The 6 Most Common Ways to Lose a Scholarship

1. Lies in your resume

Many organisations have a notice on their application forms saying that false information will lead to an immediate loss of funding. In some cases the organisation will try to recover money that has already been paid.

Be equally cautious about scholarship scams: every year, hundreds of thousands of students and parents fall victim to fraudulent offers. Warning signs include scholarships that demand an application fee, „matching services” that guarantee success, advance-fee loan scams, and sales events disguised as financial-aid seminars. Fraudsters often use official-sounding names to imitate legitimate organisations, so always verify a scholarship’s legitimacy through official sources before you respond or hand over any money.

2. Renewable scholarships: Missed deadlines

Many organisations will give their funding initially for one year. Recipients have to re-apply each year to renew the scholarship. These application dates are advertised so if you miss the deadline, you will probably lose the scholarship.

3. Scholarship requirements

Many scholarships require students to achieve a minimum grade average, or get a certain amount of credits within a time period. If you don’t know what the academic expectations are, or if you fail to achieve them, you risk losing your funding.

If your grades slip below the required threshold, not all is necessarily lost. Some scholarships offer a „grace period” during which you can raise your average before the funding is actually withdrawn, and in certain cases a lost grade-based scholarship can be partially reinstated if you bring your average back up over a defined period. That said, many scholarships treat a loss as final, so it is worth checking the recovery conditions in your award letter before you rely on a second chance.

4. Renewable scholarships: Bad application

Some students think that, just because their scholarship was approved for a year, they don’t have to make any effort for the renewal application. This sort of sloppiness can end in a lost scholarship.

5. Losing full-time status

Dropping below full-time enrolment or withdrawing from courses is one of the most common reasons a scholarship gets revoked, along with slipping under the required number of credit hours, going on academic probation, or failing to report significant changes in your circumstances. Definitions of „full time” and „half time” vary by institution and country, so check the exact terms with your university.

Before each semester, check whether your scholarship requires a minimum number of credit hours to stay eligible, and enrol for enough credits accordingly. Accepting a scholarship is a contract that obliges you to manage the funding professionally, so knowing the terms is essential to avoid losing it. In Austria, for instance, § 48(4) StudFG obliges recipients of Studienbeihilfe to report any withdrawal, change of studies or interruption to the grant authority within two weeks of becoming aware of it, otherwise they lose their entitlement and may have to repay the funding.

6. Misconduct and rule violations

Scholarships can also be lost through misconduct: academic dishonesty such as plagiarism or cheating, breaches of a university’s code of conduct, and other disciplinary matters are among the recurring reasons funders withdraw an award. Scholarship providers want their money to be a good investment and expect recipients to behave as responsible students consistently, not only when they think they are being watched. Institutional scholarships awarded by a university can also be revoked following a disciplinary hearing after a serious incident.

Even your online presence can matter. Committees do look at what applicants and recipients publish, so it is worth searching for your own name from time to time and tidying up anything that could reflect badly on you. The rule of thumb: if it could break a rule of your institution, your funder or the law, it could cost you the scholarship.