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All About WVU Scholarship Offers

Receiving Scholarships

Accepting Scholarships

After you receive your aid and/or scholarship offer, you will need to accept or decline your aid. Accepting aid is not a commitment to attend WVU, and you can always decline previously accepted aid later! Visit our View, Accept or Decline Aid webpage for instructions.

By either applying for a WVU scholarship or accepting your institutional scholarship offer, you will be communicating to WVU that you consent to your name, hometown and major being shared with the donor(s) that made an investment to make your scholarship possible. Our donors appreciate being informed that their generous gifts have been distributed to deserving students like you.

Scholarship Disbursement Schedule

Your scholarship offer is for the fall and spring semesters of the academic year. This means that after accepting your scholarship, the disbursement of money will occur in increments of 50% for the fall semester and 50% for the spring semester, respectively.

Institutional Scholarships for Summer Courses

In most cases, merit scholarships offered by the institution are not available for summer sessions — although there are a few exceptions.

  • Students who are graduating early may request to use their scholarships in the summer if they are graduating in the current summer or upcoming fall semester and are enrolled in at least six credit hours.
  • Students in majors that are structured as 3-year bachelor’s degree programs may request to use their scholarships in summers they will be enrolled full-time. This does not include students attempting to graduate early by optionally taking summer classes.
  • Students meeting these criteria who wish to utilize a semester of their scholarship in summer must submit the appropriate Scholarship Exception Request form for review at least three weeks prior to the start of the summer session. Requests are reviewed on an individual basis, and approval is not guaranteed. More information is available on our Scholarship Exception Requests webpage.
  • Students must be meeting renewal requirements after the conclusion of the fall and spring semesters to be eligible for summer scholarship consideration. Students cannot use the summer semester to meet renewal requirements and receive their scholarships.

Promise scholars may be able to use Promise for summer if renewal requirements have been met as of the end of the spring semester. Visit our Summer Promise section for more information.

Multiple Scholarships

Please remember that financial aid cannot be more than the student's cost of attendance for financial aid purposes. If students have need-based financial aid (such as grants or a subsidized loan), those may be impacted by other "free money" such as scholarships.

External scholarships can be used in addition to (or "stacked" with) institutional scholarships as long as it doesn't put the student over their cost of attendance or impact their eligibility for need-based aid. The institution will defer to whatever will provide the best financial aid available to the student while following regulatory requirements. For example, if a student could be eligible for a $3,000 scholarship if a $2,000 grant is canceled — and there are rules preventing the student from receiving both — the grant will be canceled so the student can have as much free funding as allowable.

See below for information and limitations on stacking institutional, college, and/or Promise scholarships.

Institutional Scholarships

The following University scholarships may not be combined with each other:

  • Foundation Scholarship
  • Bucklew Scholarship
  • University Merit Scholarship
  • Climb Higher Scholarship

If a student is eligible for more than one of these scholarships, or more than one level of a scholarship, the student will be offered the one scholarship with the highest dollar value.

Promise Scholarship for WV Residents

To use institutional scholarships in combination with the WV Promise Scholarship, visit our Promise Scholarship webpage.

Note: If you have financial aid that applies directly to a charge, you cannot have financial aid that exceeds that. For example, if you have aid programs — such as Promise and the HSTA Waiver — that must be paid directly to University tuition and fees, the combined total of the two cannot exceed your tuition and fee charges.

Departmental or College Scholarships

Students may also apply for departmental/college scholarships through their program of study. Students may find information about these scholarships by visiting our Departmental or College Scholarships webpage.

Innovators Scholarship

WVU partners with certain colleges on the Morgantown campus to offer an additional scholarship within their certain academic programs. These are offered to students automatically based on their admissions application and are within an academic major offered by one of the following Morgantown colleges:

  • Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
  • Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources
  • Chambers College of Business and Economics
  • Reed College of Media (within the College of Creative Arts and Media)

Students in the following intercollegiate program may also be eligible.

  • Game Design and Interactive Media

As of fall 2025, this scholarship is no longer offered.

Scholarship Changes


Changing Campuses within the WVU System

Morgantown, Beckley, and Keyser each have their own scholarship values that differ based on the campus. For scholarships that are portable to the other WVU campuses, the amounts will be adjusted based on the amounts for that campus.

Portable scholarships include:

  • Climb Higher Scholarship
  • Leadership Scholarship

Changing Major with an Innovators Scholarship

WVU has agreed to partner with certain colleges on the Morgantown campus to offer additional scholarships within their academic programs. Innovators scholarships require you to remain within a major offered by that college to remain eligible. Innovators scholarship colleges include:

  • Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resource and Design
  • Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources
  • Chambers College of Business and Economics
  • Reed College of Media  within the College of Creative Arts and Media

Students in the following intercollegiate program may also be eligible.

  • Game Design and Interactive Media

If you change your major to enroll in a college not listed above, the Innovators Scholarship will be canceled.  As of fall 2025, this scholarship will no longer be offered.

Changing Residency Status

If you qualify for residency reclassification after a scholarship offer has been made — or you are switched from paying non-resident to resident tuition and fees — the original aid offer will no longer be valid. The change in tuition and fees is a big reduction in your educational costs. You will be re-evaluated to determine aid eligibility.

Additional Financial Aid

Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Submission

You should still consider submitting your FAFSA after receiving your scholarship offer. You never know what else you may be eligible to receive! For consideration for other financial aid such as grants, scholarships, Federal Work-Study, and federal loans, please submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on the Federal Student Aid website by the March 1 priority deadline.

Visit our Completing the FAFSA webpage for information on how to get started.

Institutional Scholarships and Other Financial Aid

Financial aid cannot be more than the student's cost of attendance for financial aid purposes. If students have need-based financial aid (such as grants or a subsidized loan), those may be impacted by other "free money" such as scholarships. External scholarships can be used in addition to institutional scholarships as long as it doesn't put the student over their cost of attendance or impact their eligibility for need-based aid.

The institution will defer to whatever will provide the best financial aid available to the student while following regulatory requirements. For example, if a student could be eligible for a $3,000 scholarship if a $2,000 grant is canceled — and there are rules preventing the student from receiving both — the grant will be canceled so the student can have as much free funding as allowable.

Visit the Multiple Scholarships section above for information on "stacking" institutional and college scholarships.

Other Scholarship Options

There are multiple scholarships — from your department, external resources, for dependents of employees, and more. Visit our Scholarships webpage for options.