Undergraduate Awards FAQs

All awards are included within a specific competition. If you've found a specific award on the Search for Awards page, check which application it belongs to ("Application to apply for" field). Next, check the timeline for it in the Undergraduate Awards Calendar. 

If the application appears in the calendar, it will be available in your Student Centre during the application period. If it doesn’t appear, check the Award details to application instructions. You can also contact the department/organization offering the award.

UCalgary applies equitable distributions to all internal awards selections. We aim to distribute awards among as many eligible students as possible.

The largest entrance awards at UCalgary are prestige awards. If you’re entering from high school, submit a prestige awards application by Dec. 1. Prestige awards are awarded to our highest-achieving entering students. They’re worth $15,000 to more than $30,000 and most can be renewed annually.

Most high school entrance awards and undergraduate continuing awards don’t cover all tuition, fees or living costs.

If you're a domestic student, you should also explore government student loans to help pay for your degree.

If you're an international student, we recommend securing other funding before committing to studying at UCalgary.

There are external organizations that offer high-value awards to domestic and international students. Our external awards page is a good place to begin your research.

When you search the undergraduate awards database, awards that can be renewed will have "renewable" in the title. 

To receive the award in future years, you must meet the renewal requirements. You can find those details in the award’s terms.

The scholarship is based on your admission average. It’s calculated using the specifically-required courses for your program. This means it may be different from your overall high school average.

You must maintain 95% in your final admission average to receive award. It will be rescinded if your final admission average is lower than 95%. 

You can search for international student awards on our search for awards webpage. 

International students should arrange other sources of funding. Scholarships and awards usually cover only part of tuition, fees and living costs.

See the 'Entering Student' section at 'Apply for Awards' page.

If you're a mature entering student who hasn't taken any post-secondary level courses, you may be eligible to apply for entering student awards based on your high school admission average.  

If you’ve completed four or more post-secondary level courses, you’re considered a transfer student. Transfer students can apply for internal competitive awards after finishing one full year of studies at UCalgary. As a continuing undergraduate student, you can also search our website for awards, scholarships and bursaries that give preferences for mature students.

If you’re starting an after-degree undergraduate program, you’re only eligible for faculty nominated awards and scholarships. After you have begun your studies, you may be eligible for awards available to current students. See the 'Apply for Award' webpage for more information.

To be fair to all students who apply on time, we can’t accept late applications for undergraduate awards. 

We use your financial information to assess if you qualify for bursaries and awards that require a financial deficit (when your resources are less than your expected expenses). 

When reporting your resources, include your current savings and your parent’s or your own income from the previous tax year.  

When reporting expenses, estimate your expected expenses for the period noted in the application. If you need help, use the UCalgary Cost Estimator Tool as a guide.

If you're having issues entering information in your awards application, read the error message carefully. It will point you to the field that's blocking you from saving the application. If you can’t find the field, please take a screenshot of your error message and contact Student Financial Support.

Competitive awards require students to submit an application to be considered. Recipients are chosen based on the terms of reference indicated for each award within the competition. Terms of reference for all awards can be found in the searchable award database.  

Nominated awards recipients are selected based on terms of reference by the applicable department or faculty. Recipients are notified by Student Financial Support. 

Undergraduate award recipients are notified according to each award’s competition timeline. You can find the application, deadline, notification, and payment dates in the awards calendar. 

If you don’t have any unpaid tuition/fees on your student account, excess award funds will be paid to you after the add/drop deadline each semester. Once processed through payroll, they'll appear on your account as a "refund” and be paid out to you by direct deposit on the next eligible payroll date. Check your award notification letter for the specific payment timeline.

Check to see if your award has been applied to your tuition and fees: 

1. Go to the My Financial Tab in your Student Centre,
2. Click Payments under the Outstanding charges section (see page 4 in this Understanding your fees guide (PDF)), and
3. Click the award name to see where the funds have been applied.

If the award has been issued as a refund but you haven’t received it, your banking information may have been submitted incorrectly or too late. 

In that case, a cheque would have been issued to your Canadian address on file. If you don’t have a Canadian address listed, the funds wouldn’t be issued. 

For help tracking a cheque or reissuing the funds, please contact payrolluc@ucalgary.ca.

Awards issued by the Student Financial Support are listed in your Student Centre. Go to the My Financials tab and click the Awards and Scholarships section to view your awards by academic year.  

For information on awards offered by other departments or organizations, please contact them directly for more information.