Student Loans and Scholarships

Outside Scholarships

Outside scholarships are monies given to a student by a third-party. Third parties include agencies, organizations, communities, high schools, or persons not affiliated with The Pennsylvania State University or any of its campuses. These awards can be applied to your tuition bill and any other charges on your student account as approved by the donor.

CLAIMING AN OUTSIDE SCHOLARSHIP ON YOUR TUITION BILL

Many students and parents are unsure how to claim an award on their tuition bill. Below are some basic instructions concerning outside scholarships.

• Per the Office of the Bursar policy, if your award is grade dependent, you may not claim this award on your bill. You will need to pay the balance of your bill for it to be processed. When the funds are received, they will be disbursed to your Student Account, and a refund will be issued to the student for any credit balance.
• Awards over $500.00 will be split between the fall and spring semesters unless the award letter or check states it is for a specific semester.
• As soon as you receive a check or an award letter, send it to our office so it can be reflected on your tuition bill. Our office enters awards as promptly as possible. Due to heavy volume during the months of July, August, November, and December, it will take two weeks for the award to appear on your tuition bill. The earlier you submit checks and award letters, the greater the chance your award will be reflected on the initial bill.
• If a check is made payable to you and Penn State, please be sure to endorse the check before sending it to us. If a check is not endorsed properly, University Park students will receive an email notifying them that their check needs to be signed at 103 Shields Building. We will send all other checks to your commonwealth campus and they will notify you. This will take time for your awards to be posted to your student account. If a donor sends a check to our office that needs to be endorsed, we will follow the same procedures as stated above.
• If all charges are covered by aid, your bill will be processed and all funds will be posted to your student account as they are received.
• If all charges are not covered by aid, you will be responsible for paying the difference to allow your bill to be processed.
• To submit your scholarship check(s) without your bill please mail to:
  
  Office of Loans and Scholarships
  Attn: Outside Scholarship Specialist
  108 Shields Building
  University Park, PA 16802
  

AWARD LETTERS

Students typically receive a letter of notification about their scholarship or award prior to receiving the funds. These letters help notify our office that payment is forthcoming. As soon as you receive such notification, make a copy of it and mail it to our office. Forward all correspondence to:

Office of Loans and Scholarships
Attn: Outside Scholarship Specialist
108 Shields Building
University Park, PA 16802

SCHOLARSHIP CHECKS

If you receive a check without an accompanying letter, please endorse the check if the check is made payable to you and Penn State, and include your name and PSU ID on a separate piece of paper. This allows our office to process your awards in a timely manner. Please forward all correspondence to:

Office of Loans and Scholarships
Attn: Outside Scholarship Specialist
108 Shields Building
University Park, PA 16802

AWARDS AND INVOICES

Some donors require us to send an invoice before they provide us with payment. This is normally true for school districts paying for their teachers to take classes and military reimbursement programs. To ensure the timely processing of these invoices, please send all necessary paperwork to:

Office of Loans and Scholarships
Attn: Outside Scholarship Specialist
108 Shields Building
University Park, PA 16802

We will reflect the award on your tuition bill and submit an invoice to the awarding organization after the drop/add period ends. Funds will be reflected on your Student Account when received from the donor.

This information is available in alternative format upon request