The Tuition Exchange (TE) is a national scholarship exchange program for family members of full-time faculty and staff at over 580 colleges and universities across the United States (a complete list of which can be found at http://www. tuitionexchange.org/partinst.cfm). TE is not for full-time employees nor for part-time students. It is almost exclusively used for undergraduate study, although some institutions give TE scholarships for graduate study, including law. Full details about TE scholarships and schools can be found on the TE website.
TE scholarships are not automatically granted by participating schools. Many TE scholarships are highly competitive, although scholarships at some lesser known schools go begging. Some of the latter offer free housing and/or allow students to study abroad with TE money in order to attract more applicants, because institutions must maintain a relative balance between TE student "imports" and "exports" in order to remain in TE.
Most schools limit the number of TE scholarships they grant ("imports") as well as the number of dependents they will certify to apply for TE grants at other institutions ("exports"). Currently, ULV will grant up to 10 concurrent TE scholarships to dependents of other TE schools, but some TE institutions grant as few as one per year. Before being certified to another TE institution, a dependent must apply for admission to that institution; before the other institution will consider the applicant for a TE scholarship, the dependent must be accepted for admission there.
ULV employees who wish their dependents to be certified for TE scholarship consideration should contact ULV's TE Liaison Officer, currently Al Clark (ext. 4240), and provide the dependent's name, address, phone number, social security number, e-mail address, registration status (applied; accepted; enrolled), and class level (freshman; sophomore; junior; senior) as well as the name(s) of the TE institution(s) to which the dependent has applied. ULV's TE Liaison Officer will send this information on an electronic TE certification form to the TE institution(s) indicated. Dependents must meet the admissions deadlines at the desired school(s); their ULV employee sponsors should request certification as soon as the dependent submits the application for admission.
The dependents of all full-time employees--faculty, administrative, classified--are eligible to be certified for TE scholarship consideration according to the same eligibility rules that govern ULV's Tuition Remission policy (http://www.ulv.edu/hr/sec16.ans), except that full-time employees are not eligible and dependents do not become eligible until the employee's second anniversary of employment. For TE purposes "dependents" are "the eligible spouse, children, adopted children, and step children" defined in http://www.ulv.edu/hr/sec16.ans. To date, ULV has been able to certify every eligible ULV dependent because "imports" and "exports" have stayed in relative balance. If the number of eligible dependents ever increases to the point that the balance, and, hence, ULV's participation in TE, is threatened, a committee consisting of the TE Liaison Officer, the chair of each of the three personnel committees, and the chair of the Personnel Council will determine which of the eligible dependents will be certified. To make the selection, the committee will use the following two criteria, in order of their importance: the dependent's prior academic performance and the total length of time that the employee has worked for La Verne.
ULV's Tuition Exchange scholarships do not cover full tuition; they are set to the base established by TE ($26,800 for 2008-2009). ULV TE scholarships can be used to pay ULV tuition only. They may not be applied toward study abroad, housing, books, or any other expense. Fees are not covered, and cash back is never given. TE scholarships at ULV and elsewhere usually cover four years (8 semesters) of full-time undergraduate study, but institutions may limit the number of semesters to fewer than eight. Moreover, all TE scholars must be recertified annually, and scholarships can be terminated if the recepient does not meet the awarding institution's standards of academic performance and personal conduct. Recertification of eligible continuing scholars is virtually automatic unless the student fails to meet the standards, the employee leaves the TE institution, or either of the institutions drop out of the TE program. If a ULV employee whose dependent has a TE scholarship resigns or is terminated, the TE scholarship will be terminated immediately and the importing school informed that the dependent is no longer eligible for a TE scholarship. In the event of the death of a ULV employee, a TE scholarship of the employee's dependent will be continued and terminated in accordance with the rules governing ULV tuition remission and terminated. TE awards are covered by IRS rules.
ULV considers students for TE scholarships on certification from other TE institutions only after the certified dependent has been granted full admission. Although ULV will award TE scholarships to eligible applicants admitted to any University program, preference in granting TE scholarships is given to traditional-age undergraduate applicants. In general, ULV follows the standard TE calendar by awarding TE scholarships in March to applicants who have been accepted for fall admission and by not granting TE scholarships for any other term of admission. Award decisions on TE scholarships granted by ULV are made by ULV's TE Liaison Office in consultation with the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Admissions (or the dean of the program, if the applicant is for regional campus, graduate, law, or doctoral study). When there are more qualified applicants to ULV than scholarships available, TE awards will be given to the applicants with the best academic record based on GPA and standardized test scores. In granting TE scholarships ULV abides by NCAA rules.
The TE "Scholarship Certification & Application" form and the TE "Scholarship Recertification of Eligibility" form are both considered to be legal contracts. Hence, an institution which grants a TE scholarship is legally bound to abide by the terms specified on these forms.