Loyola University New Orleans launched the Office of Scholarships and Grants this semester, introducing Scholarship Universe, a platform that matches students with 17,000 external scholarship opportunities to address the widening gap between financial aid and rising tuition costs.
The new office aims to help students bridge an average $5,000 to $6,000 shortfall between their aid packages and actual college expenses, according to Anthony Jones, vice president of enrollment management. Students can access the scholarship-matching platform through their single sign on portal, where they can create profiles to get matched with vetted funding opportunities.
“The university understands that it’s getting more and more difficult to cover the difference between charges and financial aid,” said Mary Musso, senior associate director of the Office of Scholarships and Grants.
The Office of Scholarships and Grants operates as a “fully student facing services office” focused specifically on helping students address “the gap” between charges and financial aid packages, Musso said. This distinguishes it from the Office of Financial Aid, which primarily manages federal, state, and institutional aid programs, including the FAFSA process and student loans.
To use Scholarship Universe, students click on the app through their SSO access and answer several questions about themselves to create a profile. The more questions students answer, the more likely they are to match with relevant scholarships, Musso explained.
“Completing a profile is easy and could be the difference between a semester of peace and one of worry when it comes to knowing if your bill is paid,” Jones said. “Imagine, a half hour of your time ensuring you’re properly represented in scholarship universe, and you walk away with the possibility of hundreds, if not thousands of potential dollars coming your way.”
According to Mary Musso, the platform has advantages over other scholarship search resources. Because Loyola sponsors it, all scholarships are “fully vetted and curated” with no “spammy or scammy things,” Musso said. The platform won’t spam student inboxes, leaving it up to users to check weekly for new matches. Students can also securely store documents like essays, resumes and reference letters within the platform.
Mass communication freshman Isabelle Kehoe-Lopez discovered the resource recently and expressed surprise at its existence. “As a person always trying to earn more scholarships, it was a wonderful find,” Kehoe-Lopez said. “After putting in your information, it matches you with potential scholarships you are a candidate for, and I would have never known without scholarship universe.”
The lack of student awareness about available resources concerns Kehoe-Lopez, who believes insufficient advertising prevents students from knowing about platforms like scholarship universe.
“Students mainly receive their information through social media and email,” she said. “I believe most people just don’t know it even exists.”
Beyond the matching platform, the Office of Scholarships and Grants provides one-on-one advising to develop personalized funding strategies, application assistance for reviewing essays and preparing documents, and financial literacy programming through events and workshops.
Jones emphasized that the platform’s impact depends entirely on student participation.
“Those who commit to creating a profile and completing the scholarship applications, whether for Loyola based awards or a scholarship with a third-party organization, will increase their chances to find the financial resources they need,” he said.
Jones said his goal is 100% adoption, with every registered student creating a fully completed profile in Scholarship Universe.
The convenience factor particularly appeals to students managing packed schedules.
“Students have crazy schedules with schoolwork and extra curriculars,” Kehoe-Lopez said. “Scholarship universe puts all you need in one platform, so you don’t have to go searching the internet endlessly for scholarships.”
Staff from the Office of Scholarship and Grants plan to be “out and about over the next couple of months introducing the platform to students, helping them set up profiles,” Musso said.
Students can schedule meetings with the office for help setting up their scholarship universe profiles, compiling application documents, improving financial literacy, and building strategies to fund their education.
