Selection & Awarding Period

July 1st - July 31st

During our Selection & Awarding Period, please review our "updates" link below to see where we are. We understand that every applicant is hoping to be selected for a scholarship, please keep in mind that we have more applicants than we have funds. Unfortunately that is the nature of a non-profit organization. Similarly, we do not have the staff to notify all 4,000+ applicants of their status. If you are selected as a recipient, we will contact you via email first and you will see a message on our Stars account. If you are not awarded, there will be no change in your status, we encourage you to apply again next year.

Selection & Award Period

Step 1

Stars will begin to sort ELIGIBLE applicants by school and score applicants. Scores are based on quantitative information included in your application such as GPA and earned hours, along with financial need based on your Student Aid Report.

During this process, Stars starts processing scores for applicants by school, starting with the matching schools. Scores are processed in our database. This process is designed to be fair and objective to every eligible applicant.

Step 2

Stars will establish a preliminary list of candidates by school based on highest to lowest scores, until funds are depleted. Stars then consults with our matching schools to confirm academic progress and financial need, prior to offering the award to the candidate. The process is designed to be fair to all that apply and are deemed eligible and for us to help as many students as possible.

For students who attend a school other than our matching schools, considered under the “General Program”, Stars awards applicants with the highest scores until funds are depleted. Stars does not consult with any schools for candidates under this program.

Step 3

Award letters are uploaded to the candidates Stars account. Applicants will be able to log in to their account to view selection notice. Applicants selected will see a notice and a PDF of their award letter. All candidates will also be sent an email notification prompting them to check their Stars account. We suggest that once an applicant sets up their Stars account, they check their Stars account often to check for updates.

You will first receive a “Congratulations” email from us. When you log in you will be able to see the details of your award offer and a link to the award letter.

At this point, it becomes very important that applicants understand the terms they agreed to under the Certification and Release Form. Points 10 – 16 pertain to the awarding of scholarships.

We will NOT notify applicants if they were not awarded. If you were selected as a recipient, you will know.

We will NOT tell applicants why they were not awarded. (Selections are done based on a scoring system, if you did not get the award your score was not higher than the applicants who did get awarded. A way to improve your chances in receiving the scholarship is by increasing your GPA. If you have a 4.0 GPA, then your score may have been affected by your financial need, determined using your EFC score.)

Step 4

Recipients have accepted award offers and all deadlines have passed for offers.