Awarding Scholarships, Stipends and Prizes
Students receive payments, reimbursements, awards or other forms of transactions while attending UC Merced. Different administrative offices process these transactions depending on their nature: Scholarship, Fellowship, Fee Remission, Fee Waiver, Grant, Loan, Stipend, Prize or compensation. For all intents and purposes there are only two types of student financial support: 1) Non-need based employment and 2) Financial Aid. So, regardless of what an award is called (scholarship, grant, loan, stipend, prize, etc.), it is considered financial aid unless it falls into the non-need based employment/compensation category. Common definitions for each of these are listed below.
Definitions
- Scholarship is financial aid awarded on the basis of merit, academic achievement, or special talents and does not have to be repaid. Some scholarships are also awarded on the basis of need.
- Fellowship is a common way of referencing financial aid given to support a student’s research, usually at the graduate level.
- Grant is a common way of referencing any financial aid that does not have an academic performance requirement. Grants are typically need-based.
- Loan is a common way of referencing any form of financial aid that must be repaid by the student.
- Merit is a common way of referencing any form of financial aid awarded based on academic performance criteria.
- Need is a common way of referencing any form of financial aid awarded based on the students’ demonstrated financial need. Title IV defines need as Cost of Attendance less the Expected Family Contribution.
- Prize is typically used to describe financial aid awarded to a student who has entered and won a judged competition.
- Stipend is typically used to describe non-compensatory awards for participation and engagement in a program, activity or project.
- Compensation is any form of payment to a student in recognition of a student’s employment service for the University. Compensation is always paid through the Payroll Office. If compensation is not awarded on the basis of Federal financial need (i.e. Federal Work-study program), then it is not considered financial aid. However, if the compensation is awarded on the basis of Federal financial need, it is considered financial aid.
Financial Aid Implications of Scholarships, Stipends and Prizes
Federal regulations require schools to determine how any fund that a student receives should be treated. If a student receives a form of assistance because he or she is enrolled in postsecondary education, or if the assistance is to pay for postsecondary educationally related expenses, the fund must be treated as a resource and be counted in the total estimated financial assistance a student receives (Please see Payments to University of California Students-UCOP Policy).The general rule is that the student’s need-based aid (federal and non-federal) may not exceed the student’s demonstrated financial need (Cost of Attendance less the Expected Family Contribution) and the student’s total aid (federal and non-federal, regardless of financial need) may not exceed the student’s total Cost of Attendance. It is the goal of the UC Merced Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships to maximize the amount of funding a student receives. Whenever possible, UC Merced replaces unmet need first, then unassigned Federal work-study, then non-need based loans, then need-based loans and as a last resort, grant or scholarship aid.
Procedures
If you are planning to award a scholarship to a UC Merced student, please contact the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships for assistance in setting up the infrastructure and processes necessary to do so. We use the scholarship management system Academicworks and will create a profile that will work best for your specific scholarship type moving forward. All financial aid awards are disbursed through the financial aid system to the students' UC Merced student account. The funds will go to pay any outstanding institutional charges (tuition/fees and on-campus housing and meals) and/or other charges the student has authorized us to pay with his/her financial aid first. If there aren't any outstanding charges (and the award creates a credit on the account rather than replacing other aid), the credit will be given to the student in the form of a check or through direct deposit to a bank account if they've signed up for that option (usually within a week).
Timeline
If you are establishing a new scholarship please allow 1-2 weeks for the infrastructure to be put in place through Academicworks and the awards to be entered on the system. If this is an award that is already in place, once the completed Disbursement Request Form or email request is received the award will be placed on the student’s financialaid package within a week. You can submit all email requests directly to the financial aid office at disbursementrequests@ucmerced.edu . Ideally, it is best to have all awards by the first week of August for the fall term or January for the spring term, so the awards can be applied to the fall or spring fees that are due around the middle of the month. We can award anytime throughout the academic year once an award is funded and the disbursement request is sent to us.
Contact information;Lisa Silveira, Scholarship Coordinator 209-228-2470 lsilveira@ucmerced.edu
