Enrollment Requirement

Students must be seeking a degree at Ozarks Technical Community College and enrolled as a full time student.

A+ considers full time:

• Fall Semester : 12 credit hours
• Spring Semester : 12 credit hours
• Summer Semester : 6 credit hours

A+ High School Transcript Requirement

In order to receive A+ funding, OTC’s Admissions Office must have your official A+ high school transcript on file. To do so, contact your high school and request them to submit your final transcript after graduation. To be considered official, your transcript must be sent from the high school or hand delivered to OTC’s Admissions Office in the original sealed envelope. Your transcript must have the graduation/completion date and the A+ seal. Transcripts sent prior to graduation are always considered incomplete.  How to send an official transcript.

FAFSA Requirement

In order to receive A+ funding, you must complete the FAFSA application with OTC’s school code (030830).

• Which FAFSA should I complete?

Course Completion Requirement

A+ students must complete 12 credit hours or more during each regular semester and, if enrolled for summer, a minimum of 6 credit hours.

Grade Point Average Requirement

A student must maintain a cumulative 2.50 grade point average or above (includes all college level classes taken at OTC after high school graduation).

Items Covered by the A+ Program

• In-district & out-of-district tuition for seated or online courses (max. rate $175.25 per credit hour)
• Common fees:
  • Student fee
  • Technology fee (not including labs)
  • Security fee
  • Facility/infrastructure fee per semester
  • Registration Fee

Items not Covered by A+

• Books, supplies, miscellaneous fees, lab fees or online course fees incurred while you are enrolled.
• Repeated courses. If you repeat a course to change a grade (F, D, C, B, or A), the A+ program will not pay for that course, but the hours will count toward meeting the full-time credit hour requirement. The exception is if the student first attempted the course in high school.

Tuition Rate Cap

For the 2019-20 academic year, the government capped the A+ tuition eligible for reimbursement at $175.25 per credit hour.

My Awards

The A+ award amount you see serves as an award max or ceiling for the semester. That amount can increase or decrease based on your tuition and fees but often does not change.  Behind the scenes, the system adds up your eligible tuition and common fees, then applies the total directly to your student account balance.  For example, you might see $2500.00 but you see $1,845 in QuikPay.

How A+ Works with the Federal Pell Grant

The A+ program covers the unpaid balance of your tuition and general fees after OTC applies all available, non-loan federal financial assistance, such as the federal Pell grant, to your account. This may result in a zero award if your Pell grant is sufficient to cover all tuition and general fee charges.

Maintaining A+ Eligibility

OTC reviews eligibility at the end of each semester. To maintain A+, students enroll full time for the duration of the semester and maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average requirement or above.

Initial A+ Students Must:

• Be new to attending an A+ eligible institution
• Be degree seeking with Ozarks Technical Community College
• Have a current FAFSA on file; click here for help with determining which application to fill out
• Have a cumulative 2.0 grade point average or above during fall end of term
• Meet satisfactory academic progress
• Have a cumulative 2.5 grade point average or above during spring end of term
• Have current A+ status

Renewed A+ Students Must:

• Have a cumulative 2.5 grade point average or above every semester
• Be degree seeking with Ozarks Technical Community College
• Have a current FAFSA on file; click here for help with determining which application to fill out
• Meet satisfactory academic progress
• Have current A+ status

A+ Expiration Rule

Student eligibility for A+ funding will expire at the earliest of the following:

• 4 years (48 months) after high school graduation
• Receipt of an Associate’s Degree
• When a student completes 105% of the credit hours required for his/her certificate or degree

Excludes credit hours earned before high school graduation.

Includes credit hours earned at any other post-secondary institution

105% Example:  If an associate’s degree requires 62 credit hours then 105%= 62 x 1.05 = 65 credit hours. Therefore, once the student completes 65 hours, they will no longer be eligible for A+ funding. If a student begins the semester under the 105% limit, OTC  considers the student eligible for all eligible classes taken during the semester.

Consequences of Dropping Below Full Time

You must complete 12 credit hours or more to satisfy the full time course completion requirement (6 hours in summer). If you drop below the full time course completion requirement, you will be ineligible for your following term of enrollment. However, you do not have to pay money back.

During the semester of ineligibility, you would need to retake the number of credit hours dropped below 12 (fall/spring) or 6 (summer).   For example: If you started in 12 credit hours during the fall semester but completed 9, you would have to complete a minimum of 3 credit hours to regain eligibility for the next period of enrollment.

Any classes taken during the semester of ineligibility would not be covered by A+.

Exception to the Full Time Rule

You can receive A+ funding and attend school less than full-time if you meet one of the exceptions below:

• Have a documented disability and an ADA letter on file with the Financial Aid Office from Disability Support Services.
• Plan to graduate at the end of the semester and have applied for graduation with the Registrar’s Office. You must email the A+ Office at financialaid@otc.edu if this applies to you.
• Have been accepted in an Allied Health program and the hours required for a given term are limited to less than full-time enrollment.

Repeating A Class

A+ funds will pay for a course one time. Repeated courses are not covered by the A+ program. If you repeat a course to change a grade (F, D, C, B, or A), the repeated course will not be paid for by the A+ program, but the hours will count toward meeting the full time credit hour requirement.

A+ will pay for you to repeat a class if A+ did not pay for the first attempt. An example of this would be if your first attempt was in high school.

Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) Definition

A cumulative grade point average is the combined average of all college level classes taken after high school graduation. Credits transferred from another college or university are not calculated into the cumulative GPA.

Visiting Students

Visiting students to OTC or students enrolled at 4-year colleges and universities during the prior fall or spring semesters of the current school year are not eligible to use A+ funding during the summer semester.  This is due to the fact a student must be degree seeking at the institution where A+ is utilized.