New Student Information System

The Ohio State University is pleased to introduce a new software system for the 2009-2010 school year. The Student Information System (SIS) will transform how students and parents access their OSU information by supplying comprehensive services in one place.

What will this new system offer? According to William Keller, Staff Training and Development Coordinator for the Office of Financial Aid, “the goal of SIS is to provide students and parents a one-stop connection for enhanced self-service. Enrollment information, academic records, billing details, and financial aid awards are just a few of the elements that will be available online in one convenient website.” Additionally, this easy-to-navigate system will promote informed academic decisions and allow our constituents to conduct business in an intuitive, user-friendly format.

Beginning in February 2009 students will be able to access their self-service page at http://www.osu.edu and obtain information about their account for the 2009-2010 academic year.

As the largest university in the country, Ohio State is excited to offer this innovative vehicle for delivering the most effective, personalized service to our customers.

New Online Scholarship Application

In an effort to simplify the scholarship application process for students, The Ohio State University Office of Student Financial Aid is pleased to announce the launch of Scholarship Manager, a comprehensive, online guide for university scholarship opportunities. The goal of the Scholarship Manager initiative is not only to provide an online resource for scholarship applications, but also to allow students to search for potential scholarship opportunities from a single centralized university database, including departmental and special-eligibility scholarship funds.

In its first phase, Scholarship Manager will allow students to search for potential scholarship opportunities by scholarship name or description. As there are currently over 3,000 university administered scholarship funds, the test pilot programs for the 2009-2010 academic year will include special-eligibility scholarships and those scholarships available within the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

Additional colleges and programs will continue to be added to the existing database over the course of the next several months. According to Thomas H. Hurley, Associate Director in Student Financial Aid, the scholarship application will ask students to provide detailed answers that will allow the Office of Student Financial Aid to match them to currently existing scholarship funds. “Applying for these scholarships will now be easier than ever, allowing students to submit their scholarship applications electronically, thus eliminating the need for paper applications and mailing costs; it also provides a secure authentication process to ensure the privacy of an applicant’s personal information,” he said.

Scholarship Manager, provided by the Next Gen Corporation, has allowed the Office of Student Financial Aid to offer students a leading-edge education and planning tool.

Please visit our Web Page at http://www.sfa.osu.edu/scholarships for additional details.

The new scholarship search page can be viewed by going to https://osu.scholarships.nelnet.net/ScholarX_ScholarshipSearch.aspx.

This is not an application for our Freshman Merit (recruiting) scholarships. Those programs will continue to be addressed in the Admissions Application Booklet or by going to http://undergrad.osu.edu/merit/html.