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Outside Scholarships

Outside scholarships are gifts that are awarded by external businesses and entities. Outside scholarships are similar to grants as they do not generally need to be repaid or earned through work. Award amounts, eligibility criteria and application procedures will vary by scholarship program.

If you are receiving an outside scholarship or resource, please fill out the following form. The form will allow you provide details about your scholarships/resources and to request any special instructions for how your outside scholarships should be used.

Outside Scholarship & Resource Reporting Form

How Outside Scholarships/Resources, Tuition Benefits and Tuition Reimbursements Are Treated

You may be awarded Work-Study and loans as part of your financial aid package. These types of financial aid are considered "self-help" aid, as they need to be earned or repaid, respectively. Any outside resources you receive will be used to replace your Work-Study and loan funds. This will reduce (or even eliminate) the amount of money you will need to earn in school or repay afterwards. Awards will be replaced by scholarship funds in the following order:

  1. Work-Study
  2. Caltech Loan

If you are receiving need-based financial aid from Caltech, outside resources cannot be used to reduce your family's expected contribution. Your total financial aid, including outside resources, cannot exceed your demonstrated financial need. Any outside funds that remain after replacing all of the awards listed above will be used to offset a portion of your Caltech Scholarship. 

Because of these restrictions, adding an outside resource to your package cannot increase the quantity of funds available to you. Outside scholarships/resources can only improve the quality of your package by replacing your self-help aid with gift aid. 

The full amount of any outside scholarships/resources received will be allocated to your financial aid for the academic year in which it was received. Caltech Financial Aid cannot process outside scholarships/resources across multiple academic years. Arrangements for multi-year scholarships/resources must be made with the awarding organization.

Applying for Outside Scholarships

If you are interested in applying for outside scholarships, you can find scholarship opportunities by using a scholarship search website. A few options include: