Please Contact Scholarships & Financial Aid at fellowschol@tamu.edu or (979) 845-3982.

New Scholarship Administrator Training

(TrainTraq Course ID 2113445) Training course designed to familiarize new scholarship administrators with scholarship compliance, sourcing information for scholarship/fellowship awarding using the scholarship account database SOLAR, and building applicant pools for scholarship awarding using the scholarship application database SPARTA.

New scholarship administrators are required to attend and complete the course. Current scholarship administrators are welcome to attend any of the sessions for further training or for a refresher of scholarship compliance, SPARTA, and/or SOLAR. 

In order to qualify for the non-resident tuition waiver for competitive scholarship recipients, a scholarship must be made available for non-resident and resident students to apply. The scholarship recipient(s) must also be selected by a university committee or representative. The student must receive a competitive scholarship of a minimum dollar amount in order to receive the waiver. For more details, visit the Aggie One Stop.

Process for Non-Resident Tuition Waivers

1. Department Certification of Competitive Scholarship Award for the scholarship accounts that meet the qualifications for a non-resident tuition waiver when requesting the scholarship be set up in Compass.
2. Department reviews applications and uses an established rubric to determine recipients for the competitive scholarship.
3. Department posts scholarship award to student account or submits Payment Request Form to Scholarships & Financial Aid to post the scholarship.
4. Non-resident tuition waiver is applied to student account and is accounted for as a resource to recipient's financial aid package.

All non-resident waivers are to be certified and approved no later than the 12th class day of the fall /spring terms or the fourth class day in summer.  

According to University Scholarship Committee guidelines, Rule No. 3, all scholarships shall be posted by:
July 1 of each year for the next academic year's scholarships
November 1 for spring semester scholarships
May 1 for summer scholarships

This allows students to budget appropriately and Scholarships and Financial Aid time to make any necessary aid package adjustments to maintain student eligibility. 

To see if the waiver has been applied to the student's bill, check on TSICSRV in Compass (if you have access). It will be listed at the bottom of the billing account listed as Comp Waiver.

View the New Account Request Process and review the instructions for filling out the New Scholarship FAMIS Account and/or Compass Fund Code Form.

Download the New Scholarship FAMIS Account and/or Compass Fund Code Form, complete all necessary fields, print and submit the form by e-mail to fellowschol@tamu.edu.

Scholarships & Financial Aid (SFAID) collaborates with Financial Management Operations (FMO) to request FAMIS accounts, and then with Student Business Services (SBS) for a detail code. A fund code is assigned and the account information is entered into Compass and SOLAR. You will be notified once your account is active and ready for your use. This process can take up to 10 business days to complete, depending on the time of year and number of requests in progress.

All new scholarship administrators are required to complete this virtual course. Current scholarship administrators are welcome to attend sessions for further training or for a refresher of scholarship best practices for compliance, and using SPARTA and/or SOLAR. 

Training schedules and registration are available in TrainTraq. 
Search by Category, select Finance & Business – Scholarships.
Locate: Scholarship Administrator Training (Course ID 2113445). 
 
This training course is designed to familiarize new scholarship administrators with scholarship compliance, sourcing information for scholarship/fellowship awarding using the scholarship account database SOLAR, and building applicant pools for scholarship awarding using the scholarship application database SPARTA.

Shortly after training is complete, access to SPARTA/RPAAWRD will be granted.

Additionally, all scholarship administrators will be required to complete online training on an annual basis.

Scholarship Account Review (SOLAR) 
SOLAR (Scholarship On-Line Account Review) reflects a current summary of a given scholarship – fund codes, account numbers, donor/gift agreement, criteria/restrictions, recipients, and other pertinent information.  To obtain access to SOLAR, University staff with a legitimate business need must complete and submit the Scholarship Administrator Training Toolkit New User Access Request Form and also participate in New Scholarship Administrator Training.

Scholarship Processing: Apply, Review, Track & Award (SPARTA) 
SPARTA (Scholarship Processing: Apply, Review, Track & Award) compiles applicant data for incoming freshman, incoming transfer students and currently enrolled students. SPARTA contains tools to assess applicants and provides the mechanism to offer scholarship/fellowship awards. To obtain access to SPARTA, University staff with a legitimate business need must complete and submit the Scholarship Administrator Training Toolkit New User Access Request Form and also participate in New Scholarship Administrator Training.

Authorized University staff are provided with this web-based tool to post offers to eligible, selected scholarship/fellowship recipients.  This tool within the SPARTA system mirrors the award maintenance functionality on the RPAAWRD page in Compass.The RPAAWRD tab in SPARTA is used by authorized University staff to post scholarships and fellowships for enrolled Texas A&M students.
Tuition and fees payments are facilitated with Student Business Services through TWAPMTS. More information about TWAPMTS.

Before reporting issues, please check:

1. Is the student enrolled for the semester for which you are attempting to post? 
2. Does the student have an Aid Period that includes that semester?
3. Is the fund code you are using Active?
4. Are you attempting to post an amount outside of the fund minimum/maximum?
5. Is the student a student athlete?

If you need to post a scholarship for a student athlete, please email sfaid-athletics@tamu.edu to inquire about the student’s eligibility.

If you have confirmed all of the above and an error is displayed, please take note of the error and email fellowschol@tamu.edu or call (979) 845-3982.

Example: Fall funds had been posted and now you would like to add to the same fundcode for Spring.

Yes, go into RPAAWRD in SPARTA and find the fund code you posted to. Tab over to the offered/accepted amount and increase the award in both places. Hit update to save the change. 

The awarding unit determines if the student will be required to complete any additional requirements to be considered or remain eligible for their scholarship. These requirements may include writing a thank you note, attending a reception or banquet, or submitting a reflective paper of their experience (ex. for education abroad-related funds). All requirements should be communicated to the student in a clear and timely manner, ideally in the scholarship offer notification. 

SOLAR will be used to identify if a scholarship/fellowship can pay at less than full time status or not. Departmental staff with SOLAR access have the capability to indicate on the “notes” page if they would like for us to force their scholarship in the event the student is less than full-time or in their final semester. Please email fellowschol@tamu.edu to inform SFAID to force a scholarship/fellowship.