Unless a club/affiliate’s bylaws provide otherwise, the Association recommends a club/affiliate elect a scholarship committee of three or more members (one of whom serves as chair) to select the student recipient(s) of the club’s scholarship award. Committee members must not be related to any of the scholarship award applicants. Alternatively, clubs/affiliates can also request that the Office of Financial Aid select the award recipient.

Please note that if a scholarship is need-based, OFA will confirm the recipient’s eligibility prior to distributing scholarship awards. The club/affiliate does not have access to information regarding applicants’ financial needs and must rely on applicant self-identification or confirmation from OFA during the review process.

Every scholarship fund should have a scholarship establishment document or gift agreement clearly establishing:

• the purpose or goal of the scholarship fund;

• the criteria and guidelines to be utilized in choosing award recipients (OFA must approve the criteria and guidelines to ensure compliance with Universityp olicies); and

• whether the scholarship is for one year only (e.g., only newly admitted freshmen), automatically renewable, or potentially renewable (e.g., students must reapply or must make satisfactory progress in order to renew).

Incoming first-year students are required to make enrollment decisions by May 1. To assist them with their decisions, we recommend selecting your scholarship recipients as soon as possible. You should, however, be aware that students’ financial-need information is not available until mid-March at the earliest.