UCLA
Financial Aid & Scholarships
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Department Awards

This page includes resources for units making financial aid awards to UCLA students.

Welcome UCLA professional staff members! We look forward to assisting you so that you can assist our students. On this page, you will be able to find information on processing departmental awards. Please feel free to contact our office at UCLAscholarships@fas.ucla.edu if you have any questions. We hope this Payment Guide for Student Awards can help answer frequently asked questions.

There are multiple awarding methods included in our instructions, based on the award recipient’s status as a matriculated or Non-matriculated UCLA student, but all new awards for matriculated students begin with the need to request an AID ID created by the FAS Fiscal unit at FiscalUnit@fas.ucla.edu, using the form below. This AID ID is required by Student Accounts to process all awards made by our office. You may also use this form to request changes to an existing AID ID.

Forms:

AID ID Request for New Scholarship (Revised June 2024)

Award Submission for Prospective Undergraduate Students

Departments should use the PAL (Provisional Aid Letter) Upload Form below to award scholarships that will be included on the PAL.

Email the form to Financial Aid and Scholarships (FAS) at UCLAscholarships@fas.ucla.edu and FAS will award each student and the system will generate a revised PAL the following business day. (Note: Blackbaud Award Management (BAM) cannot be used for Provisional Aid Letters.)

Award Submission for Matriculated Undergraduate Students

UPDATE: There is currently a freeze on adding new staff administrators to Blackbaud Award Management (BAM). Please follow the pre- and post-awarding instructions below, or on the upload form, to send your awarding requests for undergraduates to the Scholarships unit at UCLAscholarships@fas.ucla.edu.

The Blackbaud Award Management (BAM) portal allows UCLA to collect scholarship applications, review them securely, make award offers, and/or collect post-acceptance responses and thank you notes to create donor reports.

Award applications should be collected and reviewed in BAM, so that all Bruins can find the maximum number of potential awards while completing fewer applications. Any existing external applications should be moved to BAM when possible. All undergraduate awards should be submitted within BAM.

Each school/major area is limited to a maximum of two administrators, who will need to complete training on the BAM system as well as UCLA awarding policies, before they are allowed access. Currently enrolled students in any UCLA program may not be administrators.

Pre-submission Checklist

  1. All awards will be processed via the FAM (Financial Aid Management) and BAR (Billing and Receivables) systems. Departments may use only 77xxxx, 78xxxx, or 79xxxx accounts to pay awards through these systems. Please be certain that the full accounting unit (including account, cost center, and fund) has been linked and activated prior to submitting awards via the upload form.
  2. Awards may not represent payment for services rendered as an employee or independent contractor; such compensatory wage payments must be made through the Payroll and/or Accounts Payable systems.
  3. Any award offered can impact an enrolled student’s existing financial aid awards. If the student is already receiving financial aid for the award period, please advise the recipient to consult their FAN to determine their remaining eligibility. Scholarships staff may crosscheck the student’s remaining eligibility in BAM. If there isn’t room, they may contact you via MyUCLA for additional information on the student's award eligibility.
    • If the solution is to submit a budget increase, so the full award amount can be received, this increase must be approved before the award is submitted, or the student’s other gift aid may be reduced.
  4. The department should check all students’ citizenship status and confirm the student has a social security number (SSN) or IRS Tax Identification Number (ITIN) entered on Student Records. (Citizenship Country and Visa Status is included in BAM, if available).
    • Students can enter this information via MyUCLA. Departments should encourage them to do so as early as possible, to prevent disbursement delays.
    • The awarding department is responsible for entering, verifying, and/or fixing this information.
  5. Exception letters must accompany any request to pay out the award to any undergraduate award recipient enrolled in less than 6 units or a graduate student enrolled in less than 4 units. The letter must be signed by a program/scholarship manager.
  6. Check for any holds on the student’s account that would delay or prevent disbursement. (Additional hold details and department contacts can be found on FAM screen 048)
  7. Encourage recipients to sign up for BruinDirect through MyUCLA for direct deposit of excess award amounts to their accounts. If they do not register, a paper check will be issued and mailed to their address on file.

Post-submission Checklist

  1. The awarding department will verify award disbursement on the general ledger (GL). (Also available on FAM screen 409)
    • Only contact Financial Aid and Scholarships (FAS) if you do not see the award on the GL after 1-2 business days.
    • Check Student records to confirm SSN/ITIN, Citizenship, Visa, GLACIER, etc. are all complete before contacting FAS. If any information is missing, please complete it and check the GL again after 1-2 business days.
    • Student Accounts generates refunds on a weekly schedule in summer and generates refunds daily during the academic year. Awards will not pass to the student, even if FAS has overrides in place if ANY of the above information is missing, or if a hold is in place.
  2. If all information is present and there are no holds, begin inquiries regarding un-disbursed awards with FAS. Email FAS with the award name, Student UID, and student name.
  3. The awarding department should communicate any delays directly to the student, when possible. Students who need to contact FAS directly should do so through Message Center.
    • Allow 4-5 Business days for a reply.

Students who need to contact FAS should do so through Message Center.

Staff who need to contact the FAS Scholarships unit should email UCLAscholarships@fas.ucla.edu

Award Submission for Matriculated Graduate and Professional Students

UCLA Go Grad is the administrative portal for the UCLA Division of Graduate Education at UCLA.

In order to have access to this service, you must have a UCLA Logon ID. You can create your UCLA Logon ID at https://accounts.iam.ucla.edu/. Accounts require a departmental authorization and Graduate Division approval. For additional information on awarding graduate and professional students, please contact the Office of Fellowships & Financial Services at askgrad@grad.ucla.edu.

Award Submission for Non-Matriculated UCLA Program Participants

Awards for Non-Matriculated UCLA Program Participants are processed by Accounts Payable or UCPath

NON-MATRICULATED UCLA PROGRAM PARTICIPANT AWARDS ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO BE PROCESSED THROUGH BLACKBAUD AWARD MANAGEMENT (BAM) AND WILL NOT BE PROCESSED BY THE FINANCIAL AID & SCHOLARSHIPS OFFICE

Effective with the 2024-2025 awarding year, the Financial Aid and Scholarships division will no longer process payments for visiting non-matriculated students. This includes, but is not limited to Scholarships, Fellowships, Prizes, and Service awards. To pay UCLA visitors, please visit the BruinBuy Plus training information at https://purchasing.ucla.edu/bruinbuy-plus-hub. There is also a Quick Reference Guide which can be accessed at https://ucla.app.box.com/s/iuz1tb09ngrodcwd7cyaqv3ivw8nexoz.