Complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or a Renewal FAFSA online at https://studentaid.gov/. It is recommended that students and parents use the IRS data retrieval tool available to the FAFSA website. In order to use this tool, taxes need to be filed 3 weeks prior to the completion of the FAFSA. To apply for HOPE Grant or Scholarship only, complete a HOPE application at www.GAfutures.org.
OFTC school code is 031555.
No. You apply for Financial Aid once a year. All students must apply for Financial Aid for Fall Semester, which starts at the end of August, regardless of which semester you start. The Financial Aid year runs from July 1st through June 30th.
The U.S. Department of Education selects who is chosen for verification. Verification is the process where the information provided on the FAFSA is compared to the forms and documents submitted by the student. The Department of Education randomly selects applications for verification. The student must provide the Financial Aid Office with the requested documents. Financial aid will not be awarded until the verification process is complete. It is important that all documents requested be submitted to the financial aid portal at oftc.verifymyfafsa.com.
If the Financial Aid Office needs additional documentation or forms completed, you will receive an email or text.
The U.S. Department of Education asks several questions in Step 3 of the FAFSA to determine if a student will be considered an independent student or dependent student for federal financial aid purposes. If you cannot answer YES to at least one of these questions, you must include your parent’s, including adoptive parents and step-parents’ information, if applicable. You cannot use grandparents’ or other relatives’ information even if you live with them. If you have any questions concerning your dependency status, please contact the Financial Aid Office on either our North Campus (Sandersville) or South Campus (Dublin).
You will receive an award letter via email, which will tell you what type of Financial Aid you are eligible for, or you may go online and logon to your SOAR student account to check your financial aid eligibility.
SOAR gives students access to their personal and academic information via the internet. SOAR gives students the ability to view their financial aid information, account balances, holds, schedules, transcript, grades, etc. You can access SOAR by logging into your student account via myOFTC.
First, check your student account (SOAR) to determine if the college has received your application or if additional documents are needed. If the college has not received your application, you should go on-line to https://studentaid.gov/ to check to see if the OFTC school code is listed on your FAFSA. If not, you will need to add the school code
The first three days of the semester are considered the drop/add period. During these three days, you are allowed to drop or add class(es) without penalty to your financial aid.
Dropping classes could possibly result in a reduction of your Pell Grant, which may result in you owing money to the college. You could also possibly be put on Financial Warning or Suspension if you drop a class(es). If you are considering dropping a class, please stop by your Financial Aid Office to see how this will affect your financial aid.
Students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale. If a student’s cumulative GPA falls below the minimum, his/her financial aid is endangered. A student will be placed on Financial Aid Warning for the following term of attendance and may receive financial aid during the term placed on warning.
A student will be placed on Financial Aid Suspension for failure to meet the cumulative requirement of at least 2.0 GPA by the end of the term placed on warning. Students placed on Financial Aid Suspension are ineligible to receive any source of financial aid until cumulative minimum requirements have been met.
Students must complete 67% of course work attempted. All hours attempted at OFTC plus all transfer hours accepted by OFTC are counted to determine the completion rate. A student will be placed on Financial Aid Warning during the following term of attendance if he/she fails to complete this minimum percentage.
The student will be eligible for financial aid during the term(s) placed on Financial Aid Warning. However, if the student fails to reach 67% cumulative requirement during the term(s) place on Financial Aid Warning, he/she will be placed on Financial Aid Suspension and will be ineligible for any state or federal aid until the minimum completion rate of 67% has been attained.
The FSA ID has replaced the Federal Student Aid PIN and must be used to log in to certain U.S. Department of Education websites. To create a FSA ID you will create a username and password. YOUR FSA ID confirms your identity when you access your financial aid information and electronically sign Federal Student Aid documents. You can create a FSA ID, when logging into fafsa.gov, StudentLoans.gov. or go to https://studentaid.gov/.
You can use your FSA ID to sign a FAFSA right away. Once the Social Security Administration verifies your information in 1-3 days, or if you have linked your PIN to your FSA ID, you will be able to use your FSA ID to access the websites listed above.
No. All students will show a positive balance on their account the first few weeks of class. Afterwards, if you are due a refund you will see a negative balance. This negative balance is the amount of your Pell refund.