Outside Awards

Why apply for outside awards?

Outside awards benefit undergraduate students by reducing and even eliminating your need to work to help meet your student budget. Your outside awards will reduce the Student Responsibility portion of your financial aid award dollar-for-dollar. Your Stanford scholarship will be reduced only if your outside awards exceed your Student Responsibility. The examples below show how outside awards can change your financial aid package.

Outside Award Comparison
Total Outside Awards 0 2,500 4,500 6,500
Academic Year Earnings 2,500 0 0 0
Summer Earnings 2,000 2,000 0 0
Stanford Scholarship 30,000 30,000 30,000 28,000
Federal/State Grants 6,000 6,000 6,000 6,000

Receiving outside awards

Undergraduate students must notify our office of all outside awards you receive, including awards paid directly to you. Failing to report this information may result in losing eligibility for Stanford financial aid.

If you expect to receive outside scholarships for the 2009-2010, please complete our Outside Scholarships Notification 2009-2010 (PDF) form. Submit the completed form to the Financial Aid Office by August 1, 2009, or as soon as possible after you find out that you will be receiving a scholarship. For fastest processing, please fax the completed form to us at (650) 725-0540.

  • Awarding agencies should send your awards directly to our office. See the Contact Us page for address information.
  • We prefer that your award be made payable to Stanford University in order to credit it directly to your university bill.
  • Awards made payable you, or co-payable to you and Stanford, are disbursed by Student Financial Services.
  • Awards of $500 or more are divided into thirds and credited over the three quarters of the academic year, unless an agency specifies otherwise.

Outside Awards for Graduate Students

Graduate students should report any expected outside awards in the Anticipated Resources section of the Graduate Loan and Federal Work-Study (FWS) Application. If you receive outside awards after you have filed your application, please notify the Financial Aid Office by financialaid@stanford.edu. Outside awards may affect your eligibility for loans and Federal Work-Study.