Academic Scholarships

Access and Affordability

Providing access and helping you afford your Penn State education are top priorities for the University and the College of the Liberal Arts. Thanks to the generosity of Liberal Arts alumni and friends, the college offers many need-based scholarships for students with at least one Liberal Arts undergraduate major enrolled at Penn State University Park. A single application serves for all general need-based scholarships offered through the Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies.

Staci Kelly, student awards coordinator for the College of the Liberal Arts, sits at a table with a laptop and papers across from Christopher Elish, a student she’s meeting with, in the Chaiken Center for Student Success.
Staci Kelly, student awards coordinator for the College of the Liberal Arts, meets with student Christopher Elish in the Chaiken Center for Student Success.

Get ready to apply for a Liberal Arts scholarship

  • Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is required and must be filed with the Office of Student Aid for consideration of a need-based scholarship.
  • Personal statement (maximum of 1,000 words). Help the selection committee learn more about you. Include academic achievements, extracurricular activities, community involvement, leadership examples, career goals, and things that set you apart from others.
  • Your résumé. Accepted formats are MS Word (.doc or .docx) or Adobe PDF (.pdf) files.

To apply for and maintain a need-based scholarship, undergraduate students must meet the following requirements.

  • Maintain a full-time course load at the University Park campus (12 or more credits per semester during the fall and spring only, summers not included). Note: If you are planning to participate in an education abroad experience during the academic year (fall or spring) of desired enrollment, please email lascholarships@psu.edu regarding scholarship eligibility.
  • Declare a major or pre-major in the College of the Liberal Arts.
  • Maintain a successful grade-point average. A grade-point average of at least 3.00 is required for most scholarships. If you have questions about this requirement, please contact lascholarships@psu.edu.
  • Maintain a demonstrated financial need as determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on file with the Office of Student Aid.
  • Continue to meet the specific requirements of the scholarship, which may include, but are not limited to, desire to pursue public, community, or government services; leadership; or outstanding academics.

Returning and continuing University Park students: The priority application period for first consideration is January 1–April 1 of the calendar year of desired fall enrollment. Non-priority applications submitted after April 1 will be considered in the order they are received, depending on fund availability.

Incoming first-year students: A single application serves for all need-based scholarships offered through the Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of the Liberal Arts, but Liberal Arts scholarship support for first-year undergraduate students new to Penn State University Park beginning fall 2023 is already fully committed. Incoming first-year students may still request an application for future consideration by sending your nine-digit Penn State identification number to lascholarships@psu.edu to verify eligibility for a need-based scholarship application. Unfunded applications remain on file for the academic year and may be considered if additional funds become available. Only recipients are notified of receiving a scholarship. Submitting a scholarship application does not guarantee that a scholarship will be granted; nor are they automatically renewed after an initial award. Students must apply and await a decision regarding these scholarships each year they remain eligible. Scholarship amounts vary year to year depending on available funds, so we recommend students should not make decisions based upon anticipated scholarship funding.

Transfer students (from other Penn State campuses or outside of Penn State): All students must meet the criteria of full-time status at Penn State University Park with at least one major in the College of the Liberal Arts, a demonstrated financial need based on their FAFSA, and a successful grade-point average of 2.50 or higher. Please contact lascholarships@psu.edu for assistance.

It is important to note that undergraduate scholarships are not guaranteed upon submission of a scholarship application, nor are they automatically renewed. Students must re-apply and await a decision regarding these scholarships for each year they remain eligible. Scholarship amounts vary from year to year depending on fund availability.

When you visit the scholarship application database, you’ll notice that your basic information has been pulled into the database from LionPATH. Some of this information can be updated in the database, but some of it cannot. Any information that is not editable by you in the database must be updated in LionPATH.

Apply Now for an academic scholarship

If your application is successful, you will be notified about your award via your Penn State email address. Typically, one-half of your award will be credited to your student account in the fall semester, and the second half will be awarded in the spring semester, unless it is a one-semester award. If you do not receive a scholarship notification before the start of fall or spring enrollment, your application will remain on file for the academic year and may be considered if additional funds become available.

The scholarship I received from the College of the Liberal Arts was immensely important because it allowed me to focus entirely on my studies without having to devote time and energy to a part-time job. Before having been awarded this scholarship, I held a part-time job at FedEx, where I would lift and load boxes for five hours a day, three days a week. Needless to say, this scholarship also alleviated much mental and physical stress.
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Penn State researchers seeking to understand the reasons behind people’s attitudes towards wildlife and their decisions to support saving endangered species were recently awarded a Commonwealth Campuses Research Collaboration Development Program Award to address lack of research in this area, by developing an interactive game.

Penn State’s Jason Laine, associate teaching professor, College of Liberal Arts, has been recognized for his excellence in education abroad curriculum design by the Forum on Education Abroad. Laine received this award for his undergraduate course, “Italian Language and Culture for Embedded Experiences Abroad,” which uses a co-requisite model with an upper-level Biology course, giving opportunities for STEM students to engage with language and humanities students to engage with the sciences.

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Over spring break, more than 100 students had the opportunity to travel to Prato, Italy, for seven days as part of the Multilingual and Intercultural Communication embedded program in the College of the Liberal Arts.

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Student startup Bindr, a dating app that provides a safe space online for bisexual individuals, won $15,000, the largest prize amount, in the 2023 Invent Penn State Inc.U Competition. The competition, part of Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC, saw six Penn State student teams pitch their startups to a panel of judges and compete for up to $30,000 in funding.

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U.S. college students’ knowledge of bees focuses primarily on honey bees and pollination services, according to Penn State researchers, who said findings from their recent study could help in designing campaigns to generate support for protecting threatened pollinators.

Celeste Good, who graduated with a degree in women’s studies in the College of the Liberal Arts, is the recipient of the 2023 Jackson Lethbridge Tolerance Award. The award recognizes a junior, senior or graduate student for outstanding efforts to enhance the understanding of diverse cultures and create a community where all individuals are accepted and valued equally. 

Max Dean, a senior majoring in economics in the College of the Liberal Arts, and Ally Schlegel, who graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in corporate innovation and entrepreneurship from the Smeal College of Business, have been selected as the 2023 recipients of the Ernest B. McCoy Memorial Award. The Ernest B. McCoy Memorial Award annually recognizes a senior man and woman who have successful athletic participation with academic excellence.