USA Funds^® will award $1,500 scholarships to students with economic need through USA Funds Access to Education Scholarships^®. Applications will be accepted online beginning Dec. 15, 2009, through Feb. 15, 2010. Bookmark this page and return during that period to apply for a scholarship.

USA Funds is the nation’s leading education-loan guarantor. A nonprofit organization, USA Funds works to enhance postsecondary-education preparedness, access and success by providing and supporting financial and other valued services.

Eligibility
USA Funds Access to Education Scholarships are open to high school seniors, currently enrolled college students or incoming college students who:

• Plan to enroll or are enrolled in full- or half-time undergraduate or full-time graduate- or professional-degree coursework at an accredited two- or four-year college, university or vocational/technical school. GED recipients also are eligible. Students must plan to enroll or be enrolled beginning with the fall-2010 term through Feb. 1, 2011.
• If studying abroad, are attending or planning to attend a postsecondary institution that is eligible to participate in student aid programs under Title IV of the federal Higher Education Act. 
• Have an annual adjusted gross family income of $35,000 or less, as documented on a 2009 federal 1040 income-tax return on which the applicant is claimed as a federal tax exemption.
• Are U.S. citizens or eligible noncitizens. Students studying in the U.S. on an F1 visa are not eligible. Eligible noncitizens must be permanent U.S. resident aliens with a Green Card, or refugees with a Departure Record (Form I-94) from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services showing one of the following designations:
  • Refugee.
  • Asylum granted.
  • Alien paroled into the U.S. for at least one year.
  • Alien granted a stay of deportation due to fear of persecution on account of race, religion or political opinion.
  • Conditional entrant (if I-94 was issued before April 1980).
• Are not currently in default on a federal education loan.

Students attending postsecondary institutions, such as United States service academies, that do not charge tuition and room and board to the general student body are not eligible to receive awards under this scholarship program.

Applicants from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and all U.S. territories and commonwealths are eligible for USA Funds Access to Education Scholarships. Priority consideration for the awards will be given to applicants from Arizona, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada and Wyoming, states that USA Funds serves as the federally designated guarantor of federal student loans, and from Washington and Idaho, states that USA Funds’ affiliate Northwest Education Loan Association^® serves as the federally designated guarantor of student loans.

Additionally, up to 50 percent of the scholarship awards will be targeted to applicants who are members of an ethnic-minority group or have a documented physical disability. Ethnic-minority groups are defined as follows:

• Alaskan Native.
• American Indian.
• Asian.
• Black/African-American.
• Hispanic or Latino.
• Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals are considered to have a disability if they have a physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, have a record of such an impairment or are regarded as having such an impairment. Applicants who are physically disabled must submit a doctor’s statement describing the disability, including the degree and limitation on their ability.

Awards
The program will award scholarships of $1,500. The scholarships are non-renewable.  Previous scholarship recipients may reapply each year they meet eligibility requirements.  Students may receive no more than a total of $6,000 in scholarship awards.

Selection of Recipients
Scholarship awards will be based on the applicant’s:

• Past academic performance and future potential.
• Leadership and participation in school and community activities.
• Work experience.
• Career and educational aspirations and goals.
• Unusual personal or family circumstances.

Obligations
USA Funds Access to Education Scholarships must be used for tuition, room and board and/or other education-related expenses.

Students who accept a scholarship grant USA Funds permission to use their names, photos and testimonials for publicity purposes. Finalists must supply Scholarship Management Services, which administers the program on USA Funds’ behalf, with additional documentation requested on the application and notify Scholarship Management Services of any change of address, school enrollment or other relevant information.

Revisions
USA Funds reserves the right to review the conditions and procedures of these scholarship programs and to make changes, including termination of the program, at any time.