McDonald’s Tuition Assistance Program Information

To learn what programs are available to you and how to apply for them, go to ArchwaystoOpportunity.com

McOpCo/Corporate:

Once you have submitted the application form (and, for college tuition assistance, the required supporting documents have been verified by our Processing team), ISTS will proceed to verify employment status.

Your information will be sent to McDonald’s Corporate for employment verification.

Once ISTS receives employment verification, you will be notified regarding the status of your tuition assistance request via email the following Tuesday.

Owner/Operator:

Once you have submitted the application form (and, for college tuition assistance, the required supporting documents have been verified by our Processing team), ISTS will proceed to verify employment status.

ISTS will contact your Owner/Operator within 7 business days and instruct them to complete an Employment Verification Form. You may track this status by clicking the “STARTED” status on your home page.

To review your McDonald’s Tuition Assistance status, please go to https://MCDTA.applyISTS.net.

The top of your home page will let you know how much you have received in the current year so you can track your cap. Once your cap has been reached, you are not eligible for further payment until the program updates for the next calendar year in early December.

Regarding your form status:

• Your form status will show as either Started or Complete.
• Click these to see a breakdown of what you need.
• Only after your application and required documents have been received and approved will we reach out to your owner operator to verify employment.
• Once you see Complete, you will receive a notice of your final award status on the following Tuesday.
• If payment is approved, it will be mailed out within 13 business days of your notification being emailed to you.

You can check the status of a particular employee by using the Owner Operator Reporting site.

To review your McDonald’s Tuition Assistance status, please go to https://MCDTA.applyISTS.net.

The top of your home page will let you know how much you have received in the current year so you can track your cap. Once your cap has been reached, you are not eligible for further payment until the program updates for the next calendar year in early December.

Regarding your form status:

• Your form status will show as either Started or Complete.
• Click these to see a breakdown of what you need.
• Once your form is complete, ISTS will reach out to McDonald’s to verify your employment.
• After receiving verification information, you will receive email results the following Tuesday.
• If payment is approved, it will be mailed out within 13 business days of your notification being emailed to you.

If you are pending an Employment Verification from your Owner-Operator, then they may just need a nudge that you are waiting on your approval. We recommend that you check with your General manager or HR Rep about following up on your EVF with the Owner-Operator.

If you wish to get the email notifications about pending Employee Verifications, please add your work email address as the “Alternate Email” on the Profile page. That will ensure that you are copied on all auto-generated notifications. Please note that you CANNOT change the primary email address on the account to your own; it will auto-reset to the Partners email address.

You can access the Reporting tool from the ISTS Home Page. There will be a “Report Key” listed near the top of your Home Page. It is a link to the reporting site. However, in order to run any reports, you will need to enter that key; therefore, we recommend you write it down before moving to the reporting site.

Locate the “Reports” section of your SharePoint site on the bottom, right hand side. From there, you will be able to run reports with a variety of different parameters.

Yes, you are welcome to complete the approvals as a proxy for your Owner-Operator. Please note, however, that you will need to log into the ISTS site using their Partners email address/username. If you wish to get the email notifications about pending Employee Verifications, please add your work email address as the “Alternate Email” on the Profile page. That will ensure that you are copied on all auto-generated notifications. Please note that you CANNOT change the primary email address on the account to your own; it will auto-reset to the Partners email address.

Sometimes, you think you know someone until you learn you don’t. If you wish to take back an approval for the tuition assistance program, we would be happy to assist you. Please send us an email at MCD_Tuition@applyISTS.com with the detailed reason for retracting your approval.

If a student is listed on your Home page as ready for Employee Verification, then the form to approve them is quite simple. You can simply click on their name to open the form, and confirm whether the information they reported is accurate or not. And that’s it!

If you don’t see your employee Verification form on your home page, then any of the following three situations may have occurred:

• The employee has not yet reached the Employment Verification stage of their application, and/or
• The employee’s documents are still in line to to be reviewed, and/or
• The employee may have been denied.*

You can check the status of a particular employee by using the Owner Operator Reporting site.

* Denial reasons can include a lack of eligible expenses, already reaching the maximum payment for the year, or not passing the previous semester’s classes.

You are eligible for the tuition assistance program if you have been employed by McDonald’s for 90 days or more, and work at least 15 hours a week.

No, only one request per term.

Not if they are in the same term.

Sure, you can create a request for summer, but you would have had to be registered for summer.

Archways to Opportunity Tuition Assistance covers tuition and most mandatory fees.  McOpCo employees can also use tuition assistance funds to cover the purchase of books and supplies.

Tuition Assistance Approval: To get Tuition Assistance, the Tuition Assistance application must be approved by their Franchise Owner/Operator or by the McDonald’s Service Center.

School Requirements: Courses must be at a degree or certificate granting college or university, accredited by the U.S. Department of Education.

Tuition Bill: Applicants will need to submit a copy of their tuition bill to request Tuition Assistance. This bill must have their name, their school’s name, the academic term, and tuition, fees, and book costs listed as line items. They will upload or email their tuition bill and any other applicable receipts as part of their online application.

It is any Employee who holds a title below that of “Shift Manager” in the Employer’s organizational structure within the restaurant (e.g., Crew Person, Floor Supervisor, Crew Trainer, Primary Maintenance, Backup Maintenance, or Shift Manager Trainee).

It is any Employee who holds the title of “Shift Manager” or a title above “Shift Manager” in the Employer’s organizational structure within the restaurant (e.g., General Manager, Restaurant Manager, Department Manager, First Assistant Manager, Second Assistant Manager, Assistant Manager, or Certified Swing Manager).

The check will be made payable to your school, even though it will be mailed to your home address. Please do not try to cash the check; simply deliver it to your school and they will apply it to your account.

Unfortunately, per policy, we cannot mail the check directly to the school. Additionally, in our experience, mailing checks directly to the school results in more checks getting lost or applied incorrectly. You are welcome to double-check or update your mailing address on your Profile page, but we cannot mail the check directly to the school.

Not a problem! We would be happy to reissue that for you.

Simply send an email to mcd-tuition@applyISTS.com explaining the situation. Please be sure to include your name, the check number, and confirm your school name and home address.

We should get that out to you within 5-7 business days of receiving your email.

Unfortunately, if you did not use the check for the semester intended, you will need to return the payment to ISTS and complete a new tuition assistance application.

Please mail the check back to 1321 Murfreesboro Road, Suite 800, Nashville, TN 37217 along with a note clarifying the reason for its return.

Your annual cap will be adjusted to reflect the returned amount and you may start a new payment request with the correct information.

Unfortunately, if you are no longer attending the school provided on your application, you will need to return the payment to ISTS and complete a new tuition assistance application.

Please mail the check back to 1321 Murfreesboro Road, Suite 800, Nashville, TN 37217 along with a note clarifying the reason for its return.

Your annual cap will be adjusted to reflect the returned amount and you may start a new payment request with the correct information.

Unfortunately, per policy, we cannot make the tuition check directly payable to you. However, if you have already paid your school for this semester, they should be able to reimburse you directly. Simply take them the MCDTA check, and they will refund to you what you have previously paid to them. Then, they can replace your funds with the MCDTA funds.

Are you Crew, a Franchise Manager, or a Corporate Manager?

If you are a Crew member, you are eligible for up to $2,500 per calendar year.

If you are a part-time Franchise Manager, you are eligible for up to $2,500.

Full-time Franchise managers (who work more than 30 hours per week) are eligible for up to $3000 per calendar year.

Full time Corporate Managers are eligible for up to $5250 per year.

Your payment is typically processed and approved within 2 business days of your application becoming complete. You should receive an application approval email which will include the amount of your payment and a timeline on receiving the check in the mail.

Your payment will be mailed out within 13 days of your application approval notification. Most applicants receive their payment within 3 weeks of the approval notification.

Your payment amount should be listed in your application approval notification.

The check will be mailed to your home address, made payable to your school. Once received, it will be your responsibility to deliver it to your school.

The first application of the year does not require a transcript. However, all subsequent applications will need to show proof that you passed the previously funded semesters.

Remember these key requirements: Your tuition bill needs to have…

• Your name
• The school’s name (or URL), and
• All charges and credits as individual line items.

Usually, you can get this from the Student Account Detail section of your school’s web-portal. If that does not provide all of the necessary information, then we recommend that you visit your school’s billing department in person. If you explain that you need an itemized bill for tuition assistance purposes, they can typically provide you a hard-copy bill that meets all of the requirements. From there, you can simply scan the bill or take a picture of it with your smartphone to email to us at MCD-Tuition@applyISTS.com.

To determine the exact reason your document was rejected, please click the status button your Home page (https://MCDTA.applyISTS.com). The status will expand and show you the time stamp and reason for your document’s rejection. The rejection message will appear until your upload a replacement document.

Your transcript will need to include…

1. Your name
2. Your school’s name
3. The grades for the previously funded semester, and
4. Your cumulative GPA

As all documents are individually reviewed by trained and specialized ISTS staff, there is a necessary and reasonable turnover in documents being reviewed and added to your application. All documents should be reviewed and processed within 5-7 business days.

Your tuition bill needs to include…

1. Your name
2. The name of your school
3. All charges and credits listed as individual line items

This means we will need to see charges such as Tuition – $500; Registration Fees – $75; Parking Permit: $35, etc.

To complete your application for the McDonald’s Franchise Tuition Assistance, you MUST submit:

1. An itemized tuition bill – The tuition bill is required for all applications and must have the following items clearly visible to be complete.

• Your School Name
• Your Full Name
• The Academic Term (e.g.: Fall 2016)
• All Charges Separated and Itemized
• Any Financial Aid Labeled as a Loan, Scholarship, or Grant

2. Grade reports for any eligible coursework if you’ve already been awarded McDonald’s tuition assistance this year

Note: You do not need to submit a grade report for your first request of the calendar year. The grade report is only required for additional requests, after your initial submission, made during the same calendar year.

Your grade report should include:

• All grades from the previously funded term
• Your Full Name
• The name of the school you attended for those classes

For more information and answers to many of your questions regarding the program, please visit http://www.archwaystoopportunity.com/.