Tuition Exchange Program

Guidelines for Participation

The Tuition Exchange Inc. (TE) facilitates a national scholarship exchange program that includes more than 600 colleges and universities located in 47 states, the District of Columbia and several other countries. Members include public as well as private institutions, research and doctoral universities, liberal arts colleges, and comprehensive institutions. View a complete list of member institutions. Applicants for Tuition Exchange should not apply under the Early Decision deadline.

Each institution affiliated with TE sets its own standards for admission, determines the number of TE scholarships to be offered, and oversees the process by which eligible dependents are selected for participation. Each institution must maintain a reasonable balance between “imports” (students attending the institution as part of the TE program) and “exports” (eligible dependents enrolled at another institution as part of the TE program). Students must apply for admission to the partner institution of their choice, indicating that they are doing so as part of the TE program. Each institution sets its own standards and determines how many TE scholarships will be offered.

Import Policy

The following guidelines are applicable to students who wish to attend Elon University as tuition exchange scholarship students (imports):

Undergraduate Education—TE scholarships are for tuition expenses only for students who are enrolled full time in undergraduate education at Elon University. Qualified applicants must be first-time, first-year students as defined by Elon University. Transfer students, currently enrolled students, graduate students, non-degree seeking (special) students, and students seeking a second undergraduate degree will not be eligible for TE scholarships. TE scholarship funds are for the fall and spring semesters only.

Certificate of Eligibility for Tuition Exchange Scholarships

All students wishing to be considered as Tuition Exchange imports must be certified as eligible exports by their host institutions.

Application Deadline

Scholarships will be given to students who are making initial application to Elon University.

First-year applicants—To receive consideration as a first-year TE scholarship recipient, an applicant must submit the first-year application by January 10. Tuition Exchange Scholarships are not offered to students who apply for admission under the Early Decision program. Qualified applicants will be notified of their TE scholarship status no later than March 20. Students who are admitted to Elon but not designated as a TE scholarship recipient will be placed on a TE Wait List and notified immediately of any change in their scholarship status. The first-year application is used to award the scholarship. Decisions are based on academic profile and other distinguishing characteristics. Each year, Elon receives approximately 100 applications for Tuition Exchange consideration and will award three scholarships to incoming first-year students.

Admitted students are required to submit a non-refundable $500 confirmation deposit to secure a place in the class. This deposit must be postmarked on or before May 1.

Additional Merit and Scholarship Awards

• TE scholarship recipients are eligible for other Elon University merit or performance-based scholarship awards; however, no combination of tuition exchange and merit awards may exceed the cost of tuition.
• TE scholarship recipients may use external scholarships to meet the cost of attendance at Elon. If the total of the awards (including the TE scholarship) exceeds the cost of attendance, the tuition exchange amount will be reduced.
• Applicants who may be awarded a full ROTC scholarship must choose whether to accept the ROTC funding or the TE scholarship.

Study Abroad

• TE scholarship funds may be applied to fall and spring study abroad programs as long as Elon University is charging the tuition.
• TE scholarship recipients who participate in other university programs that award study abroad grants are eligible for these grants.

Continuing TE Students must remain in good standing at Elon University in order to retain the TE scholarship.

• If a student takes a medical withdrawal, his or her TE scholarship will remain available for the subsequent year. If not reinstated during that year, it will be permanently forfeited.
• If a student leaves or is dismissed from Elon for any reason other than medical withdrawal, the TE scholarship will be forfeited.

Export Policy

The following guidelines are applicable to Elon University employees who wish to participate in the program (exports):

Eligible Employee

All full-time faculty and staff who have completed 4 or more years of full-time service to Elon University by September 1 of the academic year for which they are applying. If an employee leaves Elon University other than due to death and has a child on a TE scholarship, the award expires at the end of the semester. If an employee dies and has a child on a TE scholarship, the child is eligible for up to the maximum of 8 semesters as long as all other requirements are met (see Maximum Scholarship below).

Eligible Family Member

Any dependent unmarried child, including adopted children and stepchildren, who have not earned an undergraduate degree (reference faculty handbook or staff manual for further explanation)

Undergraduate Education

TE scholarships are for undergraduate education only and will not be awarded for graduate study, non-degree study, or a second undergraduate degree.

Maximum Scholarship

TE scholarships will not exceed a maximum of 8 semesters per eligible applicant and are renewable each year. Current recipients have priority over new applicants. Recipients must remain in good standing (not on probation or suspension) at all times with the institutions that they are attending in order to retain the scholarships.

Application Deadline

Employees will be notified of information sessions that are held in mid-April of each year. The employee will indicate at this meeting their intent for their dependent student to participate in Tuition Exchange. Human Resources will determine eligibility and provides a list of eligible dependents to the Office of Financial Planning. The employee will be contacted in September by Financial Planning to provide specific information about the dependent student and their choice of schools from which they will attempt to receive a Tuition Exchange Scholarship. A follow-up email is issued by Human Resources to all employees in the event they were unable to attend the April meeting or were unaware of the Tuition Exchange opportunity. It is the responsibility of the employee to return the requested information about their dependent student to the Office of Financial Planning to meet the deadlines imposed by the host schools. Each school may set its own deadline and information is available at tuitionexchange.org. Applications are not limited to dependents seeking initial admission to college. An eligible employee may submit an application for a dependent who is currently enrolled at a TE institution but is not presently benefiting from the TE program, or who is currently enrolled at Elon and wishes to attend a TE institution, or who is currently enrolled at another (non-TE) institution and wishes to attend a TE institution. In these instances, the TE institution must accept the dependent as a TE scholar. Acceptance is not guaranteed.

Selection Process

Once Human Resources has determined the eligibility of all applicants, an internal committee will make decisions concerning which applicants will be selected as TE exports from Elon.

If the number of applicants is equal to or less than the number of TE scholarships available, each eligible dependent will be given the opportunity to apply for a TE scholarship at TE member institutions. The receiving TE institution makes all decisions concerning how many TE scholarships it will award and whether to accept a student based on its admissions criteria.

If the number of applicants exceeds the number of TE scholarships available, scholars will be selected based on the length of service at Elon of the faculty or staff member. In the unlikely event of a tie, a lottery system will be used. Once a faculty or staff member has used the TE benefit, he/she will lose 8 years of service for purposes of requesting this benefit a second time. Decisions about the number of dependents from the same family participating in the program at the same time will be made on an annual basis by an internal committee until such time as Elon is able to establish a balanced ratio of imported and exported students. Faculty and staff are required to have 8 years of service for each student enrolled in the TE program. All qualified dependents from a single family are, therefore, eligible to apply for TE until notice of a change in policy is announced to the campus.

Continuing TE Students must remain in good standing at the institutions they are attending.

• In order to secure TE benefits for their second, third, and fourth years, students must submit to Elon’s Office of Financial Planning documentation indicating that they are in good standing at the schools they are attending.
• If a student takes a medical withdrawal, his or her TE scholarship will remain available for the subsequent year providing that the institution he or she is attending agrees to allow the student to return on a TE scholarship. If a student leaves school for any other reason, the TE scholarship will be forfeited.

The provisions of this Tuition Exchange policy take precedence over any other program policies or provisions that may apply to a Tuition Exchange student.