There isn’t a direct link you can provide for particular scholarships. Scholarship Universe is a matching platform, so a student must match to the scholarship first to be able to apply. That means a student has to meet the requirements that are in the system (like GPA and major) as well as provide the correct answer to any of the questions associated with the scholarship, such as answering “Yes” to the question “Are you a member of a Music Center ensemble group at Ferris State University?” Once a student is a match, they can access the application. Check out this video if you’d like to know more about how matching works. 

There are two different places a student can see the scholarships available to their college. Anyone, including students not yet admitted, parents, and community members, can see all the scholarships available in SU on the Public Listing. Check out this video if you’re interested in how to use the public listing. Also, a student can use the search function in their SU account to search a scholarship by name or to filter by college. This video will show you how!

(1) Tell students to think of it as a part time job or another class. Applying for scholarships takes planning, time, and quality effort.

(2) Encourage students to answer as many questions as possible. We have created hundreds of custom questions to match students to our unique scholarships. If a student doesn’t provide an answer to a question, even though they meet the criteria the question is seeking, they won’t match and won’t be considered or able to apply.

(3) Scholarship University pulls data from Banner once daily. As new information becomes available, students may match to more opportunities. For instance, if a student submits a FAFSA during the application window that demonstrates financial need, that student may subsequently be presented with additional scholarship applications that required financial need as a core criterion. Relay this to students and invite them to visit the portal weekly to answer additional questions to increase their chances of being awarded. 

Applications are a way of gathering information from a student that we do not already have. From this perspective, the system is attempting to take what we do know about a student and present them with applications that may be a potential match. This means that when students match to a scholarship application, they are matching to the core criteria. For instance, a scholarship’s core criteria may include a minimum GPA and major, along with financial need (see the video on matching). A student that matches the core criteria may then access the application. Applications solicit additional information from the student, such as their answer to an essay and whether or not they are in their final year of study or if they have participated in the orchestra for three semesters, for example. If they do not meet the additional requirements in the application, such as having participated in the orchestra, they should not apply.   

Students don’t have access to scholarships that don’t require have an application; these are referred to as “Direct Award” scholarships. (Check out this video if you want to know more about direct awards.) If they meet the matching criteria and have provided the correct answers to any associated questions, students will match to the scholarship and will appear in the eligible candidates pool. When students search for scholarships in the system, they will see these scholarships listed as “Reviewing.” Because no further action is required on the part of the student, the system categorizes these scholarships as in review; technically there is already a pool of eligible candidates. These scholarships will remain in the reviewing status for the duration of the application window.  

Under most circumstances, a student need not do anything to be considered for renewal. The scholarship will appear as “Renewing” in their SU account, meaning no further action is required. However, there are a few limited scholarships that require reapplication. These scholarships appear in an “Open” status and indicate in the eligibility criteria that students must reapply in subsequent years to be considered for renewal. In this case, students should resubmit their application for the scholarship. Scholarship Universe saves student answer from prior years, which reduces the burden on students. Any edits they need to make can be updated before the application is resubmitted.  

Reviewing scholarships are Direct Award scholarships, or scholarships that do not have an attached application. ALL direct award scholarships will appear in a reviewing status, regardless of whether a student has matched to the scholarship. In order to match, a student must meet the eligibility criteria and correctly answer any associated questions. If a student wishes to see whether they have matched to a scholarship, they can search the scholarship’s name in the search bar at the top left of their dashboard and then click “view” next to the scholarship when it appears in the search results. This will display the eligibility criteria and indicate whether they are a match. Watch this video for a walk through of the search process! Students can also always reach out to [email protected] for questions and troubleshooting.

Any scholarships in a renewing status require no further action. If a student received a scholarship in the past, and that scholarship is not indicated as renewing, but rather is in an open status, the student should take the steps to reapply.  

The spendable balance of a scholarship varies from year to year depending upon the health of the financial markets for endowed funds, donor support for annual funds, and unspent funds from the prior year or years. Once each spring, the Office of the Treasury will issue a scholarship balance report that provides the official spendable balance for every fund scheduled to award in the next cycle. 

Please disregard any current fund balance you might see currently in Scholarship Universe. These balances are a result of the scholarship rollover process, and we are working to reset them all to a $1 remaining balance (the system will not allow for a $0 balance for an active scholarship). The award amount for all scholarships is set to “Amount Varies;” students will know their award amount only once they have been selected as a recipient. 

OSFA strives to award a similar amount of funds from one year to the next with renewable awards. However, due to a variety of factors beyond our control, this is not possible in every scenario. All renewable scholarships, as a matter of policy, are renewable “contingent upon availability of funds.” However, it is also OSFA policy that wherever possible, awards will prioritize renewals ahead of the selection of new recipients. This practice is consistent with both donor intent and the best practice of ensuring consistent access to aid in support of student retention and graduation rates.