Undocumented applicants

You may apply whatever your immigration status. Undocumented students and DACA recipients are eligible for the Lu Memorial Scholarship on the same terms as everyone else, and nothing in the form asks you to hold a status you do not have.

We read every application the same way, in the same order: whether you are ready to finish your education, what $5,000 would change for you, and what you have done with the resources you had. Citizenship and immigration status are no part of that reading, and they are not a tie-breaker.

We treat everything in your application as confidential. Tell us as much as you can accurately tell us about your circumstances, because that is what the reading is built on. If you would rather ask a question before you start, write to scholarship@lu-memorial.org.

What we ask you to show

We do not ask anyone for a document while we read applications. If you become a finalist, we ask for one document that supports what you told us about your costs. Any one of these works: an aid award letter, a funding or assistantship offer letter, a FAFSA Submission Summary, a bursar or financial aid office letter, a meal-eligibility letter, a counselor letter, or a signed statement from a school official or employer.

One staff member at the Goal Get It! Lu Office of Financial Aid reads that document. The selection committee does not see it.

We never ask you for tax returns, bank statements, Social Security numbers, passport numbers, or other government identification numbers.

• The application is the same for every applicant, whatever your citizenship or country of residence.
• Follow the standard instructions for high school applicants, undergraduate applicants, or graduate applicants.
• Everyone applies online, through the High school application or the Undergraduate and graduate application.

The form has a citizenship status question. Choose the option that describes you: “Undocumented” or “DACA recipient” are both there, and either one is a complete answer. We ask so that we do not later mistake your situation for something it is not.

Nothing in the application asks for a government identification number, and nothing after it does either. The notice above lists everything we never ask anyone for. If a message claiming to be from us asks you for one of those things, it is not from us.

The award is $5,000, paid on the same terms to every recipient. There is no separate pool, no reduced amount and no different process for undocumented students.

The application asks what your education costs and what you already have toward it. Grant aid, loans, family contribution and your own earnings all go in that arithmetic. If a form of aid is closed to you because of your status, say so in the space for context. It is useful for us to know, and it is read as part of your circumstances.