Awarding Process

The Scholarship committee uses the following process for evaluating financial aid applications and determining award amounts:

1. All students are assigned a "financial need" rating based on their adjusted gross income (including their parents' adjusted gross income if they are undergraduate students), marital status, and number of dependents in their household/their parents' household. For Undergraduate students whose parents do not support them financially, only their AGI is considered.
   
2. All students are given a "special circumstances" rating based on their stated circumstances in the institutional financial aid application.
   
3. For need based scholarships, students are ranked based on their financial need and special circumstances first. Consideration is then given to GPA, whether they intend to be enrolled full-time, and whether they are taking on-campus classes.
4. For merit based scholarships, students are ranked based on their GPA first and whether they intend to be enrolled full-time. Consideration is then given to financial need, special circumstances, and whether they are taking on-campus classes.
5. The scholarship committee evaluates one scholarship at a time, beginning with more specialized scholarships. Students are evaluated based on the above criteria, and each scholarship is awarded until the allocated funds are exhausted. In general, students are not awarded more than one institutional scholarship. Additionally, students with Institutional Missions Scholarships will generally not be awarded other institutional scholarships.
6. Students with significant sources of external aid (e.g. the Keesee Grant, Pell Grant, and NC Need Based Scholarship) are less likely to receive institutional scholarships.
7. On a year-to-year basis, students will generally be considered for a similar award as long as their needs or eligibility do not drastically change.