Financial Aid and Scholarships Frequently Asked Questions

UTC's federal school code for Title IV aid purposes is 003529.

Monday - Friday - 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Extended hours are available during the first week of classes each fall and spring semester Monday - Thursday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Check out MyMocsNet and your Award Offer Letter. The Mocs One Center is also available to assist! The Mocs One Center is located in the University Center Room 124.

Direct Stafford Loan Page

The Department of Education is the lender for all Direct Student Loans. They can be contacted at 1-800-557-7394 or studentaid.gov. If you have a loan or loans that were received before Summer 2010, you may log in to https://nsldsfap.ed.gov to see your student loan history as well as your servicer and lender information.

The standard financial aid processing time for our office is 4-6 weeks from the time a file is complete and 8-twelve weeks during peak processing times.

In many cases, all that is required for your financial aid application is the FAFSA. However, if your file is selected for verification, additional documents may be requested by the Financial Aid Office. Check your MyMocsNet account to see your requirements.

There are both institutional and outside scholarships available. If additional aid is still needed, credit-based loans are available to qualified students. PLUS Loans are credit-based federal loans borrowed in the parent's name for dependent undergraduate students. Graduate PLUS loans are also available for graduate students. Students must be enrolled at least half time (6 credit hours for undergraduate students and 5 credit hours for graduate students) and must be maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress. Credit based Private Loans are also available for both dependent or independent students.

The verification process requires UTC to collect documentation of taxable income, in addition to other documents. We can no longer accept a copy of your tax statement if selected for verification. A Tax Return Transcript is required to verify income. We encourage you to document tax information using the IRS Data Retrieval. To use the IRS Data Retrieval, access your FAFSA application at www.fafsa.gov, click on "Make FAFSA Corrections"; then, select IRS Data Retrieval, or you may request a tax return transcript at www.irs.gov or 1-800-908-9946. In most cases, for electronic tax filers tax return information should be available for retrieval from the IRS within 2-3 weeks after tax filing has been processed by IRS; paper tax return information should be available 8-11 weeks after the tax return has been processed by IRS. Note: Married applicants must file jointly in order to use the IRS Data Retrieval; it also cannot be used when marital status changes after the end of the tax year or if an amended tax return has been filed. This is a free process and no one should charge you to complete the FAFSA or make corrections. If you are requesting a tax transcript, you can expect to receive your IRS Tax Return Transcript within 5-10 days.

First, make sure that you have accepted your loan on your MyMocsNet account. Accepted loans are transmitted electronically to the Department of Education weekly. First time UTC borrowers must complete a Master Promissory Note and Entrance Loan Counseling. You must be enrolled at least half-time at the time the funds are received. PLUS and Private loans are certified weekly by UTC once we receive the notice of approval. If a PLUS Loan has been approved, a Parent PLUS Information Form must be completed by you and your parent and submitted to the Financial Aid Office. If the PLUS Loan has been denied, you (the student) may be eligible to receive an additional unsubsidized loan up to $4000 per year if you have 0 - 59 credit hours or up to $5000 per year if you have 60 or more credit hours. The additional unsubsidized loan amount must be requested by completing and submitting the PLUS Information Form.

If a Private loan has been approved, you must complete a Private Loan Request Form and submit it to the Financial Aid Office. Once the Financial Aid Office receives the check(s), please allow 48-72 hours for internal processing. Private loan checks may need to be endorsed by the student in the Bursar's Office. You must still be enrolled at least half-time at the time the funds are received.

Every student, regardless of Admissions status, has access to a financial aid counselor.

All financial aid inquiries should be directed to the Mocs One Center. The Mocs One Center is located in the University Center Room 124.

Contrary to popular belief, Stafford loans and Parent PLUS loans (although they are in the parent's name) ARE financial aid and their funding is provided for by the federal government. Aid provided by the federal government falls into the category of Title IV Aid and these funds are subject to the rules and regulations of an individual school's Satisfactory Academic Progress policy.

All students at UTC are subject to the Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress policy set forth by our office. We must hold all students equally accountable, in the chance that they may apply for financial aid at some point of their academic career at UTC. This hold does not prevent you from registering or attending classes. Please note that UTC's Satisfactory Academic Progress policy may differ from other higher education institutions.

If you have questions regarding your TN HOPE Scholarship, please contact the Mocs One Center. The rules and regulations can change based on decisions made by our TN Legislature. Although your adviser may have your best interest in mind academically, they may not be aware of rules regarding dropped hours, required GPA's, and checkpoints.

The FAFSA is required each year and is available on-line at www.fafsa.gov.  It opens each October 1 for the Next Academic Year. Therefore, we strongly encourage all students to submit the FAFSA early. The absolute final deadline to file the FAFSA for a Fall semester is September 1 of that fall. If a student misses this deadline, they would have until February 1 of spring to file for consideration. Late filing such as these are Not Recommended.

For state and federal financial aid purposes, a student is only considered independent if one or more of the following are true: you are 24 years old; you are enrolled in a graduate degree program; you are married; you have children or other dependents who receive more than half of their support from you; both of your parents are deceased; you are (or were until age 18) a ward/dependent of the court; or you are a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces. If none of these statements apply to you, you must provide parent information on your FAFSA and other financial aid documents. Extenuating circumstances may be reviewed by a UTC Financial Aid counselor on a case by case basis.  If you have extenuating circumstances and are unable to provide parent data, please contact the Mocs One Center.  

Financial aid may be prorated if you drop some classes and your enrollment status changes. If you have picked up a refund, you may owe money back.  If you totally withdraw from all classes, at any time during the semester, you may also owe money back.  Always speak with a financial aid representative before making any changes to your enrollment.  If you are a TN HOPE Scholarship recipient who begins the semester full-time, then drops below full-time time during the same semester, you will forfeit the TN HOPE for all future terms (or if you begin part-time and drop below half-time). There is an appeal for extreme circumstances. Contact the Mocs One Center if you have questions. 

UTC offers summer financial aid pending a review of each student's eligibility. Students will be notified via the MyMocsNet account of summer aid eligibility approximately two weeks after registration. No summer aid application is required. Students must enroll at least half-time for the summer semester in courses that count towards their degree program to receive a student loan, Pell grant or the TN HOPE Scholarship.  TN HOPE recipients should review our Summer TN HOPE web page for detailed information. 

No. You may not receive financial aid at more than one school for any one term. However, if you wish to take courses at another school and receive aid at UTC,

• you may do so through an approved Consortium Agreement if:
• you remain degree seeking at UTC. you remain eligible to receive financial aid (refer to Satisfactory Academic Progress policy)
• the courses will transfer towards your UTC degree.
• You complete the Concurrent Enrollment Form. This form must be completed and received by the Financial Aid Office before the last day of the term.

Please note, aid may not be available at the time fees are due at your other school. Please refer to our Important Dates for disbursement dates.

Students who would like to continue to receive Federal aid (federal loans, federal grants, federal work study) should complete a new FAFSA each year. The FAFSA will become available on Oct 1st. Recipients of the TN Hope Scholarship must complete a FAFSA each year to renew their scholarship. Please check the terms of your scholarship for renewal criteria every academic year. You must be fully admitted to the University with a UTC ID to apply for Institutional, Endowed, and Departmental Scholarships. Entering first time Freshman, Transfer, and Continuing students may visit the scholarships page for instructions on how to apply and search for scholarships. If you have questions, please contact the Mocs One Center.

All aid awarded by the financial aid office or received from any outside source will reduce the amount due on your bill.

Institutional scholarships, federal and state aid will disburse during the second week of classes. If your total disbursed aid exceeds your UTC charges, you will receive a refund of the access amount.   

The UTC online scholarship application is used to consider recipients for the Chancellor's, Provost's, Mocs and Transfer Scholars programs. The UTC Financial Aid and Scholarships Office also uses this application to award some Endowed and Departmental scholarships.

Learn more →

UTC has a number of endowed and departmental scholarships that are not rewarded through the UTC online scholarship application and require separate applications.

Learn more →

Check out these step-by-step instructions:

Learn more →

Unfortunately, no.

UTC scholarship funds are limited and the awarding process is competitive. Meeting the eligibility requirements does not guarantee a student will receive a scholarship.

The best way to improve your candidacy is to always submit all required materials as soon as possible.

Offers for the traditional first-time freshmen scholarships (Chancellor's, Provost's, Mocs) will be made to selected candidates as early as mid-November of their senior year for next academic year.

The Transfer Scholarship will be awarded as early as June. We plan to award additional endowed scholarships from May through early July.

No, only students who are selected will see an offer in their MyMocsNet.

For most institutional scholarships, selected candidates will be able to accept their offered scholarship online. Some scholarships will require a thank you note to the donor.

Learn more about thanking donors →

No. We strongly encourage you to always complete the application as soon as possible.  

The scholarship application is used to award funds for the next academic year.  The federal FAFSA form opens Oct. 1 each year.  

Do not delay in submitting either of these applications because UTC scholarship funds are limited (some federal and State of Tennessee funds are limited too).

We trust that students and parents alike will instead consider when an application is available, and not the deadline.  

With this in mind, the UTC online scholarship application opens mid-September for all students. The application is used to award funds for the next academic year. Incoming first-time freshmen must apply by February 1st to be considered for our Renewable Institutional Scholarships - the Chancellor's, Provost's, & Mocs.

The absolute deadline to submit the UTC Scholarship Application is July 1 for all students, but we encourage students to Apply Early.

The federal FAFSA opens Oct. 1 of each year. Do not delay in submitting either of these applications because UTC scholarship funds are limited (some federal and State of Tennessee funds are limited, too).

You must first be accepted to the University.  

Your login credentials, your UTC ID, will be provided in the welcome packet mailed to you from the Admissions Office.  

Newly admitted students also should receive a short welcome email to the address the student used in the admissions application.  This email will also contain the UTC ID number which can be used to assist in accessing the scholarship application.

Based on academic performance, these awards are renewable and students can receive for a maximum of eight (8) semesters:

• Chancellor’s Scholarship
• Provost’s Scholarship
• Mocs Scholarship
• Academic Service Scholars Program

Learn more about Institutional Scholarships →

Find out more by searching UTC Endowed and Departmental Scholarships. Some of these funds are awarded using the UTC online scholarship application.

A large number of these scholarships are awarded with separate applications. If this search engine sends you to a department’s website for specific scholarships, then you will have to contact that department to learn more about the application process.

Search UTC Scholarships →

To apply for the transfer scholars program, students must be entering the University in the fall term and must complete the online scholarship application.

To access and complete the scholarship application, you must be admitted to UTC and have a UTC ID.

You are always encouraged to contact your academic department for departmental scholarship information.

Learn more about Outside Scholarships →

Review the steps in our guide, How To Apply and access your Online Scholarship Manager.

This is where you can always review the current status of your online scholarship application.

Check the security settings on the computer that you are using.

If it is not a personal (home) computer, the administrator may have pop-ups blocked or high security settings.

If this is a personal, home computer you are using, add https://utc.scholarships.ngwebsolutions.com as a trusted site on the Security Tab in the Internet Options link under the Tools menu.  

Then, delete your cookies and reboot your computer.

Review our guide, How To Apply and access your Online Scholarship Manager.

This is where you can always review the status of your recommendations.

We ask that all recommenders complete the online recommendation. If your recommender has difficulty with the online recommendations, ask them to call 423-425-4677 or email [email protected] for assistance.

Selection will begin as early as March and continue until available spaces are filled.

No. Scholarships awarded using the online scholarship application will not be stacked. However, if you receive a departmental award, you can receive both.

Unfortunately, institutional awards and scholarships from other schools do not typically transfer with the student. It is always important to refer to the award notification you received for the scholarship to determine the attributes of the award.

If a student has already accepted their initial offer, then earns a higher GPA/ACT and that score is received by Dec. 1, UTC will consider upgrading the student to the appropriate next-level renewable scholarship based on the new criteria. The review for upgrades may not occur until mid-late January.

Students will be able to accept most institutional scholarships through their MyMocsNet.

Use our Accepting UTC Scholarships tutorial to accept yours today!

The primary exception to this is scholarships awarded directly by a UTC department. Those funds are immediately entered as ‘accepted’ on the student’s behalf.

No, it does not. However, if your plans change and you decide not to attend UTC, we appreciate your notifying our office as soon as possible.

We strongly encourage all scholarship recipients to keep a personal file containing their acceptance letters, scholarship award notifications and/or agreements.

Refer to the scholarship award notification you originally received from UTC. If you do not have access to that, email the UTC Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships at [email protected] or call 423-425-4677.

No, residual test scores are not considered for scholarship purposes.

Yes, UTC Admissions will superscore the ACT results for use in awarding our Institutional Renewable Merit Scholarships - the UTC Chancellor's, Provost's & Mocs Scholarships. 

Please Note - It is the student's responsibility to ensure that UTC Admissions has ANY/ALL scores from ANY/ALL test dates. ALL scores Must Be RECEIVED by our December1 priority date. 

Superscoring is a new final composite score made with your best individual section scores across all ACT tests you took.

Generally, yes.  We ask that students complete a new online scholarship application each year. While some scholarships do not require this, it is strongly suggested and offers the student a safeguard in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

In addition, we strongly encourage students to keep copies of all scholarship award letters as these may indicate if a new UTC online scholarship application is required each year.

Yes, it is strongly suggested that all students complete the FAFSA each year.

The FAFSA is available Oct. 1. Complete FAFSA as soon after this date as possible. Since you are using previous year’s tax return data to complete the FAFSA, there is no reason to wait.

Some federal and state of Tennessee funds are limited, so we strongly recommend that you complete the FAFSA in October.

Visit the Mocs One Center in room 124, University Center with any questions or concerns.

With all the forms, deadlines and acronyms involved, the scholarship and financial aid process can seem very confusing. Your best strategy is to apply early, read and follow all instructions, keep copies of documents and respond promptly to follow-up requests. Visit the Mocs One Center in room 124, University Center, with any questions or concerns.