The ATA Scholarship at the University of Arizona covers tuition, the college fee, and mandatory fees once all other institutional aid has been disbursed. Institutional aid refers to non-loan funding added by the Office of
Scholarships and Financial Aid (OSFA); this includes the Pell Grant and the University Grant. All other non-loan aid — including the TEACH Grant (restrictions apply), and funding provided by private donors, or by colleges or departments at the university — goes directly to students.
To confirm whether aid is institutional or otherwise, you may contact OSFA’s ATA team directly. See the FAQ, “Who should I contact if my ATA funds have not yet disbursed or if I have questions about the impact these funds will have on the rest of my financial aid package?"
Please note that the scholarship does not cover such costs as textbooks, course materials, meals, lodging, personal expenses, study abroad charges, and/or additional charges incurred because of a second major.
As of January 1, 2021, ATA students will also automatically have the fees associated with the areas awarded on their Institutional Recommendations (IRs) waived. This excludes any added approved areas not already on a student’s IR; fees associated with those are the student’s responsibility. For additional information about the Institutional Recommendation or the ATA waiver, please contact the university’s Certification Officer.
Additionally, ATA students are eligible to receive vouchers to cover the cost of test fees for many of the AEPA/NES teacher certification exams. If you are currently an ATA student, you may have already been contacted with information on obtaining these vouchers, but if not please reach out to us by email to learn more.
Finally, upon completion of a participating program, ATA graduates become eligible for various new teacher supports throughout their first year of teaching. Our induction specialists will contact you with more information as you approach your expected graduation date.
You may apply for the ATA Scholarship prior to being accepted into a participating program at the University of Arizona. However, your scholarship application will not be considered until the application deadline has passed, and you are either in an ATA-participating program or, in the case of undergraduate students, a corresponding pre-major.
Applicants to the ATA who are currently enrolled at the University of Arizona are considered Arizona residents if they pay resident tuition — students can confirm their residency status by clicking on the “Demographics Data” link at the bottom of their Student Center in UAccess. However, undergraduate transfer students and incoming graduate students may have to verify their residency status with the university by completing a Domicile Affidavit. For more information, please contact the Residency Classification Office at 520-621-3636, by email or by visiting their website.
Yes, but priority will be given to students who are pursuing a full course of study for their ATA-participating program, which may not always involve full-time enrollment.
To be eligible for ATA funding, international students must file a FAFSA and qualify for federal student aid. For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid.
Following passage of Proposition 308 in November 2022, DACA students are now eligible for Arizona state-based aid as long as they meet all other requirements for that aid. For the ATA Scholarship, this means that DACA students must also file a FAFSA and qualify for federal student aid. Please visit the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid for more information.
Depending on funding availability and admissions to an ATA-participating program at the U of A, students may continue to receive ATA. Please note, however, that these students are still subject to the maximum number of semesters listed below in the “How long do I have an ATA Scholarship?" FAQ. For example, if an undergraduate student received two semesters of ATA funding elsewhere, then they would only be eligible for six more semesters of funding at the U of A.
There are no post-baccalaureate programs at the University of Arizona currently eligible for ATA scholarship funding.
The Board of Regents requires that all ATA Scholarship recipients file their Free Application for Student (FAFSA) every year they receive the scholarship. This means that you must have your yearly FAFSA successfully processed by both the U.S. Department of Education and the university’s Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid (OSFA), which may require additional verification of identity and/or income.
Some students may also be asked by OSFA for additional verifications once their FAFSAs have been submitted.
If these aid verifications are not completed, OSFA will consider the FAFSA as incomplete, and ATA funding will not disburse. The same is true if a student is not meeting satisfactory academic performance (SAP). Students will be notified by OSFA of these issues by email, and they will be listed on the Student Center To Do board.
For additional support with this, please contact OSFA below as instructed in the FAQ, “Who should I contact if my ATA funds have not yet disbursed or if I have questions about the impact these funds will have on the rest of my financial aid package?”
The scholarship covers both the Fall and Spring semesters, as well as any Summer sessions if funding is available.
Undergraduate students have a maximum of eight semesters to complete their ATA-participating program, and graduate students have a maximum of four. Enrollment must be continuous and in good standing for a student to remain eligible for funding. Fall and Spring semesters count towards these semester limits while Summer sessions do not. Students who have reached their maximum number of semesters and have not yet completed their ATA-participating program may not reapply or be eligible for additional ATA funding to complete that program.
We strongly encourage you to email us any changes in your enrollment that might impact your expected graduation date, as those changes may also impact your ATA funding eligibility.
Please note that once admitted to the ATA, you do not have to reapply unless you discontinue enrollment without leave and then return to the university. Additionally, students who have already received the ATA Scholarship as undergraduates are not guaranteed funding if accepted to an ATA-participating graduate program.
Should institutional aid be increased over the course of an academic year, the ATA award will be decreased accordingly. Conversely, if your institutional aid decreases, then your ATA funding will be increased to cover any remaining tuition/fee balances.
ATA awards for a given semester will be calculated at least twice: once at the beginning of the semester and again after the second 7-week session starts. This second calculation will account for any course adds/drops that may have happened after the semester started.
Students have until the second 7-week session of each Fall, Spring, and Summer semester to add a course
and have any balance it causes covered by ATA funding. Please note that each session in a semester has its own dates to add/drop classes, and a class you would like the ATA to cover may not be available to add as late
as the second 7-week session. You may consult the Registrar’s calendar for more information.
The Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid (OSFA) is able to answer questions related to either the disbursement of your ATA award and/or the impact it has on the rest of your financial aid package. To send your questions, please visit OSFA’s Ask Aid email portal, where you will log in with your Student NetID, click “Submit a Question”, select the “Other” category from the dropdown list, and then select the “AZ Teachers Academy” subcategory. This ensures your questions to OSFA are routed to the correct staff member.
No, the ATA Scholarship at the University of Arizona does not pay for classes taken at any other institution.
You may teach at any birth-Grade 12 public or charter school in the state of Arizona. Full-time teaching positions only.
For a list of eligible schools, you may visit the Arizona Department of Education’s database on local educational agencies.
If you would like further confirmation that your school site and/or full-time position are eligible for the ATA service commitment, or do not see your site listed on the ADE database, please contact the Arizona Board of Regents at (602) 229-2500 or by email.
Upon completing your ATA-participating program, you will have one year to begin your first year of full-time classroom teaching in any birth-Grade 12 public or charter school in Arizona. This teaching commitment will be for as many academic years as you received funding. For example, if you receive ATA funding each year over a two academic year period, then your teaching commitment is for two consecutive full school years; or if you receive funding for one semester in one academic year and another semester in another academic year, the commitment is for two consecutive school years as well. Additionally, failure to complete your ATA-participating program will result in the immediate repayment of the award amount you received from the ATA while at the University of Arizona.
Please note that only Fall and Spring semesters funded by the ATA count towards your commitment; sessions taken during the Summer, however — though funded by the ATA — will not. **Due to March 2021 changes to A.R.S § 15-1655, this applies to Summer sessions taken after January 1, 2021. Any Summer sessions taken prior to that will count towards the service commitment.
Heartland ECSI, the state’s loan servicer, will contact all students after they graduate/exit their programs with details on how to verify employment.
Once a student’s program completion posts to U of A’s system, an email with details about ECSI will be sent from COE-ATA@arizona.edu to the email address originally entered on the student’s ATA Scholarship Agreement form.
For additional questions about the ATA Scholarship itself, please contact us by email.