The American Indian Program Family of Scholarships

Determining Eligibility for Need-Based Aid

The Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarship Services establishes a budget based on projections of what it will cost you to attend New Mexico State University for a year. Your resources will be subtracted from your budget. The amount of money that is not covered by your own resources is your need, sometimes referred to as your eligibility. In other words,

BUDGET – RESOURCES = ELIGIBILITY (NEED)

Many factors go into figuring a student’s resources when determining eligibility. Some elements in the calculation are the student’s savings, wage earnings and other sources of support (such as scholarships and veteran’s benefits), the income and assets of the student’s family, the number of family members and the number who are currently in college.

Many students receive a combination of different types of aid rather than just one kind. You may be given work-study, grant and loan money for the same year. If you qualify for multiple types of aid, your financial aid adviser at NMSU will assemble an aid package.

American Indian Program Scholarships

All of the American Indian Program Scholarships are small, supplemental scholarships to help reduce the unmet financial need. The process of attaining the AIP Scholarships starts with completing the Scholar Dollars application online. As with many of our online applications, Scholar Dollars uses an algorithm to send student applications to various scholarships. We ask that you are thorough with your essays as this can help meet the criteria of the scholarships that involve Leadership, Community Participation, and Involvement.