This page is intended for UMBC Faculty and Staff requesting to award department scholarships to degree-seeking students for the current semester’s enrollment at UMBC.
UMBC is proud to offer a variety of scholarship opportunities to new and current degree-seeking students. Our Scholarship Retriever tool lists a variety of institutional, merit, and departmental scholarships, as well as some external offerings!
Login Access
Visit the Scholarship Retriever main webpage here. You may log in to the administrator panel using your myUMBC Login and Password. All faculty, staff, students and student applicants who have an assigned UMBC Campus ID are automatically granted access to Scholarship Retriever.
Log-in to Scholarship Retriever
Scholarship Retriever Access Request Form
- Staff members whose role it is to administer scholarships for their department should have an Administrator Role in Scholarship Retriever. If you do not see this role available when you log into Scholarship Retriever, then you have not been assigned any departments. If you are a department administrator in need of administrator access in Scholarship Retriever, please complete the Scholarship Retriever Access Request Form here. Our Scholarship Team will review and process your request within 5 business days.
Scholarship Retriever – Access Request Form
Scholarship Retriever Administrator Training Manual
The Scholarships Unit has created an Administrator Training Manual for all UMBC Faculty and Staff who are awarding in Scholarship Retriever. This manual provides a comprehensive overview of the awarding process in Scholarship Retriever.
Scholarship Retriever – Administrator Training Manual
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 awarding the student.
Page 1 of the form will ask for information about the award regarding:
- Award Name and Amount
- Semester(s) to be awarded, and Year
- Financial Need Requirement
Be careful when selecting your response to “Is financial need a factor?” on this form. Please only select “Yes” on the form if Need is required for your award (see below as well).
- A department should only be requesting Need information 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 and they will be considered ineligible for your award. Most departmental awards do not require need.
- International students are not eligible to submit a FAFSA, and therefore are not eligible for need based awards. If you are awarding international students, your award cannot be need-based.
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
Staff requesting a review of more than 10 students are welcome to complete our Candidate Eligibility – Mass Review Sheet here for a faster review process for all. Once completed, please download your sheet via excel, and submit to our RT queue here.
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.
- 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I request a new item type?
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.
- Be careful when selecting your response to “Is this a need-based award?” on this form. Please only select “Yes” on the form if Need is required for your award (see below as well).
- A department should only be requesting Need information if the award requires the student to demonstrate financial need to receive it. If a student does not have a FAFSA on file, they will be considered ineligible for your award. Most departmental awards do not require need, if you have questions please contact our unit, as we are also happy to submit this form on your behalf.
- International students are not eligible to submit a FAFSA, and therefore are not eligible for need based awards. If you are awarding international students, your award cannot be need-based.
How Are Funds Applied from Department Chartstring?
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.
Who should I contact regarding JEs for reimbursement?
What is cost of attendance? Why does it matter for awarding purposes?
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.
I am awarding the same award on a semester or yearly basis. Should I be using Scholarship Retriever?
I have Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) students to award.
Quicklinks
Candidate Eligibility Form
Request New Item Type
USM Foundation Disbursement Request Form
Scholarship Retriever Department Request Form
Disbursement
Disbursement of awards to student accounts occurs every Tuesday. Unfortunately the Scholarship Unit cannot assist in the completion of USM disbursement request forms or ACH wires, please see below.
Reimbursement
Unfortunately the Scholarship Unit cannot assist in the reimbursement process, Journal Entry (JE), etc. please see below.
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.