Entrance scholarships for undergraduates: FAQ

You must maintain scholarship standing on your final grades for those courses used to calculate your admission average. Scholarship standing refers to the average originally required to get the entrance scholarship offer. This is normally a 90% or higher high school average to receive the Summit and Kenneth Strand Scholarship ($3,500) and 95% or higher high school average to receive the Academic Excellence Scholarship ($5,000). The minimum scholarship average changes every term.  Final scholarship averages for Fall 2012 will be determined in January 2012.  Email scholars@sfu.ca if you have a question about the final average needed to maintain your award.

You must maintain scholarship standing on your final IB score. This is typically 30 to 33 IB points to receive the IB Summit scholarship ($5,000) and 34 or higher points to receive the IB Academic Excellence scholarship ($7,000).

As a scholarship student, you have priority enrollment access for as long as you hold your SFU entrance scholarship. See our guide to enrolling in classes.

As a scholarship student studying at the Burnaby or Surrey campus, you have the privilege of a guaranteed parking pass in your first term. Your name and student number will automatically be forwarded to the parking office.

Parking passes from the Burnaby campus do not work at the Surrey campus and vice versa. You can only get one parking pass for one campus. Scholarship students at the SFU Burnaby campus can get a Burnaby parking pass, and only SFU Surrey students can get a parking pass at Surrey.

Check www.sfu.ca/security/Parking/permit/rates.html for the cost of a parking pass at the SFU Burnaby campus. You can buy your pass at the Burnaby campus parking office from August 1 to September 16 for the fall term. Bring a copy of your acceptance letter, some picture ID, and your vehicle information. Visit www.sfu.ca/security/Parking for information.

 Check www.surrey.sfu.ca/community/parking_transit.html for the cost of a parking pass at the SFU Surrey campus. Parking in any other areas at the Surrey campus (even if you have a pass) will be subject to tickets and fines. You must enter your name in the online parking lottery application to provide information about your vehicle. You must enter the lottery every term. Parking is managed by Diamond Parking and not SFU. (You can only get an SFU Surrey parking pass if you are enrolled in an SFU Surrey program such as TechOne.)

Parking passes for students who entered their information online will be available for pickup from the Registrar and Information Services office at the Surrey campus as of Tuesday September 4.

Vancouver campus students: see Parking under Step 4 in our guide for new undergraduates.

Scholarship funds are usually divided up into a given number of installments. The most common scholarship, valued at $3,500, is divided into two equal payments of $1,750 each. You can have a look at your copy of the Terms of Reference agreement to review your scholarship’s disbursement schedule.

The scholarship funds are disbursed directly into your student account at the end of the second week of classes as long as you meet scholarship eligibility requirements in terms of unit hours and CGPA requirements. This money is applied to any outstanding balances in your account at the time. Therefore, if you have outstanding tuition fee charges, scholarship funds will automatically be applied towards them. You will be responsible for ensuring the balance owing is paid prior to the payment deadline. Late fees are only charged on the balance remaining after the scholarship disbursement has been applied to the charges in your account.

Money left over will be refunded to students, usually after the sixth week of classes. You may pick up refund cheques at the Registrar and Information Services counter in the Maggie Benston building at the Burnaby campus. Cheques will not be mailed to you.

There are no stipulations on how you use left over SFU entrance scholarship monies.

You will still receive your entrance scholarship funds even if you have a tuition waiver. As usual, the balance of any entrance scholarship monies will be refunded to you in the form of a cheque in the sixth week of classes. If you hold a tuition waiver AND have received the "Passport to Education," you'll have to send your passport to the Ministry of Education along with proof of paid registration fees. Call 778.782.6930 for more details.

As far as SFU is concerned, we permit you to hold one entrance scholarship from our university. If you have been offered two SFU entrance scholarships, you will only get the one with the higher value, not both.

As for private awards or bursaries, the organizations donating the funds may have stipulations regarding the number or amount of entrance scholarships you can hold. SFU, on the other hand, will allow you to hold as many PRIVATE entrance scholarships and/or bursaries as you are able to garner. It’s best to check with the sponsoring organizations on what their rules are.

Bring your passport, along with some picture ID, to the Registrar and Information Services counter in the Maggie Benston building on the Burnaby campus. The funds will be deposited directly into your student account and, like your SFU entrance scholarship, applied to any outstanding charges in your account (such as tuition, student fees, residence, etc.). If there’s a positive balance owing to you, this will be available via a refund cheque in the sixth week of classes. You must pick this up at the Registrar and Information Services counter.

If you have won a provincial scholarship, you should have a provincial scholarship certificate. Bring this, along with picture ID, to the Registrar and Information Services counter. Be sure that the Social Insurance Number and address listed on the certificate is correct!

SFU will submit the certificate to the Ministry of Education on your behalf. After approximately eight weeks from the start of classes, the Ministry will send the scholarship cheque directly to your home.

The only provincial scholarship that differs from this is the Canadian Millennium Foundation: it sends the cheque to SFU instead of the student’s address. Recipients of this scholarship may pick up their scholarship cheque from the General Inquiries counter in the second week of classes.

The requirements are outlined in your signed Terms of Reference agreement and are on the Entrance Scholarship Regulations page.

Most entrance scholarships require students to be registered in 12 units (approximately four courses) to receive their scholarship funds. You must not drop any course midway through the term, otherwise, you may have to pay back the money you received. You must be registered in SFU units to receive your funds. SFU Co-op units or courses completed at another post-secondary institution cannot be counted as part of the unit-hour requirement. Upon request, students can continue receiving their scholarship installments if they are registered for one full term with SFU International's field school or exchange programs.

You could roughly equate a 3.0 GPA to about 73% and a 3.5 GPA to about 80% (assuming a passing grade is 50%).

No, it’s not that common. Most students have success in redeeming all of their installments. We encourage students who foresee a problem meeting the requirements to book an appointment with our office; we’re here to help you! Email scholars@sfu.ca or call 778-782-6798.

Yes, you may! You may defer your scholarship and admission for up to one year, provided that you do not attend any post-secondary institution, such as a university or college. We most often approve deferrals for those students participating in a rotary exchange, volunteer activity or travel. If you wish to apply for a deferral of your scholarship and admission, please email deferrals@sfu.ca. You must also pay the non-refundable admission confirmation deposit.  Requests should reach us no later than one month before the start of the term.