Award Information

A student seeking a bachelor’s degree is eligible to receive a Promise Scholarship for no more than eight semesters of a four-year degree program.

A student seeking an associate degree is eligible to receive a Promise Scholarship for no more than four total semesters of a two-year degree program. (Students transitioning from two-year degree program to a four-year degree program must achieve renewal requirements after their second year for continuing scholarship eligibility.)

Students have six years from the date awarded to utilize their Promise award, unless they are enrolled in the military and then the time is extended.

Once a student graduates or meets the qualifications for graduation, they are no longer eligible, even if they haven’t utilized eight semesters.

Promise Scholarship awards shall be coordinated with other financial aid/grant programs in the following manner:

• Promise awards must be utilized in a manner that maximizes federal scholarship/grant funding (e.g. Pell Grant) and should not be administered in a manner that would result in the loss of federal grant/scholarship funds to a student or to the State of West Virginia.
• Promise Scholarship awards must be used to cover the cost of tuition and mandatory fees.
• Institutions are strongly encouraged to allow maximum flexibility in the use of institution-based financial aid awards so that they can be used in conjunction with the Promise Scholarship.

The amount of a Promise Scholarship award in combination with aid from all other sources shall not exceed the cost of attendance at the institution the recipient is attending. For those students eligible for federal grant assistance, such as federal Pell Grants, the federal assistance should be considered the first source of all scholarship/grant funding to the extent permissible under federal law. For students awarded both a Promise Scholarship and a need-based grant through the West Virginia Higher Education Grant Program, the Promise Scholarship awards shall be considered the first source for these two programs. West Virginia Higher Education Grants may be combined with Promise awards as provided for annually by program policies.

Should the Promise Scholarship award plus the amount of other financial awards exceed the cost of attendance, the institution’s financial aid administrator, in consultation with the recipient, will determine what aid is to be reduced. This adjustment should be made in the best interest of the recipient.

“Tuition and mandatory fees” is defined as the quarter, semester or term charges imposed by an in-state institution of higher educational upon all students as a required condition of enrollment. For purposes of this rule, West Virginia University’s undergraduate health sciences students shall be treated as paying the same amount of tuition and mandatory fees as all other West Virginia University undergraduate students.

Only full-time, first-year students may receive initial awards. Students already enrolled at an institution of higher education are not eligible to apply for a Promise Scholarship award, except as outlined in Section 2.1.7.1 in the Promise legislation.

Awards are contingent upon annual funding of the program by the West Virginia State Legislature.