For students hoping to apply for departmental scholarships, it’s time to breathe a sigh of relief. Gone are the days of multiple applications with mundane, repetitive questions. No longer must students search through departmental websites for specific application processes or track down the proper forms, running back and forth between the Office of Financial Aid and their academic departments.
Instead, after several months of intensive work from the Office of Financial Aid and University Technology Services, DU has introduced an entirely new application process for this year, centralized through WebCentral.
DU now boasts more than 300 departmental scholarships, which are also considered gift and endowed scholarships, since the funds come from sources such as alumni, businesses and faculty members. Each donor creates the criteria for his or her specific scholarship.
In years past, Nashwa Bolling, the assistant director of budget, research and analysis, would also work to compile lists of students eligible for each award, based on the criteria stated, and would then send each department the appropriate lists. Now, rather than dealing with various materials from both the Office of Financial Aid and their respective departments, students work through a “decision tree,” as Bolling described it, on WebCentral.
The program begins with the basic criteria for departmental scholarships, which are primarily a student’s area of study, grade point average and whether he or she has submitted the FAFSA and CSS Profile, since most of the gift and endowed funds require both academic merit and financial need. Bolling stressed the fact that, without demonstrated financial need, a student is likely to be ineligible for a number of the scholarships.
Sophomore Hannah Eckert, a psychology major from Saranac Lake, NY who went through the departmental scholarship process last year, said she agrees the new process will make it easier for more students to access the awards.
“Looking at the big picture, this will definitely make the scholarships more accessible to students and will take away the pain of having to search and search just to find the few scholarships that you actually qualify for,” said Eckert. “I was definitely not aware that DU had so many awards available, and having one application will cut down on my work load.”
According to Bolling, the application process varied greatly between departments and even between specific scholarships in the past, so it was time consuming not only for students, but also for the departments and the Office of Financial Aid.
“Some departments do an internal application, and then we have our own application for some of the financial aid and gift and endowed funds,” said Bolling. “So not only was it time consuming for me, but it was also kind of repetitive for students.”
Frustrated with the inefficiency of this method, Bolling spearheaded reform efforts over the summer, resulting in two major accomplishments: a simple, centralized application process and an online scholarship database with advanced search options, which allows students to locate potential funds based on their individual demographics.
“If, for example, you have a 3.0 GPA and you have submitted the financial aid documents, then it will show some basic qualifying questions—what are your career goals; what kind of activities are you involved in?” explained Bolling. “Then, for example, if you’re an AHSS student, it will create another questionnaire based on the information AHSS wants. It goes down the tree and pulls up specific questions based on the criteria and your major. Then, you hit submit.”
Once submitted, student applications are passed on to the appropriate departments, each of which has its own internal selection process. Recipients will be notified by the beginning of June.
By utilizing WebCentral, a platform connected with every DU student, Bolling said she hopes there will be clearer communication and understanding about the departmental scholarship process.
“I’m hoping that, going through WebCentral, students are going to pay more attention. We want to make sure everyone is aware of the opportunities.”
The application for departmental scholarships is available through April 26 and can be accessed on the “myWeb” tab under the “Student and Financial Aid” heading.
