National Scholarship Month Resources

November is National Scholarship Month, a month all about highlighting the important role of communities, organizations, and businesses in the scholarship industry that are helping to improve educational opportunities and educational achievement around the world. This felt like the perfect time to introduce the newest member of the CampusLogic family, Ken Downs.

Deepening Our Scholarship Expertise: Ken Downs

Ken’s background includes time spent as a scholarship counselor and financial aid administrator at the University of Arizona, where he was instrumental in the conceptualization and development of the early iteration of Scholarship Universe. A true scholarship advocate, Ken regularly writes on scholarship topics ranging from student-first scholarship management to how to keep scholarship donors happy and offered tips for a host of other scholarship best practices.

Your Scholarship Office’s Calendar

If you’ve been wondering what's been keeping your scholarship team so busy in May, or December, we’ve got you covered. Every year, CampusLogic creates a large-format wall calendar that we send out to all our #awesome customers. This year, that calendar will include some new key dates all related to scholarship management. “Scholarship dates can be highly variable depending on the school, department and individual scholarship,” reminds Ken. “But if your institution follows a more traditional scholarship season of applications opening in the spring and selections being made for the following academic year, the below dates should be on your radar.”

January 15 – Open scholarship applications

February 30 – Finalize assembling scholarship review committees

March 30 – Close scholarship applications and start reviewing applicants

April 30 – Finalize scholarship applicant reviews

May 30 – Finalize awarding and notifying selected scholarship recipients

June 30 – Collect scholarship thank you letters and award acceptance confirmations

July 1 – Start awarding external scholarship checks for the coming academic year

July 30 – Send student thank you letters to scholarship donors

August 15 – Disburse fall scholarship funds to students along with other financial aid

September 15 – Begin reviewing scholarship specifications for difficult to award scholarships

October 15 – Modify difficult to award specifications with donors if possible to ensure future fund utilization

November 15 – Review scholarships and applications for modifications needed for next cycle

December 15 – Finalize rollover of scholarships and applications so they can open timely in January

Scholarships: Key to Many Educational Dreams

Throughout the month we’ll be sharing new resources aimed at helping you streamline the scholarship process for students, make managing everything in your office simpler, and develop a student-first approach that puts each and every student in charge of their scholarship journey. If you’d like to get on the wait list for a 2019 key dates calendar, just let us know! 

Learn About ScholarshipUniverse >

About the Author

We mean it when we say “built by FinAid pros for FinAid pros,” and Amy is proof. She joined the CampusLogic executive team in 2013, after working nearly 10 years in Financial Aid offices around the country—from Albany to Albuquerque. While many of our coworkers also have experience in processing or servicing financial aid, Amy is our “spirit guide” in all FinAid compliance and community matters. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English Secondary Education from The College of St. Rose and a master’s degree in Higher Education from Walden University.

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