Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor

Mvk5945@psu.edu

Penn State is awarding $50 million in emergency relief grants to students who were currently enrolled during the fall 2021 semester. These emergency grants can be used to cover any educational cost or cost of college attendance, as well as to cover other emergency expenses relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The grants are part of the $76.2 million that was allocated to Penn State for emergency student financial aid from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) III. This was authorized through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021. 

The ARP Act, Public Law 117-2, was signed into law as of March 11, 2021. The Law provides $39.6 billion in support to institutions of higher education to serve students and ensure learning continues amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Similarly to the way previous COVID-19 relief grants have functioned, will disburse the funding in two separate rounds. The first round of grant money will go to students who demonstrated exceptional financial need on their FAFSA form. These grants are expected to go to more than 31,000 Penn State students.

Based on each individual student’s level of need, they will be offered a grant of either $1,000, $1,500 or $1,800. Approximately 19,000 students will receive the maximum $1,800 award.

The second round of grant money will disperse all of the remaining ARP based money through an application based process. The second  application based round of funding will go to students who were not eligible in the first round, and will support those who demonstrate exceptional financial need but did not previously file their FAFSA. The second round grants will be valued at $1000 each. 

Under guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Education all students, including non-U.S. citizens will be eligible to apply for these grants when the application opens. Full details on how to apply should be available in the upcoming weeks.

Students who have qualified for a first round grant should have received an email from the Office of Student Aid entitled “American Rescue Plan Fall Award.” The attached email should have information about how to accept the award, and should be done as soon as possible. All first round grants must be accepted by November 15th, as unclaimed funds will go towards the second round of grants being awarded. 

More information regarding the grants, including frequently asked questions can be found online at https://virusinfo.psu.edu/faq/category/federal-funding/.