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 Pennsylvania State University or any of its campuses. These awards can be applied to your tuition bill, books, and any other charges you may incur while attending our university.

CLAIMING AN OUTSIDE SCHOLARSHIP OR AWARD ON 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 and awards.

• When you receive a check or an award letter please note this on your electronic tuition bill by selecting "Request changes to my bill" and noting the changes within the explanation box. Once you have made these changes, they will be submitted to the Bursar's Office for review. You will receive a response from the Bursar's Office via e-mail.
• Please make sure that you endorse your check(s). If they are not endorsed properly, all University Park students will receive an email notifying them that their check needs to be signed at 103 Shields. 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 the checks are sent to our office instead of you and need 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 prior to receiving the funds about their scholarship or award. These letters help notify our office that payment is forthcoming. As soon as you receive such notification, please make a copy of it and mail it to our office. Please 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 required, 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 awards or agencies 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 submit an invoice to your agency. We cannot guarantee processing time limits, they are on a case-by-case basis and vary. When checking on the status of your invoice, we ask that you contact us 2 weeks after submitting your paperwork.

This information is available in alternative format upon request