Receiving an Outside Scholarship

If you receive financial aid and are awarded any scholarships from any outside sources, the federal government requires you to notify our Financial Aid Office of the scholarship and amount. We are also required to coordinate this outside scholarship aid with any other aid you are receiving in order to make sure that we don’t offer you more loans or grants than we are allowed.

How To Report Your Outside Scholarship

You can report scholarships using the Outside Scholarship Notification form.

Sending Scholarship Checks From Outside Donors

All scholarships checks should be made payable to Cal Poly and include your full name and EMPL ID. Your EMPL ID is the 9-digit Cal Poly ID that is located on the personal info tab of your My Cal Poly Portal.

Checks should be sent to:

Cal Poly University Cashier
Attn: Scholarships
Administration 131-E
San Luis Obispo CA 93407-0501

Receiving the Scholarship Money

You will receive a new Financial Aid Award Letter once we process the information from the private outside scholarship. It will be listed as a scholarship-disbursable with the amount of the check. If you receive more than one scholarship check, each check will have its own “scholarship-disbursable” line on your award. Scholarships under $1,000 are usually applied to one quarter. If you have multiple scholarships, or ones that are over $1,000, we will set up the scholarships to be disbursed equally over each of the three quarters.

Confirming Enrollment to the Donor

Most donors will accept a copy of your class schedule to confirm your enrollment. If a donor requires an administrator signature, you can complete the Verification of Enrollment for an Outside Scholarship form.