Student Finance

Portland State University’s Online Scholarship Search and Application Portal

Scholarship Universe is open for the 2025-2026 Academic Year. PSU has various scholarship deadlines between April 1 and May 15. Students are notified of scholarship awards in late June.

Use PSU Scholarship Universe to submit an application for millions of dollars in scholarships. These scholarships are mostly cash awards provided through the generosity of many donors.

Incoming and continuing PSU students are eligible to apply for scholarships through PSU's Scholarship Universe. Students must file an admissions application with the university. Within 48 hours after a student has submitted an application, they can access the Scholarship Universe platform.

Scholarship Universe is used to award both general (not degree specific) as well as programmatic-, departmental-, and college-specific scholarships. Scholarship Universe also offers personalized suggestions of external scholarships for which you may be eligible. 

When you log in to PSU Scholarship Universe, you will be asked a series of matching questions. Your answers to these questions are used to match you with the scholarship opportunities specific to you. Once you have a list of scholarship opportunities, you apply for each scholarship. You can complete as many applications as you want. Be aware that some applications are for multiple scholarships and will require several essay questions. The more essays you complete, the greater the chance you will be awarded a scholarship.

Although Scholarship Universe accepts applications for hundreds of PSU scholarships, schools, colleges, departments, student organizations, and other campus programs may offer additional scholarships that require a separate application. We encourage you to contact your school, college, department, student organizations, and/or other campus programs to inquire about additional opportunities.

PSU's Scholarship Universe features an integrated search engine for more than 15,000 external scholarships that are sponsored and managed by individuals and organizations that are not affiliated with PSU. Each of these scholarships has been rigorously reviewed and represent great opportunities for PSU students to win even more money to pay for school.

How to Use PSU Scholarship Universe

Creating an Account and Logging In

We recommend using Chrome, Firefox, or Safari to access Scholarship Universe. The system is not compatible with Internet Explorer. Scholarship Universe is optimized for use on any platform, so you may use your mobile phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer to search for scholarships and submit your applications.

  1. Go to the PSU's Scholarship Universe Login Page.
  2. Sign in using your PSU Student (Odin) Account. Students must file an admissions application with the university. Within 48 hours after a student has submitted an application, they will be able to access the Scholarship Universe platform. Admitted students can activate your PSU Student (Odin) Account now (for help review the instructions to activate your account).
  3. To enter your portal select the "I’m Ready" button, or select Dashboard from the navigation menu. This is where you’ll see an overview of any actions you need to take on scholarships for which you’ve applied. 
  4. To apply for scholarships, go to the next section and follow the steps to set up your account and application.
Log In to Scholarship Universe

Account and Application Setup

If this is your first time using Scholarship Universe, you’ll be prompted to fill in information to set up your profile and answer questions for matching you with relevant scholarships. You can always come back and answer more questions.

To set up your profile and answer questions or update your existing answers, navigate to your Dashboard and then do one of the following:

  • Select "Questions" from the navigation menu, or
  • Select the gray button at the top of your Dashboard window that says one of the following:
    • Desktop: “You still have outstanding questions that may qualify you for more opportunities! Click here to continue answering more matching questions.”
    • Mobile: “Answer more questions.”

You may edit any of your answers by choosing the pencil icon on a desktop or selecting the "Edit" button on mobile devices.

If this is your first time logging in, fill out the introductory information. Then answer more questions, you can choose to “Skip” if you don’t want to answer a question or “Continue” if you do want to answer it. You can also select “N/A” if you do not want to answer a question. Some answers may be pre-populated with information from your PSU record which is directly linked to the Scholarship Universe system and cannot be edited. If you select the pencil icon on a desktop or the edit button on a mobile device for any pre-populated answers, you will be presented with a blank page.

Apply for Scholarships

Access Applications

Once you have set up your account and answered questions, you can access scholarship applications that you are eligible to fill out. One application may be attached to many scholarships. When working on an application, selecting “Continue” will save the answers you provided.

  1. In the navigation menu select “Applications.”
  2. On the Applications page you’ll see a list of applications that you are eligible to fill out. There are three tabs on the Applications page that indicate the stages you are at for each application.
    • Ready to Start: Applications in this tab are those that you are eligible to fill out.
    • In Progress: Applications in this tab are those that you have started, but have not finished. 
    • Submitted: Applications in this tab that you have completed and submitted to be reviewed for any scholarships that application is attached to. Once you have submitted an application, you will not be able to edit that application. Do not select “Submit” until you are confident that the answers you have provided are the ones you wish to have reviewed.

Search Scholarship Matches

  1. In the navigation menu select “Scholarships” to view those that you have been matched to based on the questions you answered and your profile information. 
  2. On the Scholarships page, you’ll see the scholarships you’ve been matched to, showing PSU scholarships first. 
  3. To find more scholarships you can sort of filter to narrow the list displayed.
    • To sort scholarships, select the “Sort” dropdown at the top of the page. You can sort by choosing either internal or external scholarships.

Managing Your Scholarship Account

My Documents

The My Documents section is where documents you have uploaded are stored during the application process. These documents are only used for your scholarship applications. Financial aid and FAFSA documentation should not be uploaded to Scholarship Universe. Review the financial aid awarding information to determine if additional financial aid documentation is needed.

To view your documents select “My Docs” from the menu.

Feedback

The feedback option does NOT provide feedback to the PSU Scholarships office. If you have questions or suggestions for improvement contact the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships directly

Scholarship Recipient Notification

PSU scholarship committees will review applications and choose scholarship recipients starting in mid-February. If you are selected to receive a scholarship, you will receive a notification inviting you to log into Scholarship Universe for information about the scholarship award.

Faculty & Staff: How to Use PSU's Scholarship Universe

Faculty and Staff who will be evaluating scholarship applications will receive notification from the Office of Financial and Scholarships about how to set up an account and review scholarships.

Once your Scholarship Universe user account has been created, you will use your existing PSU (Odin) Account credentials to log in to the system. We recommend using Chrome, Firefox, or Safari to access Scholarship Universe. The system is not compatible with Internet Explorer. Scholarship Universe is optimized for use on any platform, so you may use your mobile phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer to search for scholarships and submit your applications.

Application Review

If you are a scholarship committee member or chair, you will receive an automated email notification from Scholarship Universe when the applications associated with each scholarship opportunity become available for your review.

If you have administrative questions about managing your PSU funds, scholarship review committees, changing account information, thank you letters, or any other similar inquiries associated with the administrative portion of the Scholarship Universe system, contact the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships.