received by the student.
International study program fees are not covered under the HELP. If you participate in an international education program, check with our Office of International Affairs at +1 918 293 5071 for more information.
Upon receiving the final paperwork from your school, the OHLAP office will evaluate your transcript and notify you in writing. When applying to OSU Institute of Technology you should state that you are a potential OHLAP recipient.
You must apply for financial aid each year. To remain eligible for HELP:
Each year, OSU Institute of Technology awards more than $10 million in aid to about 80% of our students. If you don’t qualify for HELP, we still have grant, scholarship, work-study, and loan funds that you may be offered to help you cover your costs. The key is to apply for aid by filing the FAFSA in a timely fashion each year. If you have not applied when you come to campus, we will help you get started.
Many of the students who will be served by HELP will receive grants or scholarships beyond the cost of tuition and fees. Your financial aid award letter will list any other scholarships or grants you are eligible to receive. Most students at OSU Institute of Technology receive awards from a combination of aid programs – loans and work-study are often offered in addition to grants and scholarship funds.
The HELP is a guarantee that your tuition, fees, and books will be covered with a combination of federal, state, and institutional grant and scholarship funds. If you are already receiving more grants and scholarships than the cost of your tuition and standard fees, then your HELP has been met. However, if tuition increases, you are guaranteed to see an increase in OHLAP, grant and/or scholarship funds to cover tuition, fees and books.
OSU Institute of Technology’s worked based programs are directly linked to your education. The university has two different work-study programs: college work study which is funded by the federal government; and institutional work study which is funded by OSU Institute of Technology. In both cases, students work for OSU Institute of Technology and are generally paid minimum wage and may work up to 15 hours each week.
All of OSU Institute of Technology’s degree programs require students to complete at least one employer-based internship for college credit. With few exceptions, students are paid by their employers during the internship. Internships help students successfully transition from school to work in a rapid fashion.
Yes!
HELP requires students to take a minimum of 12 credit hours per semester. There is no minimum or maximum number of hours of enrollment required for payment of OHLAP during any term of eligibility. However, you are encouraged to take enough hours to earn a degree before your period of OHLAP scholarship eligibility expires.
No. Only full-time students qualify for HELP. However, depending on how much Pell Grant and/or OTAG you are eligible to receive, your pro-rated award for part-time attendance may be enough to cover the cost of tuition.
Yes. OSU Institute of Technology operates year round (trimester calendar) and we encourage you to attend year round in order to complete your degree as soon as possible and enter the workforce with a good paying job that has excellent career advancement potential.
To be eligible for the HELP, you must meet all citizenship requirements of the federal and state aid programs. In general, this means you must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. You must also be a resident of Oklahoma.
You must maintain good academic standing to remain eligible for HELP. At OSU Institute of Technology, good academic standing means achieving at least a 1.7 cumulative graduation/retention GPA during your first 30 semester credit hours attempted and at least a 2.0 cumulative graduation/retention GPA after 30 semester credit hours attempted.
Yes, for the duration of your academic suspension. You will not be paid HELP for any term(s) you are not enrolled at OSU Institute of Technology due to academic suspension. You may receive HELP again after you resume enrollment, but any term(s) of HELP not paid are lost permanently. (For purposes of HELP eligibility, academic suspension is defined as not being permitted to continue enrolling at OSU Institute of Technology.)
HELP requires students to be enrolled full-time (12 credit hours per term). However, OHLAP encourages students to maintain full time enrollment in order to graduate on time but it is not required. You can still receive your OHLAP scholarship if you are enrolled part-time but your 5-year period of scholarship eligibility will not be extended. Full-time enrollment is required to receive HELP.
You will be able to receive HELP again the next semester as long as you are in good academic standing and your five-year maximum period of OHLAP eligibility has not expired. You will not be required to reimburse OHLAP for the dropped courses. However, OHLAP and the State Regents recommend that you try to keep this to a minimum. Legislation passed during the 1997 Oklahoma legislative session authorizes the State Regents to set a limit on the number of courses/credit hours to which the OHLAP scholarship will apply. At present, no limit has been set, but the State Regents could impose a limit at some future date.
HELP is state funded and is not affected by federal financial aid suspension. However, students who would normally qualify for HELP-PLUS, which is federally funded, will not be eligible to receive HELP-PLUS until any period of federal financial aid suspension is lifted.
Yes, but you lose some of your OHLAP eligibility which will also affect your HELP eligibility.
Although you are encouraged to stay in school and complete your degree, the OHLAP program acknowledges that interruptions in a student’s college career are sometimes unavoidable. Once you start attending college, the five-year clock on your OHLAP eligibility starts ticking.
When you return, you should contact the Office of Student Financial Services at OSU Institute of Technology to let them know that you are an HELP student and that you are resuming your undergraduate education.
While any year(s) that you do not attend college WILL count against your total of five years of HELP scholarship eligibility, you may resume using HELP again upon your return until your eligibility for it expires. Exceptions to this rule may be considered if the interruption is due to extraordinary circumstances such as medical reasons or required military service; in that case, contact the OHLAP office in Oklahoma City at 405-225-9239 or OHLAPinfo@osrhe.edu for more information. You should also contact the OHLAP office if you are unsure of the exact date that your eligibility for OHLAP expires.
(IMPORTANT NOTE: This same degree of flexibility DOES NOT apply to tuition waiver and cash scholarships from OSU Institute of Technology. If you have tuition waiver and/or cash scholarships awarded by OSU Institute of Technology and find that you must be gone for a period of time, you must contact the Office of Student Financial Services to request a deferment of those scholarships BEFORE you leave OSU Institute of Technology. Approvals of deferment requests are not automatic. Not all tuition waiver or cash scholarships can be deferred. You must comply with all of the terms of the deferment to resume eligibility for your scholarships upon your return.)
Yes, your OHLAP scholarship will transfer to OSU Institute of Technology and you will be eligible to participate in HELP.
Contact the Office of Student Financial Services at OSU Institute of Technology to let them know you are transferring to OSU Institute of Technology as an OHLAP student. (You should also submit the Application for Admission/Scholarships by the application deadline.) OSU Institute of Technology will enroll you in the HELP program. it is not necessary to contact the OHLAP office at the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education to tell them of your transfer.
Yes, with the following conditions: Remedial course charges may include additional fees or costs beyond normal in-residence tuition costs. HELP will not pay any such additional fee amount. Any such payment will be limited to the equivalent per-credit-hour rate for a resident course multiplied by the number of credit hours offered for the course.
A student’s enrollment in such a course may not show in the University computer system accessible by the Office of Scholarships & Financial Aid. Thus, an HELP student wishing to use HELP to pay for this type of course must bring evidence of enrollment in that course as well as evidence of the cost for that course to the Office of Student Financial Services before payment can be made.
