Navigating Scholarships at Utah State University: A Comprehensive Guide

Utah State University (USU) offers a multitude of scholarship opportunities to help students finance their education. USU primarily awards scholarships based upon academic achievement or financial need. With a focus on making education accessible, USU provides various avenues for students to reduce their financial burden through scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study programs. This guide provides detailed information on how to navigate the scholarship landscape at USU, covering everything from application procedures to maintaining scholarship eligibility.

Understanding Scholarship Opportunities at USU

At Utah State, you'll earn a top-notch education without burying yourself in insurmountable piles of debt. Plus, USU grads have a high job placement rate. USU offers a diverse range of scholarships catering to different student profiles. Some colleges and departments offer scholarships based upon donor gift agreements when the donor directs their funding to a certain population of students.

There are several types of scholarships available! You can find scholarships based on your major, minor, college, department, academic merits, financial need, hobbies, interests, affiliations, and more. Scholarships can come from two different sources. School Scholarships are internal and are offered by various departments across campus. External Scholarships are available from sources outside of Utah State University. These can be offered from local, state, or national organizations.

Types of Scholarships

USU offers a variety of scholarships to students, including:

Admissions Scholarships: These are awarded one time when students are admitted to USU and cannot be extended.
Departmental Scholarships: These are offered by specific departments within the university.
Private Scholarships: These are funded by external donors.

Automatic Consideration vs. Separate Applications

When you apply for admission to USU, you are automatically considered for academic scholarships. Unlike academic awards where you are automatically considered when you apply to USU, non-academic scholarships require separate applications and have varying deadlines.

Read also: Comprehensive Scholarship Guide

Applying for Scholarships

To maximize your chances of receiving financial aid, it is essential to understand the application process and deadlines.

The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)

To receive federal financial aid-including grants, loans, or work-study-you must complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) by the published deadlines. The FAFSA needs to be completed each year you wish to receive aid. We strongly encourage you to submit your FAFSA as early as possible, since processing times can vary. Visit Federal Student Aid to submit your FAFSA. The USU school code for the FAFSA is 003677.

In some cases, portions of the FAFSA may already be filled out if you applied the year before. You will need to update only financial information respective to the tax year requested and review the rest for accuracy. Paper applications are also available through Student Financial Support. Our office offers help with FAFSA preparation and submission for free. Don't let the FAFSA intimidate you.

Some applications are completed within one to two weeks, but others may take significantly longer, depending on federal requirements or the need to complete missing information. Department of Education, or if your marital status changes after you file, additional time will likely be required-especially while you gather and submit documentation. If you are getting married, and need help updating or filling out the FAFSA as a married student, please review these instructions on how to update your FAFSA for marital status changes. This update can also be used if your marital status has changed from married to divorced.

USU General Scholarship Application

Once you’re admitted, submit the USU General Scholarship Application.

Read also: Scholarship Opportunities in CNMI

External Scholarships

It is recommended that you log in to the system at least once a week to stay up to date on any new scholarships that are posted and apply before their deadline.

Letters of Recommendation and Application Submission

If a scholarship application requires that you request a Letter of Recommendation, you can do this directly through the application. Please be sure to ask your recommender before completing your application. The submission of a scholarship application is final and essays or any documents submitted cannot be edited.

Checking Your Scholarship Status

To check the status of a scholarship, navigate to the Scholarships tab from the menu and then select the Application Submitted tab. From there, you can see the status of the scholarship you applied to. Any outstanding tasks that you are required to complete such as Thank You Letters or Award Acceptance can be done directly from the system.

Maintaining Scholarship Eligibility

Receiving a scholarship is just the first step. To continue receiving your scholarship, you must meet certain requirements.

Credit Hour Requirements

If you are not able to meet your credit hour requirement due to schedule conflicts or because you don’t need to take as many credits as your scholarship requires this semester and can still graduate on time, you can appeal for fewer hours on your scholarship. To obtain approval: 1) Meet with your academic advisor and develop a graduation plan in DegreeWorks showing how many credits you need each semester. 2) Ask your advisor to lock that plan.

If you have an Admissions Scholarship and you will be below requirements, you can obtain approval for a lower credit hour requirement. To do so: 1) Meet with your Academic Advisor and develop a graduation plan in DegreeWorks showing how many credits you will be taking this current semester and in any future semesters. Your Admissions Scholarship will be applied to your student account regardless of how many credits you take. If you are below credit requirements it could be cancelled for future semesters.

If you take more than 18 credits, your scholarship will also apply toward your tuition charges. Our office typically finds students enrolled in more than 18 credits and can adjust your scholarship payment. We look at passed courses for credit hour requirements. If you had to drop your courses after the third week of the semester, you will still be charged as if you were attending. Your scholarship payment is dependent on your enrollment, however, so your scholarship payment will not apply toward your tuition charges if you are not enrolled.

If your departmental scholarship is not paying out, there are different reasons this could be happening. Typically, it is because you are enrolled in fewer credits than the scholarship allows or was originally set up to pay. We will contact the department that awarded you the scholarship to see if they approve for you to have your scholarship payment.

GPA Requirements

If you are below your GPA requirements, and you have not been below requirements previously, you can appeal for probation after you are notified that your scholarship is cancelled for a low GPA.

Notification of Leave

To hold your scholarship, you must file for a notification of leave. When your notification of leave is approved, we will be notified and will place your scholarship on hold until you return to USU. For departmental scholarships, you will need to contact the department that awarded you the scholarship to find out if it can be held. If you have a private scholarship, you will need to contact the donor. Some donors prefer to hold scholarships themselves, and some may allow USU to hold a private scholarship. If you did not file for a notification of leave and left USU, your scholarship may not have been held.

Summer Term

Admissions Scholarships do not pay for summer term automatically because summer term is not required. If you do have enough semesters left on your scholarship, you can request to use one semester of your scholarship to pay for summer term. If you choose to use your scholarship in summer term, you will not be required to enroll full time. However, it will utilize a full semester’s worth of your scholarship, regardless of the number of credits you take. If you have a Nonresident Waiver, Alumni Legacy Waiver, or WUE, your scholarship will not apply toward summer tuition charges. Summer tuition is charged at resident rates for everyone.

Scholarship Restrictions

If you have an admissions scholarship you will notice your scholarship agreement letter states it cannot be used for online out-of-state classes.

Scholarship Disbursement and Refunds

Scholarship payments are applied first to your student account. If all charges are paid already, your donor may allow any remaining award to be refunded to you. If you have direct deposit set up with USU, the money will be sent to your bank account. The Internal Revenue Service of the US government requires USU to charge taxes on non-qualified scholarship payments to international students. Non-qualified scholarships are payments not applied to tuition or required fees that can refund to students.

Specific Scholarship Programs

USU offers various scholarship programs for both resident and nonresident students.

Resident Scholarships

Several scholarships are available for resident students, including:

Resident Presidential Scholarship: This scholarship covers full tuition and student body fees for 4 years.
Resident Deans Scholarship: This scholarship provides $7,000 per year for 4 years and pays any differential tuition charges.
Resident Scholar Scholarship: This scholarship offers $5,000 per year for 4 years.
Resident Merit Scholarship: This scholarship provides $3,500 per year for 4 years.
Resident Land Grant Scholarship: This scholarship offers $2,500 per year for 4 years.
Resident Trustee Scholarship: This scholarship provides $1,500 per year for 4 years.
Resident Transfer Provost Scholarship: This scholarship provides $5,500 per year for 2 years and pays any differential tuition charges.
Resident Transfer Deans Scholarship: This scholarship offers $5,000 per year for 2 years and pays any differential tuition charges.
Resident Transfer Scholar Scholarship: This scholarship provides $4,000 per year for 2 years.
Resident Transfer Merit Scholarship: This scholarship offers $2,500 per year for 2 years.

Nonresident Scholarships

USU also provides several scholarships for nonresident students, including:

Nonresident Presidential Scholarship: This scholarship covers full tuition and student body fees for 4 years, provided the student establishes Utah residency after the first year.
Nonresident Deans Scholarship: This is a 2-year award, providing $24,000 for the first year and $7,000 for the second year. Students must establish Utah residency after the first year.
Nonresident Scholar Scholarship: This is a 1-year award that waives the nonresident portion of tuition, allowing students to pay in-state rates for the first year. Students must establish Utah residency after the first year.
Nonresident Merit Scholarship: This is a 1-year award valued at $11,500. Students must establish Utah residency after the first year.
100-Mile Radius Scholarship: This is a 1-year award valued at $11,500. Students must establish Utah residency after the first year.
Nonresident Transfer Provost Scholarship: This is a 2-year award, providing $24,000 for the first year and $5,000 for the second year. Students must establish Utah residency after the first year.
Nonresident Transfer Merit Scholarship: This is a 1-year award valued at $11,500. Students must establish Utah residency after the first year.
Nonresident Transfer 100 Mile Radius Scholarship: This is a 1-year award valued at $11,500. Students must establish Utah residency after the first year.

WUE and WUE+ Programs

The Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) is a program for undergraduate students that allows nonresident students to pay 150% of resident tuition. The program is filled on a yearly basis beginning with fall semester, and is set for a maximum of 8 semesters. Students receiving the WUE will not receive a 'scholarship' or 'waiver', instead their residency code will be changed and the student will be charged a WUE tuition rate (at 150% of resident tuition). WUE is available to students attending Logan, Statewide and Southeast Campuses (USU Eastern, Blanding, Moab). Pacific Territory: Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Colorado, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Republic of Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming. Deadline: August 1, 2026 (for Fall 2026)

WUE+ programs offer additional savings. Transfer students qualifying for the WUE+ will receive $5,000 per year in addition to the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) savings.

Establishing Utah Residency

Several nonresident scholarships require students to establish Utah residency after the first year to continue receiving a tuition reduction. Some incoming first-year students might prefer to establish Utah residency for tuition purposes. Here is what tuition would look like if you pay full nonresident tuition for 1 year, then establish Utah residency and pay resident tuition for 3 years. The table also shows the savings if you use the 1-year scholarship during the first year before establishing residency.

Additional Resources

USU provides several resources to help students manage their finances and explore job opportunities.

Student Money Management Center

Meet with a free financial coach! Utah State’s Student Money Management Center helps you build a budget, explore ways to save, and feel confident about paying for college.

AGGIE Handshake

Utah State employs more than 5,000 students. Because the university is like a small city, there are a ton of jobs to apply for. To easily view and apply for Aggie-only jobs and off-campus employment, use AGGIE Handshake.

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