Financial Aid Information

Submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at fafsa.gov as soon as possible after October 1 of your senior year in high school. List Bellarmine as a school to receive your information. Bellarmine’s school code is 001954. There will be opportunities to make adjustments if your circumstances change.

Scholarships, grants or loans provided by Bellarmine University.

Scholarships, grants or loans provided by the Federal Government.

Scholarships, grants or loans provided by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Students will begin receiving scholarship award notices shortly after they are admitted to Bellarmine.

We discourage our students from participating in any search that requires a fee for an agency to find scholarships or grants. Applying for need-based aid is free, and in our experience these search agencies only tend to turn up federal sources you could locate on your own.

The Bellarmine Scholar and Bellarmine Fellow scholarships, awarded to entering first-year students, are Bellarmine’s most prestigious academic scholar-ships. The Bellarmine Scholar Award includes full tuition, fees, room and board with a study abroad stipend. The Bellarmine Fellow Award includes full tuition with a study abroad stipend. The application deadline is December 1 and an essay with the topic “Describe an incident or situation in your life which piqued your intellectual curiosity” is required. Essays are reviewed and students are invited to interview with faculty. After the interviews, five students are selected to receive each award.

This depends on the amount of the outside scholarships and on whether we have been able to meet your need with other aid. Please notify us when you find out you have received an outside scholarship, and we will notify you of any changes to your existing aid award by sending you a revised aid award. Outside scholarships do not replace the Expected Family Contribution. Instead, they must be counted as financial aid and deducted from the amount of aid eligibility. Bellarmine encourages students to pursue scholarships from other agencies.

Only United States citizens and eligible non-citizens can file the FAFSA to apply for federal and state need-based aid. All other students, including those in the U.S. on an F1 or F2 student visa, are ineligible. Merit scholarships are available to international students through Bellarmine's Office of Admission.

We encourage all students to complete a FAFSA for their first year in college. Parental income is not the only factor that determines aid eligibility, and some people are surprised to find that they qualify for aid. Keep in mind that families who do not receive other need-based aid can still borrow a Federal Unsubsidized Direct Loan, but you must file the FAFSA first.

You must re-apply for need-based aid each year. Assuming that your financial situation stays the same and you maintain satisfactory academic progress, your aid should stay about the same from year to year. Changes in household size, number of children in college or your parents’ income and assets can have an effect on your financial aid award. Merit scholarships are automatically renewed each year provided you maintain the requirements.

At Bellarmine we offer several payment options to fit your need and financial situation. You can pay your bill off all at once or at the beginning of each semester. We also offer monthly plan options spreading the balance out over the course of as many as ten months and as few as five.

The Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is a measure of your family’s financial strength and is calculated according to a formula established by law. Your family’s taxed and untaxed income, assets and benefits (such as unemployment or Social Security) are all considered in the formula. Additional considerations include your family size and the number of family members who will attend college during the year. The information you report on your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is used to calculate your EFC. Schools use the EFC to determine your federal student aid eligibility and financial aid award. Your EFC is not the amount of money your family will have to pay for college nor is it the amount of federal student aid you will receive. It is a number used by your school to calculate the amount of federal student aid you are eligible to receive.

• Dependent Verification Worksheet
• Independent Verification Worksheet
• Parent Asset Information Form
• Student Asset Information form
• Parent Non-filer
• Student Non-filer
• Parent PLUS Loan
• Grad PLUS Loan