Private Scholarships

University of St. Thomas students receive over 1.7 million dollars annually in private scholarship awards from local foundations, community agencies, corporations, clubs, civic, social and fraternal organizations, parents' employers and other groups that provide financial support to students. With over 700,000 scholarships available nationally from over 25,000 providers annually, careful planning is required to actually receive some of these awards. Each program has unique eligibility requirements, application forms and deadlines. Some are based on demonstrated financial need, while others may be based on your academic achievement, religious affiliation, ethnic or racial heritage, community activities, artistic talents, career plans or field of study, athletic ability, special hobbies and/or interests. Our Web site provides students with useful links to five scholarship search providers. UST also prepares a monthly newsletter, $cholartips, to assist students in learning about scholarship opportunities.

Finding Private Scholarships

A good time to start searching for private scholarship funds is in the spring of your junior year in high school. Your high school counselor can help you with information about local and national scholarship programs. Contact your parents' employers to learn of any scholarship programs for dependents of employees and contact your church and other organizations to which you or your family belong. Review the reference section in your high school and local public library for scholarship books. Watch for announcements in the local news media. Perhaps the best scholarship resource is the Internet. Web sites specializing in scholarships and college have proliferated in recent years and many are free for users.

Reporting

Please inform the Undergraduate Financial Aid Office of any scholarship award you receive from any source other than St. Thomas by completing an Outside Aid Information Form.

The form above is in PDF format. If you do not have Adobe's Acrobat Reader, please click here.

The University of St. Thomas encourages students to pursue scholarship funds from outside sources but must determine whether or not the receipt of these funds requires an adjustment in any need-based financial aid funds previously offered to a recipient. If an adjustment is required to comply with federal or state financial aid regulations, it is our policy to first reduce the amount of need-based loan or employment in the student's aid package.

Disbursement

In most cases, the donor of your scholarship will provide you with specific details about how and when the funds will be distributed to you as well as any documentation you may need to provide in order for the donor to release your funds. Contact the donor if you have any questions regarding how and when your funds will be distributed.

If your donor sends a check to you, but the check is payable to you and St. Thomas, endorse the check and forward it to the Undergraduate Financial Aid Office. If the check is sent to St. Thomas, you will be contacted by e-mail with directions on where to come to sign your check, if required. If your endorsement is not required, the funds will be directly credited to your student account by the start of the term. It is our policy to apply one-half of each private scholarship to your student account for each term unless the donor provides specific instructions. Awards of less than $500 will be credited to your student account in one disbursement unless the donor provides specific instructions.