Getting Started

Departments will submit the Candidate Eligibility Form online to the Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships. An email response will be sent to the contact person within 5 business days. The eligibility response will provide the following information:

• Financial need: If the department's scholarship criteria includes financial need, a response of "high", "moderate" or "low" will be provided based upon the student's FAFSA. This does not take into account other awards the student is receiving.
• Eligibility to collect additional scholarship: Determined based on the current aid package. This will advise the department if the additional scholarship will impact aid the student is already receiving.

What's Next

The department selects an eligible student to receive the award and completes the Award & Disbursement Request Form for all funding sources except the USM Foundation. For awards funded by the USM Foundation, complete the USM Foundation Disbursement Request Form. Checks from the Foundation should be made payable to UMBC (not the student). If completing the USM Foundation Disbursement Request Form, please include the student's name, campus ID, and the award semester/year in the business purposes section of the form.

• If there are multiple awards, one form should be completed for each student.
• To avoid late fees on student accounts, plan to submit your requests a month before student bills are due. The student will be responsible for any balance due that is not covered by the award, late fees will be assessed if not paid. For billing dates and information, visit www.umbc.edu/sbs.

The Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships will post the award directly to the student's account. The funds will be debited from the department's scholarship expense chartstring.

• Fund: 1113
  Department: 1xxxx (depending on the department code)
  Progfin: 171
  Account: 7129900
  Proj Bus Unit: UMBC1
  Project: 00005145
  Activity ID: MAIN
  Res Type: FelSc
  Analysis Type: GLE

If the funding is from the USM Foundation, the Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships will forward the signed and verified forms to the USM Foundation for processing. The Foundation will forward a check for the scholarship funds directly to the department. The department must deposit the funds using the UMBC Office of the Cashier Foundation Deposit Transmittal.

If the funding is coming from a different source, the department must transfer funds timely via a journal entry. Scholarship expense (7129900) should be debited in the funding source and credited to the chartstring given above.

One More Step

The department should send the student an award notification letter that includes:

• Amount of funding and semester(s) of award.
• If there is a donor for the award:
  • Request for a thank-you note to the donor.
  • Request for a Release of Information form that authorizes information sharing with the donor.
  • Uncertain if there is a donor? Contact Carmel Todd, ctodd@umbc.edu, for assistance.

Contact Information