OSU and TCC Partnership Make Bachelor's Degrees More Affordable

Monday, April 2, 2007

TULSA –Oklahoma State University offers a variety of complementary tuition assistance programs for students who want to complete a bachelor’s degree, including those students attending Tulsa Community College on a Tulsa Achieves scholarship.

“OSU applauds TCC’s new tuition-free Tulsa Achieves program,” said OSU Interim System CEO and President Marlene Strathe. “TCC is a high-quality choice for students who want to remain in Tulsa for their first two years. Thanks to the innovative TCC-OSU dual admission program and other initiatives, OSU is partnering with TCC to make higher education more accessible and affordable.”

According to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, 22.2 percent of Oklahomans 25 and older had bachelor’s degrees in 2004-05. This ranks Oklahoma as 42nd in the nation for its percentage of adult population with a bachelor’s degree. OSU officials expect TCC’s scholarship program to increase the number of students who want to continue their education beyond an associate degree.

“OSU has in place various tuition waivers and scholarship programs for TCC students to complete their four-year degree in Stillwater and/or Tulsa,” said OSU-Tulsa President Gary Trennepohl. “This is a great time for Class of 2007 graduates, as well as current TCC students to continue their education at OSU.”

Qualified TCC students are eligible for a variety of scholarships to complete their bachelor’s degree at OSU, such as the TCC/OSU-Tulsa Transfer Scholarship, the Transfer University Scholarship and the Regents’ Distinguished Transfer Scholarship.

Trennepohl said the TCC/OSU-Tulsa Transfer Scholarship is awarded exclusively to students transferring from TCC to OSU-Tulsa. Depending on their grade point average, students are eligible for two scholarship options. Students who have completed at least 30 credit hours at TCC with a GPA between 3.0 and 3.49 and enrolled in at least six credit hours at OSU are eligible for a $650 tuition waiver per semester for two semesters ($1,300 total). Students who meet the same criteria and have 3.5 GPA or higher are eligible for a $650 tuition waiver per semester for three semesters ($1,950 total).

In addition, Strathe said all students transferring to OSU’s campuses in Stillwater or Tulsa are eligible to apply for a number of transfer scholarships including the $1,000 Transfer University Scholarship, the $1,500 per year Regents’ Distinguished Transfer Scholarship, a $500 Mervin Bovaird Foundation Award and a $2,000 AT&T Presidential Transfer Scholarship.  

Introduced in October 2005, the TCC-OSU dual admission program was a first of its kind in Oklahoma. Students who qualify can gain admission to both institutions at the same time and utilize academic resources and student development programs at TCC and OSU campuses in Tulsa and Stillwater.

“Together, TCC’s Tulsa Achieves scholarship program and OSU’s transfer scholarship opportunities help make a bachelor’s degree an affordable and attainable goal for all Tulsa-area residents,” Trennepohl said.

For more information about scholarships opportunities at OSU, call 918-594-8000 in Tulsa or 405-744-5000 in Stillwater.