FAQ

• Create an OSAC student account
• Complete the personal "Profile" section
• Select "Continue to Scholarships" at the bottom of the "Profile" page
• Complete sections 1-5 of the OSAC Scholarship Application and upload any required transcripts, extra documents, essays and extra questions.
• Submit a complete error free application before the final deadline of March 3.

The application opens November 1 each year. Be sure to also submit your FAFSA or ORSAA when it opens in December. 

• Log into the OSAC student portal.
• From the Dashboard, scroll to the bottom and click on your current Scholarship application. Next to each section, you will see a green checkmark or a red triangle indicating a complete or incomplete application.
• Ensure all sections have a green checkmark and that all required fields and certification boxes are checked.
• Check that all of your transcripts are uploaded or have been scanned into the application from a mailed transcript.
• "Section 2: Transcripts" will show that it is complete if you chose to upload your transcript later or that you will mail in a transcript. If this action is not complete, the section will not be complete.
• If you choose the option to upload your transcript later and do not return to upload the transcript, your application will be rejected. 
• You can edit some sections of your submitted application up to the final deadline.

• Log into the OSAC Student Portal. If you have forgotten your log in credentials, please us the "forgot my password" link or contact us at: sa.feedback@hecc.oregon.gov or 541-687-7400 (Mon-Fri).
• From the Dashboard page, you can review your information and check the status of your application by scrolling towards the bottom of the dashboard page to see whether OSAC considers your application complete.
  • Statuses will either read "Pending Review," "Valid," or "Needs Corrections" (with notes about those corrections).

Read and follow all the instructions. Utilize a mentor to review the application for spelling and clerical errors. Submit a valid FAFSA or ORSAA and all the required documents before the March 3, deadline. The applicants that follow the instructions and submit completed applications with all supporting documents are considered for scholarships.

• Transcripts are reviewed and processed by OSAC.
• An applicant pool is developed for each scholarship program based on individual scholarship criteria and information provided by applicants.
• Recipients are selected by selection committees for each program. Additional information may be requested.
• You will receive an email notification when your application is submitted, reviewed, and if you are awarded.
• After submitting your application some fields can be updated, and scholarships can be added until the application deadline.
• Beginning in late April, you should regularly log in to your Dashboard to check the status of your scholarships.

Yes. Many OSAC scholarships are open to home-schooled students.

You must submit the following documents with your OSAC scholarship application (requirements may be different if not an Oregon resident):

• A copy of the Confirmation of Enrollment letter on file at your local Educational Service District (ESD) (also called “Letter of Intent to home-school”). A DMV receipt or record will not suffice.
• A copy of the results of a tenth-grade standardized achievement test, required for all Oregon home-school students who have registered with their ESD.
• A transcript from your home-school with letter grades assigned.

The quickest way for you to get assistance is to use our contact form.  https://oregonstudentaid.gov/contact.aspx

Generally, scholarships are awarded May through August with a few awarded at a later date.

• Check the awarding status of the scholarships you applied for, by logging in to your Student Profile.
• Scholarship awardees will be notified by email.
• If awarded a scholarship please accept the award online as soon as you can, there is a deadline to accept the award.
• You will be given the opportunity to change your college of choice during the acceptance process.
• If you have questions about the award please fill out a contact ticket online, selecting Scholarships – Help for award recipients from the subject line drop down. This will put you in contact with the Scholarship Portfolio Coordinator for your specific fund. www.OregonStudenAid.gov

OSAC disburses funds directly to your school's financial aid office shortly before the beginning of each term/semester. Please note fall term disbursement may be delayed for some scholarships due to annual funds processing requirements. If your award is less than $1,000, it will be a one-time disbursement to your school fall term. If you do not attend school for a term, you will not be eligible to receive that portion of your award. Students must maintain the required enrollment status and satisfactory academic progress to receive disbursements throughout the year.

OSAC offers more than 95 scholarships for graduate-level students. The best way to determine which scholarships you are eligible to apply for is to complete the profile section of the application and continue to the Scholarship Application to view the recommended and employer/membership list(s) of scholarships. The recommended scholarship list will populate based on your answers to the profile questions. Read each scholarship requirement to determine if you qualify.

Yes.

• Click on the Grants section of the OSAC website to learn more.
• The Barbers and Hairdressers Grant is listed on the right-hand side.
• You can also apply for scholarships, a listing of OSAC Scholarships is located in the OSAC Scholarship Catalog.
• You can use the search function to find specific words, such as cosmetology, hairdresser, hair design or barbering.
• The best way to search for scholarships is to complete the OSAC Scholarship Application profile, the filtering in the application will give you a recommended list to view, you will choose the scholarships that you qualify for and want to apply for.

The Oregon Opportunity Grant and OSAC Scholarships do not support international students. Contact the college you plan to attend to see if they have aid available.

Yes, there are several scholarship programs specifically for transfer students.

For example, the Oregon Scholarship Fund Transfer Student Award (Scholarship Code 902) is awarded specifically to transfer students who are Oregon residents currently enrolled in their second year at a community college and planning to transfer to a 4-year college in the fall.

See the Scholarship Catalog for a complete listing of our scholarships. Also, the Oregon Opportunity Grant is available for transfer students and non-transfer students alike.

For OSAC-administered scholarships, a USA college is an institution located in a state and recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as eligible to participate in Title IV student financial aid programs. Ask the school you wish to attend if it meets these requirements.

Yes, but only if you are in the United States for other than a temporary purpose and intend to become a permanent resident of the United States. If you are a foreign student, be aware that all public four-year universities in Oregon offer limited scholarship help through the foreign student fee remission program.

Contact the admissions office at the school you plan to attend for more information about this program.

There are a few, although most OSAC scholarships require that applicants live in Oregon at least one year prior to September 1 of the school year applied for (e.g., for the 2024-25 school year, applicants will have had to start living in Oregon no later than September 1, 2023). For dependent students, Oregon residency is determined by the parents' state of residence. Eligible non-citizens who are Oregon residents are able to apply.

You may still be able to apply under certain circumstances, view the full definition of Oregon residency at: https://oregonstudentaid.gov/scholarships-eligibility.aspx

Yes, many OSAC scholarships are portable to non-Oregon colleges and universities. When you list your college as an out of state college, the recommended list of scholarships will only include scholarships that include out of state colleges.

You can find the link to file your FAFSA or ORSAA online at OregonStudentAid.gov.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or the Oregon Student Aid Application (ORSAA) helps determine the amount of student financial aid you are eligible to receive.

Please see the FAFSA and ORSAA web page to determine which application you should complete, https://oregonstudentaid.gov/

The information from the FAFSA is used by colleges for determining eligibility for the Pell Grant along with campus-based aid such as work-study.

The FAFSA and the ORSAA information is used by OSAC to determine eligibility for the Oregon Opportunity Grant and many of the scholarships administered by OSAC. You should file your FAFSA/ORSAA when they open in December so that you will receive the maximum student aid that you are eligible for. Campus-based aid and the Oregon Opportunity Grants are limited. Many financially needy students who are otherwise eligible miss out on these funds because they file their FAFSA too late. In addition, OSAC scholarships that are need-based require FAFSAs to be filed and any errors fixed in a timely manner. So don't wait! File your FAFSA/ORSAA when they open in December. Waiting to file the FAFSA/ORSAA for the current year is no longer required, the FAFSA will pull the prior year’s tax numbers.

Oregon residents who complete their FAFSA, automatically apply for the following programs:

• Oregon Opportunity Grant
• Federal Pell Grant
• Federal SEOG Grant
• Federal Work Study
• Stafford Loans
• PLUS Loans
• Certain campus-based aid programs (check with your college financial aid office for additional applications).

When you have a clean FAFSA (no errors) and provided any documentation that the college asks for, the student will receive notice from the school telling the student what type of financial aid package they have put together, based on the information from your FAFSA. Usually, you will receive this information in April or May. The package may include grants, loans, and work study funds, provided you indicated you would accept these types of financial aid on your FAFSA. You should always indicate you would accept any type of aid. It doesn’t obligate you to accept them at the time you file your FAFSA. You can tell the school later exactly what you agree to accept by signing their proposed financial aid package notice and returning it to them.

Filing a FAFSA or ORSAA is like getting in line. Student aid funds are usually limited, and those who file early have a better chance at receiving funds than those who wait. 

Beginning with the 2024-25 FAFSA, students submitting the form will receive a FAFSA Submission Summary.

The new FAFSA Submission Summary will replace the Student Aid Report (SAR). Although the FAFSA Submission Summary and SAR have different names, the purpose of the two are primarily the same. The FSS does have a more descriptive name of its purpose – which is a summary of all the information submitted on the student’s FAFSA.

However, just like the SAR, the FAFSA Submission Summary will need to be reviewed by students to make sure that all the information submitted is accurate. You will receive an FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS) when your FAFSA has been processed. If the information is not accurate, the student can make corrections or updates to the FAFSA. You may be able to process changes in 72 hours or less by requesting that the financial aid office at your school submit the changes electronically.

As a student or a parent, you may be faced with the prospect of borrowing a loan at some point when considering how to pay for college. The initial step in the financial aid process, even to be awarded a student loan, is to complete the FAFSA on an annual basis. Don’t forget to apply for scholarships and grants, which can be free money that can be applied toward your college expenses.

For detailed information about loan forgiveness, here is a website you can access: Student loan forgiveness

Visit your high school or college counselor. We provide links to free, online databases which list thousands of scholarships. A few valuable website resources for students and parents are:

• www.finaid.org

Students and parents can do extensive scholarship searches on the Internet. You can link to free, online databases such as MACH 25, FastWEB, and ExPAN, all of which list thousands of scholarships. Informative web pages about student financial aid is Finaid! and The SmartStudent Guide to Financial Aid. For more scholarship scam information, go to www.ftc.gov/ or www.finaid.org. WARNING: The Attorney General of the State of Oregon and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission have both issued warnings and taken action against companies that “guarantee” scholarships to families using for-a-fee scholarship search services. State and federal authorities would like to remind families that using the word “guarantee” in promotional materials is a questionable activity of scholarship search businesses.

If you have created a scholarship application in a previous year OSAC will try to find your application via the OSAC Student Portal. If you can't remember your Username or Password, go to the OSAC Student Portal, and then click on the 'Forgot User Name, Password' button. If you enter the same data as used to create your account, the Student Portal will find your account. If your account is not found, check to make sure you have entered the information correctly. If you have changed your email address and no longer have access to the email address located in your OSAC account or your account cannot be found, you will need to contact OSAC directly to protect your secure information, 541-687-7400 or 800-452-8807. Do not attempt to create multiple accounts, call OSAC for assistance.

The OSAC Scholarship Application website is a secure site, protected by an industry standard encryption method, Secure Socket Layers (SSL). All web page addresses on the Scholarship Application website will begin with https://app.oregonstudentaid.gov/ or https://appuploads.oregonstudentaid.gov/; the https indicates a secure site. In most internet browsers users can click on the lock icon in the website address bar to read more details on the security certificate of the website you are visiting.

If your high school did not assign letter grades, check the “My school did not assign letter grades” box in the high school section of the application. Also, in addition to your high school transcript showing all work completed through fall term, upload documentation from your high school regarding how students are evaluated.

If your college did not assign letter grades, check the “My College did not assign grades” box in the college history section of the application and send transcripts of all college work completed through fall term. With the transcript you can include a document regarding how students are evaluated.

If you need proof of awarding, print your award acceptance, or if you received a paper award letter, give the school a copy. If that is not sufficient, have your school contact OSAC at 541-687-7400 for scholarship verification.

The official website for information on college savings plans offered through the State of Oregon is www.oregoncollegesavings.com

Each applicant has a My Dashboard page, created when an applicant first creates an OSAC Scholarship Application. The Dashboard page shows your application status, transcript status, some basic information you provided, scholarships you applied for, and the awarding status of those scholarships. You can also make changes to your name, contact information, college choice, and college major.

Complete scholarship details and eligibility criteria can be found in the OSAC Scholarship Catalog. The application will use your information for scholarship recommendation.