UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State will award nearly $17.35 million in federal COVID-19 emergency relief grants to help students enrolled during the spring 2022 semester cover any component of their cost of attendance or other emergency expenses due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The spring grants will mark the final round of awards from the $76.2 million that was allocated to Penn State for emergency student financial aid from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) III, as authorized by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021. As of Dec. 31, 2021, Penn State has distributed ARP grants totaling more than $58.85 million to 36,126 students during the summer and fall 2021 semesters.  

Penn State, as it has done with all prior COVID-19 relief funds, will disburse the spring grants through two rounds of funding. In the first round, Penn State will prioritize students with demonstrated exceptional financial need by offering grants worth up to $850 each to all 18,247 students University-wide who are eligible for the federal Pell Grant, as determined by data from the 2021-22 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Grant recipients will include undergraduate, graduate, law and medical students at all Penn State campuses, including Penn State World Campus students.  

Following the first round, Penn State will award all remaining ARP funds, anticipated to be approximately $2 million, during an application-based second round of funding. The second-round awards, also valued at $850 each, will support students with exceptional financial need who did not file or were not eligible to file a FAFSA, or who did not otherwise qualify for a grant in the initial round. Under U.S. Department of Education guidelines, all students, including non-U.S. citizens, will be eligible to apply for these federal dollars once the application opens. Full details about how to apply for a second-round spring 2022 ARP grant will be announced in the coming weeks.  

Students who are awarded a first-round grant must act to accept it by Monday, March 14, as after that date all unclaimed funds will be awarded to other students during the second-round application process. In accordance with federal guidelines, Penn State will award all ARP student funds by May 2022.

Students who qualify for a first-round grant will soon receive notification of their award offer via their Penn State email account from the Office of Student Aid, along with instructions on how to accept or decline the aid in LionPATH. The subject line of the email will be “American Rescue Plan Spring Award.” The grant can be used to cover any component of a student’s cost of attendance or for emergency costs that arise due to COVID-19, including tuition, food, housing, health care (including mental health care), or child care, as long as the expense was incurred on or after the start of the national COVID-19 emergency on March 13, 2020.

When accepting their grant, students will be required to affirm that the money will be used for eligible expenses in accordance with the American Rescue Plan. Students will be able to request a lower grant amount if their personal circumstances do not require the full award offer. Students also will be able to choose if they would like the money to be refunded to them directly, applied to an outstanding balance on their student account for spring 2022, or a combination of the two options. Students who choose to have the money refunded to them are encouraged to enroll in eRefund for direct deposit.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Penn State has disbursed nearly $114 million in federal COVID-19 relief grants to its students. This includes: approximately $8 million in ARP grants during the summer 2021 semester; $50.8 million in ARP grants during the fall 2021 semester; $27.5 million in Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA) grants in spring 2021 (HEERF II); and $27.5 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act grants in 2020 (HEERF I).  

Answers to frequently asked questions about the spring 2022 American Rescue Plan student emergency grants, as well as the University’s Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund reporting information, can be found on Penn State’s official coronavirus information website.