Scholarships – Frequently Asked Questions

Scholarships - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

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Graduate students, resident or non-resident:

  • Scholarships through the online CSU Scholarship Application

  • Scholarships through your program of study; contact your Dean’s Office

Some donors require verification of enrollment. You may send your scholarship donor a printout of your schedule from RAMweb, or the scholarship registration verification letter, also available on RAMweb. Or, you may Contact Us and we will verify your enrollment and request the check from the scholarship donor.

New: All scholarship checks are processed by the Cashier’s Office. Their mailing address is listed below.

Please Provide Us with the Following Information:
  • Student’s full name
  • Student’s CSUID number, if known. (Do not include the student’s Social Security Number. In accordance with state and federal laws, Colorado State University has discontinued the use of Social Security Number as primary identifier for students. If Social Security Number is the only known identifier, use only the last 4 digits, e.g., xxx-xx-4321.)
  • Student’s home address, if no CSUID number can be obtained
  • Name of scholarship
  • Contact person’s name
  • Address and phone number of agency/contact person
  • Is the scholarship for fall and spring semesters or one semester only? If the donor does not specify, we will split anything above $2000 between fall and spring semesters.


Verifying Registration for Scholarships:
Students can verify registration for scholarships before the term begins by printing their registration schedules from RAMweb and submitting them to requesting entities accompanied by the Registration Verification Letter.


Send the Scholarship Payable To:
Colorado State University Cashier’s Office
6015 Campus Delivery
Fort Collins, CO 80523-6015
Note: We are unable to send grade transcripts to donors from our office. However, students can request an official transcript for a fee, or print an unofficial transcript via RAMweb. Go to RAMweb and login using your eID, then select Transcript (Official) or Transcript (Unofficial) under the Records section.

Contact Us with this information. We will double-check the donor information. If there is no stipulation that it must be fall/spring, we will change it to the requested term.

The CSU Office of Financial Aid administers the following alumni scholarships: Evelyn Jones Alumni, Class of 1956, Class of 1968, Class of 1969, Class of 1970, Wyoming-CSU Alumni, and the CSU Alumni First Generation Scholarships (not to be confused with the First Generation Award which requires a separate application form). To apply, use the CSU Scholarship Application. Recipients must demonstrate financial need. Only the Evelyn Jones Alumni Scholarship has criteria requiring the recipient be a child of an active CSU alumna/us.

 

The Alumni Association also administers a variety of Alumni Association scholarships available to students at Colorado State University. Award amounts are based on endowment figures and may vary each year. Contact the Alumni Association for more information.

There are many scholarship search services available. As a rule, we do not recommend paying a fee for any of them. Students may conduct their own search for free by utilizing the sources in Scholarship Searches.

Scholarship search services that offer a money-back guarantee typically require the student to prove they applied to each and every source given to them, and were denied. Often this is impossible because some scholarships are no longer in existence. There are a number of scholarship search services on the Internet that a student can use free of charge. One is FastWeb.

For information on scams, see Scholarship Scams.

Here is a non-exhaustive list (in no particular order) of some scholarship search engines that will help you find potential scholarships that you can apply for. Be sure to read through our Scholarships Scams section below to ensure that you are applying to legitimate scholarships!

Some general rules for a scholarship search are to begin in October or November, to look close to home, and to not give up if unsuccessful the first year. If you are an incoming freshman, look in your community, high school, and the college you will attend.

If you are currently attending college, look at Scholarships from your College, Office of Financial Aid, and the University as a whole. By April, most deadlines will have passed. If you are not awarded the first time, try again next year – don’t give up! Many scholarships are not available to entering freshmen but are available to upperclassmen.

Scholarships disburse to your student account when other financial aid disburses, provided you are enrolled in sufficient number of credits and meet all other disbursement criteria.

If CSU is listed as one of the payees, it will be processed.  If the check is only made out to the student, we require the student to endorse it over to CSU.  

Additionally, some scholarships may require thank you notes to donors, award forms signed and submitted, and/or other paperwork prior to disbursement.

Total financial aid awards received through scholarships, grants, work-study and/or loans may not exceed the cost of attendance at Colorado State University for one year.

Receiving a scholarship may cause a reduction in other financial aid.

If possible loans will be reduced. However, it is sometimes necessary to reduce work-study, grants (with the exception of Federal Pell Grant), and/or scholarships. This policy is in accordance with federal regulations and institutional policy. If your financial aid must be reduced due to receipt of a scholarship, you will receive notification from Office of Financial Aid.

Undergraduates: 

  • 12+ Credits* = 100%
  • 0-11 Credits** = 0%
Graduates:

  • 9+ Credits* = 100%
  • 0-8 Credits = 0%
*One class must be regular instruction, on-campus; you must be enrolled through CSU’s main campus, not through CSU Online

**If you are going to be part time and it is your graduating semester, please Contact Us.

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