Paying for school may not always be easy, but there are several opportunities for current AU students to receive scholarships they were not awarded at the beginning of the academic year.
The list of available scholarships is long, but each recipient is honored at a Celebration of Scholarships Luncheon hosted by the University. This year, the event was held on March 18 in the Mary Graydon Center according to the AU Alumni Association’s Facebook page.
While 85 to 90 percent of scholarships from AU are awarded upon admission, donations from alumni and friends of the University fund restricted scholarships for undergraduate students, Shirleyne McDonald, associate director in the Office of Financial Aid, said.
Through the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, donors set the criteria for the awards in their name. If the award is granted through a specific school at AU, the school can decide to use an application or simply choose the highest achieving student that meets the award criteria.
“Most of the scholarships are based on academic achievement or financial need,” McDonald said. “Actually, 60 to 70 percent of the awards are given by the Financial Aid Office because they’re related to need.”
According to McDonald, due to the stipulations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a student’s financial information cannot be shared with other departments within the University. As a result, it is much simpler for the awards to be granted to the best candidate without an application process.
“What usually happens is that all of the possible recipients are put into a database. Based on the correlation between the students’ academic achievement and financial need, the student that fulfills the award criteria the best is granted the scholarship,” McDonald said.
In addition to the aspect of financial need, students may need to pursue study in a certain field, reflect excellence in that field or plan to study abroad to be eligible for an award. Some of the scholarships are also specifically for upperclassmen or graduate students.
There are some scholarships available that students can apply for themselves, however. In addition to the stipulations for each scholarship, each school as its own requirements for applicants. Generally, students are required to remain in good academic standing or maintain a certain GPA.
Students are responsible for determining the effect that receiving a scholarship might have on the rest of their financial aid package.
“For tax reasons, most scholarships are only meant to cover tuition and fees,” McDonald said. “But if a student gets an outside scholarship, they can’t receive aid greater than their need. As a result, we would first remove or reduce any loans they were offered, then remove a work study, and then reduce the institutional dollars they receive or send back some of the scholarship money.”
McDonald said that outside scholarships that are not tuition restricted might not impact need.
Kelseagh Budris, a junior in the School of Public Affairs and a cross country and track athlete, was granted the Sam Albert Scholarship last year. Designated for sophomores and renewable for the next two years of their undergraduate study, she received $4,000 for academic and athletic achievement in addition to involvement with the community without actually applying for the award.
“I wasn’t aware this scholarship existed. I just got an email from the Athletic Department saying that I had won,” Budris said. “It’s a small scholarship, but I consider it the difference between spending the summer at a restaurant making that kind of money or participating in academic opportunities that could open more doors for bigger scholarships. And of course, everything helps.”
Disclaimer: Staff writer Jillian O’Donohoe is also a track athlete and teammates with Kelseagh Budris.
