Receiving Scholarship Funds from Non-UC San Diego Organizations

If the campus is notified of an outside scholarship but all the aid you receive on your initial financial aid offer, including financial aid from UCSD, and government grants and loans —is equal to your financial need (annual Cost of Attendance minus EFC/SAI from the FAFSA or CA Dream Act Application) the federal government requires schools to reduce the amount of “need-based” financial aid to make room for the outside scholarship. Based on these requirements, and to minimize the impact on student’s financial aid, we will reduce aid to make room for the scholarship(s) financial aid in the following order:

1. Reduce any offered need based loans or work-study
2. If the scholarships exceeds the loan and work-study amount we will next reduce your offered University Grant prior to adjusting your fee specific grants (e.g. Cal Grant)
3. We will not adjust the Pell grant as long as you are eligible.

For more information on the UC San Diego packaging procedures please visit

https://fas.ucsd.edu/applying/prospective-undergraduates/packaging-policy.html

We understand each student's situation is different and (depending on your financial aid eligibility or costs for the academic year, ) it is possible we may be able to account for your outside scholarship in your financial aid offer. For example, based on your circumstances you may be eligible to:

1. Increase your cost of attendance through the Special Circumstances Cost of Attendance appeal
2. Decrease your family contribution through the Special Circumstances- EFC Calculation appeal

For more information on these appeals, please visit https://fas.ucsd.edu/forms-and-resources/forms/index.html

Understand How the Funds are Disbursed

• Your scholarship funds, if greater than $2,000, will be divided into three quarterly disbursements unless UC San Diego is directed to do otherwise by the agency. If you want it fully applied to the current quarter please contact your scholarship donor/agency to determine if this may be done and have them notify the Scholarships Team at scholarships@ucsd.edu.

• Your scholarship check will be processed the day it arrives at Student Financial Solutions and credited to your student account within seven business days (longer during peak periods).

• Your scholarship check process can be delayed if:

  • Your PID is not shown clearly on the check.
  • You have a hold on your student account.
  • You do not meet enrollment or other eligibility requirements of the agency.
  • Your Social Security Number (SSN) is not registered with the university. If you do not have an SSN please contact the Scholarships Team. Otherwise you will need to update your university records via the Office of the Registrar’s Request to Update or Change Name or SSN/ITIN online form.