Department Scholarships

This page is designed exclusively for the use of UMBC faculty and staff to administer UMBC Department Scholarships.

There are three main categories of UMBC Department Scholarships:

Winter Term or Non-Degree Seeking Student Scholarships

To award a scholarship for the winter term or for a non-degree seeking student attending any term, please complete the requested information on this form and return it to Student Business Services via inter-campus mail. If you have any questions about SBS Department Scholarship requests, please contact Student Business Services.

Payments/Reimbursements to Students for Expenses

All payments or reimbursements to students for expenses not related to UMBC tuition and fees will be processed by Accounts Payable. This includes payments for activities such as research or conferences. Please click here for detailed information.

Degree-Seeking UMBC Student Scholarships

Please review the following steps before submitting a Candidate Eligibility Form or Department Scholarship Form for a degree-seeking student.

1. Complete a Candidate Eligibility Form

Departments are highly encouraged to submit the Candidate Eligibility Form to determine a student’s eligibility for a department award before completing an award and disbursement form.

Page 1 of the form will ask for information about the award regarding:

  • Award Name and Amount
  • Semester(s) to be awarded, and Year
  • Whether financial “Need” is a requirement of the award–please only select “Yes” on the form if need is required for your award (see below as well).

Page 2 of the form will allow you to input candidates for review. An email response will be sent to the contact person within 5 business days.

Complete a Candidate Eligibility Form

The eligibility response will provide the following information:

  • Financial need: If the department’s scholarship criteria includes financial need, a response of “high”, “moderate”, “low”, “none”, or “no FAFSA” will be provided based upon the student’s FAFSA. This does not take into account other awards the student is receiving.
      • A department should only be requesting Need information (ie., indicating “Yes” to “Is financial need a factor?”) if the award requires the student to demonstrate financial need to receive it. If a student does not have a FAFSA on file, we will be unable to calculate need-based eligibility.
  • 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. UMBC will be required to reduce any funding if a student exceeds their Cost of Attendance (COA) in a given academic year. We are not able to process department awards to student accounts if it will cause students to exceed their cost of attendance.

2. Complete the Award and Disbursement Form

Departments should complete the award and disbursement form that corresponds to their desired award year. This form should only be completed for degree-seeking undergraduate or graduate students enrolled at UMBC.

Please note: Award and Disbursement Forms should only be used for awards that are not re-occurring awards. If your department is looking to award a scholarship across different semesters and/or to multiple students, we would recommend adding your scholarship to Scholarship Retriever.

3. Review RT Resolution

Once your Award and Disbursement Request form has been signed by all parties in your department, the form is sent to our unit for review and award posting, and an RT ticket is generated.

The form will be processed within 1 week, and you will be sent a resolution notice in the RT ticket. Please review the RT resolution notes in case additional information is needed from you, the student has been deemed ineligible for the award, and/or information on the anticipated disbursement date of the award.

Frequently Asked Questions

Departments can request a new item type here. Please request a new item type and have it approved before completing a Candidate Eligibility Form and Award and Disbursement Request Form.

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, please submit the online USM Foundation Disbursement Request Form. The Foundation will wire the funds to UMBC. The department must then submit a financial services ticket to direct the funds to the correct chartstring. Please include a copy of your submitted DRF as backup to the Financial Services ticket.

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. More information can be found here.

Please contact Financial Services with any questions you have regarding JEs.

Cost of attendance (COA) is an estimated budget of college expenses for an academic semester or year. Per federal regulations, the COA serves as the maximum amount of financial assistance you may receive for an academic semester or year. UMBC will be required to reduce any funding if a student exceeds their COA in a given academic year.

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) states that estimated financial assistance (EFA) cannot exceed the COA. 34 CFR 673.5(c) and 685.102(b) specify the definition of EFA as: The estimated amount of assistance for a period of enrollment that a student (or a parent on behalf of a student) will receive from federal, state, institutional, or other sources, such as scholarships, grants, net earnings from need-based employment, or loans, including but not limited to, among other things, any educational benefits paid because of enrollment in a postsecondary education institution, or to cover postsecondary education expenses.

For more information regarding how cost of attendance is determined, please click here.

We are not able to process department awards to student accounts if it will cause students to exceed their cost of attendance. Departments should submit Candidate Eligibility Forms BEFORE awarding department scholarships to avoid overawarding students and offering an amount they are not able to receive.

Yes! Scholarship Retriever allows you to directly review, select, and award students. To get started with Scholarship Retriever, please click here.

Quicklinks

Candidate Eligibility Form

Award and Disbursement Request Form; 2023-2024 Academic Year

Award and Disbursement Request Form; 2024-2025 Academic Year

Request New Item Type

USM Foundation Disbursement Request Form

Scholarship Retriever Department Request Form

We recommend that all departmental scholarship administrators join our myUMBC Scholarships Group for additional information and updates. Please contact the Scholarships Unit and request staff to be added/removed from this group.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about the process, please contact the Merit Scholarship Unit via our contact form.