Chicago Scholars Financial Assistance Opportunities

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Welcome to the Chicago Scholars Lifeline Emergency Fund.  Scholars can apply once per semester (January-June/July-December) for support with unexpected emergencies that threaten their ability to stay enrolled.

Our emergency fund is exclusive to students who are a part of the Chicago Scholars program.  Scholars must be currently enrolled, undergraduate students.  Scholars who have graduated or are enrolled in graduate school are not eligible to apply.

Eligible expenses under the allowable funding cap:
  • Rent
  • Utilities
  • Groceries and toiletries
  • Past due tuition balances (causing financial hold, preventing class registration)
  • Certain medical expenses, including:
  1. Prescription medications
  2. Glasses
  3. Counseling co-pays
  4. Emergency transportation to/from campus
  5. Laptop repair or replacement
Due to limited funding, we are unable to support the following expenses:

  • Textbooks
  • Credit card bills
  • Large hospital or medical bills (these can be arranged through payment plans)
  • Tuition for the current or upcoming semester

After submitting your application, we will be in touch within 3-5 business days.  If your application is extremely urgent or time sensitive, please reach out to The College Success Team.  Approved requests approximately take 7-10 business days to process funds.

The next page of the application will ask basic information regrading your situation and the option to upload relevant documentation (lease, bills, etc.).  If you have questions before completing the application, or want support as you're filing it out, contact the College Success team at collegesuccess@chicagoscholars.org or schedule time during our office hours.

Contact Details and Academic Information

Contact Details






Select Other if school is not listed




Academic Information

This will not affect your application; we ask to get an idea of how you are doing and if we can provide additional support.



Lifeline Grant


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Check all that apply
Financial Information
In this section please provide us with an itemized budget for your request. Please see the sample budget below for your reference:

Example                                   Item: Rent                                 Amount: $800
Item Amount
Budget Item
Include amount in dollars

$

Questions




Your application details may be shared with foundations who provide emergency funding to Chicago Scholars, strictly for reimbursing Chicago Scholars for emergency expenses.  By checking the box below you are giving Chicago Scholars permission to share information in this application to foundations we partner with for funding purposes.  Chicago Scholars and the foundations we partner with will not share anything in this application in any external platforms without explicit permission from you.  Any data shared will be kept secure and only shared with emergency fund managers at the foundations. If you have any questions or concerns about the sharing of data, please contact Bridget at bdrury@chicagoscholars.org