Emerging Scholars Award
The USF St. Petersburg campus Emerging Scholars award is for invited students from Pinellas County schools with outstanding leadership potential. These are four-year awards that pay $200 per credit hour enrolled.
In order to initially receive and renew the award, you must agree to the following terms and conditions each year.
Length of Award
This award is renewable up to 120 credit hours in 4 consecutive academic years of undergraduate coursework, or receipt of a bachelor’s degree, providing these criteria continue to be met. The four-year time period will begin effective the first day of your enrollment.
The award can be used for Fall, Spring, and Summer.
Enrollment requirements
You must register for and maintain full-time student status as a degree-seeking student for fall and spring terms (at least 12 credit hours each term).
- If you plan to participate in a Study Abroad experience, you must meet with a Financial
Aid Advisor to determine payment eligibility.
- Exceptions to full-time enrollment requirement may also be made for graduating seniors. Meet with a Financial Aid Advisor to determine what paperwork is needed.
Renewal requires completion of 30 USF credit hours each academic year (fall/spring/summer). Summer can be used to meet the 30 credit hour renewal requirement.
Academic requirements
You must maintain a minimum 2.5 cumulative GPA by the end of each academic year.
Grade Forgiveness/Repeating Courses may help your GPA but will reduce your earned hours required for renewal.
Advanced Placement credits, dual enrollment or transfer credits from other colleges/universities are not considered toward your annual earned hour renewal requirement.
Mentorship Requirement
Immediately after your initial enrollment, you will be assigned a university mentor, who is employed by USF St. Petersburg campus. You will be required to meet with your mentor on-campus at least once per month. You may, however, petition to change your assigned mentor if it is deemed to be in your best interest to do so.
Payment of Scholarship
Your award will be posted to your OASIS account. If the total amount of aid you receive exceeds your estimated cost of attendance for the semester, some portion of your aid may be revised.
The award will be disbursed after the end of the drop/add period each semester as a payment to your student account.
After all institutional charges on your student account have been paid in full, any remaining amount will be refunded to you.
Renewal Evaluation, Notifications and Petitions
If you meet the renewal criteria at the end of the spring semester, your award will be automatically renewed for the following academic year or until you have reached the end of four (4) years from the first day of your enrollment.
If you do not meet the requirements at the end of spring, you may use the summer term to meet the academic renewal requirements.
- Your grades and/or earned hours may be changed after a renewal evaluation has occurred
due to missing grades, grade corrections, grade replacement, etc.
- You must notify the Office of Financial Aid to re-evaluate your grades and earned hours after your academic history has been updated by the Registrar.
If you need the summer semester to meet renewal requirements, an evaluation will be conducted after all summer sessions have ended in August and you will be notified of the result by email.
If you are notified that you do not meet the academic renewal requirements, you may submit an Undergraduate Scholarship Petition if:
- You had a documented illness or emergency beyond your control during the academic
year that affected your academic performance.
- You participated in USF sponsored study abroad, internship or co-operative education program with appropriate documentation.