Lamar University Student Aid will communicate with you directly through your official LU email address or personal phone number. Information regarding scholarship offers, continued eligibility, and other requirements will be sent to your official Lamar University email address. You can update your contact information by logging into your Self-Service Banner through the LU Connect Portal.

The Student Aid Office will coordinate announcements informing all current and prospective students that the myScholarships system is open and accepting applications. This will be done no later than October 1st. A follow-up campus announcement will be sent at the beginning of the Spring semester before February 1st priority deadline. This reminder will alert current and prospective students to complete the general LU scholarship application online through the myScholarships system.

The University Scholarship Application Priority Deadline is February 1st. All scholarships administered through the Student Aid Office, colleges, and departments should be awarded in a timely manner. If possible, scholarships should be awarded no later than July 1st. This deadline is necessary to facilitate the coordinator of financial aid and scholarships in awarding aid packages to students receiving need-based financial aid.

Scholarship eligibility may be appealed if a student does not meet renewal criteria and has experienced relevant extenuating circumstances or other factors that they may feel impacted their ability to renew the scholarship. Scholarship criteria are reviewed according to the terms and conditions the student received when the scholarship was re-awarded each academic year.

The purpose of measuring and enforcing these standards is to ensure scholarship recipients maintain the academic success that is expected of the academic scholarship and make progress toward graduation. Renewal criteria are reasonable standards that correspond to the scholarship and typically include a qualitative (grade point average) an quantitative (credit accumulation) component, both of which are important in progressing toward graduation.

To maintain scholarship eligibility, a student must: 

• have a minimum 3.0 GPA
• complete a minimum of 24 credit housing fall/spring

Students appealing their scholarship are asked to write a brief explanation of why the student could not maintain eligibility, an appeal committee will meet to decide whether the appeal will be approved and either a probationary period is allowed or a cancellation of the scholarship altogether. 

Appeal guidelines are as follows:

• 2.5-2.99 FPA will be given an automatic semester of probation without the need for an appeal. The student must complete 12 hours in the following and have a 3.0 or higher cumulative GPA after grades post.
• 2.20-2.49 GPA will have the opportunity to submit an appeal. If an appeal is not submitted by the deadline listed on the website, the scholarship will be revoked.
• 2.19 GPA will not have the opportunity to submit an appeal and will have their scholarship revoked.

Students that receive a semester of probation are subject to review at the end of the probationary term. If they have met their probation requirements, the scholarship will remain intact. If they have not met their probation requirements, the scholarship will be canceled indefinitely.

After official grades are posted, University warning/probation/cancellation letters will be sent to scholarship recipients (via LU email) who are not meeting the specified endowment retention requirements.

All Scholarship Account Managers are required to check student eligibility at the end of each term.

Scholarship retention requirements will be checked at the end of each fall and spring semester and will follow the donor requirements as specified in the outlined endowment criteria.

A University warning/probation/cancellation letter will be sent to all student (via LU email) who did not maintain their eligibility requirements for the semester. This notification will inform students of the appeals process

Students receiving university funded scholarships that plan to do a co-op or internship are required to complete a scholarship appeal form within the timeline stated on the scholarship appeal website.

If you are enrolled less than full-time (12 hours for undergraduates) in your final semester prior to graduation you may be eligible to receive a remaining scholarship payment. This policy varies by scholarship. You must apply for graduation and have a diploma fee on file before the scholarship will be permitted to pay. Student Aid will determine eligibility and act based on scholarship criteria and student eligibility.

Courses recorded as withdrawn or drops will not count towards hours completed for a scholarship. If you intend to withdraw from the university for the semester or year, you should visit with a Scholarship Coordinator or Financial Aid Counselor to review any potential impact on your award package.

Students receiving scholarships for housing are only awarded to students that are living/plan to live on campus. These will not pay to student's account who does not have a housing a contract on file. If the student does not live on campus, the housing scholarship will be forfeited and cannot be re-awarded at a later time. The housing scholarship will not become a tuition and fees scholarship if the student does not live on campus.

Some scholarships offered at LU consider all grant aid and other scholarship dollars before awarding a "last dollar award" to student accounts. These are considered completer scholarships.

All students that attend Lamar University are given a Cost of Attendance. This COA is an inflated, estimated amount of money that it may cost to attend LU - this considers tuition and fees, room and board, transportation, books and additional supplies that may be needed throughout an academic year. Offered and accepted funds are not allowed to exceed the given COA.

All students that receive scholarships will have their funds disbursed no earlier than 10 days prior to the start of a semester.

Scholarships are offered through the Lamar University Student Aid Office, colleges and academic departments. 

Scholarships must be established and awarded in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Board of Regents of the Texas State University System. Establishing scholarship selection criteria is a negotiation process that takes place between the donor and the University Advancement Office, in cooperation with the Student Aid Office and any involved academic unit at the time a gift is made to establish a scholarship. The criteria must be carefully developed to ensure that both university and donor objectives are met. Criteria may include GPA requirements, standardized test score minimums, financial need, major or area of study, enrollment hours, and extracurricular activities. The donor may also elect to make the scholarship renewable and define conditions under which renewal may occur. The Advancement Office will prepare the agreement, which is then signed by the donor(s) and LU administrative personnel. Upon signing, a copy of the Agreement is sent to the Student Aid Office and to any involved academic unit.

The availability of each endowed scholarship must be advertised through the myScholarships system, managed by the Student Aid Office and/or through the appropriate academic colleges/departments for which the scholarship is designated. 

1. The Student Aid Office will receive the approved University Endowment budgets from the Finance Office. 
2. The Student Aid Office will receive the approved University Foundation budgets from the University Foundation.
3. All endowment budgets will be updated by the Student Aid Office in the University Scholarship Management system by February 1st.
4. Prior to promoting or awarding any scholarships, the account manager within each department and college is responsible for checking account balances to verify the availability of funds before the awarding process begins.
   • Annually awarded gifts should not be awarded if funds have not been received for the year of the award
   • Endowment awards can only be made based on the amount of earnings by September 1 of the academic year of the award, these amounts will be updated in the myScholarship system. 
     • Awards will be made to the extent of available funds, thus not all students meeting the minimum requirements will be awarded a scholarship.

All contributions, including those accepted by colleges and departments, will be processed thought the Office of Advancement. Full reporting and approval procedures for acceptance of private gifts from all sources, including individuals, foundations, and corporations, must be followed. Contact the Office of Advancement for the proper policies and procedures to follow when accepting an outside contribution for scholarships.

Compliance for records retention will be followed according to the State of Texas records retention schedule. 

1. Applications of students who were not selected for an award have to be maintained for the scholarship cycle plus one year. these applications will be maintained in the University Scholarship Management system.
2. Applications are support for awarded students must be maintained for AC + 1, which translates to one year after the completion of the total duration of the scholarship for awardees. 

Lamar University shall have an official University Scholarship Committee to ensure that university-wide scholarship awards are made in accordance with procedures that ensure compliance with a fair and equitable application and awarding process for all eligible students. Each scholarship-granting unit at Lamar University shall have a College and/or Departmental Scholarship Committee to ensure that university-wide scholarship awards are made in accordance with procedures that ensure compliance with a fair and equitable application and awarding process for all eligible students. This is needed to maximize the utilization of scholarships to recruit and retain students and to align the selection process with the awarding of financial aid packages. These committees will develop recommendations, guidelines, and policy considerations relating to scholarship awards.

• The University Scholarship Committee will be charged with the responsibility of reviewing policies and procedures related to the application and selection process of university scholarships. The Committee members will work closely with each other to approve recipients for those scholarships with specified scholarship criteria. 
• Members of the University Scholarship Committee will consist of Student Aid Staff - scholarship coordinators and the associate director of outreach and customer service.
• The College/Departmental Scholarship Committee will be charges with the responsibility of reviewing policies and procedures related to the application and selection process of their respective scholarships. The committee members of each college/departmental will work closely with each other to select recipients for those scholarships with potential subjective scholarship criteria pertaining to their department.
• Members of the College/Departmental Scholarship Committees will be appointed by the Dean of the College or the Chair of the Department. 
• There will be avoidance of conflict of interest or potential bias of committee members prior to selecting recipients through formal discussions or other methods with member's scholarship committees. Committee members should excuse themselves in the event a situation presents itself upholding Texas Administrative Code Chapter 22, subchapter R Rule 22.404

Prohibited Scholarships: A person is not eligible to receive a scholarship originating from and administered by an institution of higher education or university system if the person is related to a current member of the governing board of the institution or system. Refer to the Texas State University System. 

Code of Ethics Policy CHAPTER VIII. ETHICS POLICY FOR REGENTS AND EMPLOYEES OF THE TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM.

The University Finance & Operations Office and Foundation Office will be responsible for providing the University Scholarship Awarding Specialist with a list of university endowed scholarship budget available to award each fiscal year. Under no circumstances will the scholarship committees exceed the budgeted amounts. 

The University Scholarship Awarding Specialist will review the report to ensure that all necessary scholarships are included in the report. The University Scholarship Awarding Specialist will update budget information in the University Scholarship Management system and notify the College/Department Scholarship Coordinators. 

The College/Department Scholarship Coordinator will share this information with their scholarship granting units. The Committees will determine how many scholarships to award per scholarship account and the amount of each scholarship award. All awards will be made in compliance with the donor's intent as stated in the donor's agreement with the university. 

If you feel that you made an immediate error on your application, such as forgetting to upload a resume or answering a question incorrectly, please contact our office within 48 hours of application submission. You will need to submit an email to scholarships@lamar.edu to request the re-opening. If approved, you will receive an email to your LU email account notifying you that the application has been re-opened and you have one week to re-submit before it closes again.

There may be times that students may/may not show up in your candidate list due to changing degree programs mid-year, adding or dropping courses, graduating mid-year, or even questions being added that were not originally answered when the application was initially submitted. The following instances should warrant the committee member to reach out the scholarships@lamar.edu to have a further review of the candidate:

• If no other student can be awarded and an evaluation of candidates meeting requirements is need, priority awarding will go to existing qualifying students.
  • Please note: Candidates will only be considered if the student has already completed the application but has to change a qualifying question. 

If you believe there is a student that should have matched with the scholarship and is not matching, please email scholarships@lamar.edu and provide documentation that supports the student meeting the scholarship criteria and we will determine whether the student can be added to the candidate list in the individual scholarship opportunity.