Scholarship Application

In order to be considered for a Fresno State scholarship, students must be a continuing student or a new student who has applied for admission for the 2025/2026 academic year. Before you attempt to apply for Fresno State scholarships, please make sure you have received a Fresno State Student I.D. number and have activated your MyFresnoState account with a valid email address. All scholarship applicants must use their MyFresnoState log-in user name and password to access the scholarship application and/or the scholarship directory for current year opportunities.

Please be prepared to provide two different personal statements. One statement is to give you an opportunity to tell us important things about yourself that are not addressed or apparent in the application. The second statement is regarding your career objectives.  Once you finish and submit the general scholarship application, you will be presented with recommended opportunities for which you might be eligible.  The recommended opportunities can be a combination of general scholarships (open to all students) and departmental scholarships (restricted to students within a specific major). These scholarship opportunities require additional questions to be answered and/or supplemental documentation to be uploaded.

• Lyles College of Engineering Honors Program
• Craig School of Business Scholars Program

To apply for the Engineering and Business honors program, you must first complete the Fresno State General Scholarship Application. After you complete the general scholarship application, you will be able to view and apply for these honors scholarship opportunities. The scholarship requirements and supplemental program application will be visible under the “opportunities” directory.

• Smittcamp Family Honors College - President's Honors Scholarship

To apply for the President's Honor Scholarship, you must complete their scholarship application which can be found at http://www.fresno state.edu/academics/honors/index.html.  If you have any questions regarding the President's Honors application, please contact The Smittcamp Family Honors College at (559) 278-8160 or by email at honors@csufresno.edu.

Please submit your application and all required documentation by the posted deadline.  No paper applications will be accepted for these scholarships and there are no exceptions to the posted deadline under any circumstances.

Fresno State is excited to partner with the Bulldog Infrastructure Group, LLC (BIG) for a 33-year public-private partnership (P3) contract for the Central Utility Replacement Project. This project will address the campus hot and chilled water generation and distribution piping network, providing energy efficient and reliable heating and cooling for more than 25,000 students, faculty, and staff. 

Among the many improvements and opportunities presented by this project, BIG is offering two $2,500 scholarships annually: one for Outstanding Technical Achievement in Energy Efficiency, and one for Outstanding Achievement in Community Outreach, Education, and Promotion of Energy Efficiency. 

BIG will award these scholarships to students who are actively incorporating sustainability and energy efficiency into their academic and extracurricular experiences.

The application period for this scholarship starts October 1, 2024 and ends on March 2, 2025. Applicants from any major are eligible to apply.

Qualifying Criteria: 

• Cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher
• Enrolled on a full-time* continuous basis at Fresno State in Fall 2025
  • Undergraduate = continuous enrollment in 12 or more units
  • Graduate = enrolled in 7 or more units.

NOTE: Incoming freshman in Fall 2025 are not eligible to apply. 

Click on the links below to review the criteria and application process:

Scholarship Application for Outstanding Technical Achievement in Energy Efficiency

Scholarship Application for Outstanding Achievement in Community Out reach, Education, and Promotion of Energy Efficiency

If you have any questions, please contact Kelly Russell at kellyr@csufresno.edu

If you are awarded a Fresno State scholarship, a congratulatory email will be sent to you announcing the award. You must accept (or decline) the scholarship award offer within one week from the date on the email. All scholarship awards are dedicated to students who are admitted and enrolled at Fresno State. Students who are receiving more than one award will receive more than one email and must follow the instructions in each email to accept their scholarship. Please be advised that all email communications regarding your scholarship award(s) will only be sent to your Fresno State email address.

The scholarship application has a General Application section and an Opportunities section. After the student submits their application, the program automatically recommends scholarships to the applicant based on answers entered on the application and/or academic information uploaded from our campus admission and records database. If corrections need to be made after the scholarship application has been submitted, students have the ability to log-in and update their information as long as it's before the scholarship deadline.

Before you attempt to apply for Fresno State scholarships, please make sure you have received a Fresno State Student I.D. number and have activated your MyFresnoState account with a valid email address. All scholarship  applicants will use their MyFresnoState log-in user name and password to access the scholarship application. This allows students use their campus credentials, as they log in and out to complete or update their scholarship application, without having to create or remember a different password.  

Fresno State and the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management are committed to providing the latest security and data encryption services for your protection.  We do not collect personal information on our web site to sell, rent, share, or otherwise disclose to outside organizations.

You will be asked to provide two narrative statement describing your activities, awards, personal accomplishments, and career objectives.  You can cut and paste your information into the personal statements portion of the application from any word processor. Do not use special text formatting such as bold, italic, colors, etc., as these will not appear.  Pay special attention to spelling, grammar and content as your application will be carefully reviewed by multiple scholarship selection committees.

When students log-in the scholarship application site, they can review the opportunities page for a comprehensive list of hundreds of academic scholarships available to undergraduate and graduate students at Fresno State. Since scholarships are offered by various colleges, departments, and organizations to students who meet specific criteria, we encourage all students to apply regardless of their accomplishments, field of study, class level, or academic achievement.  

The purpose of the personal statement is to give you an opportunity to tell us important things about yourself that are not addressed or apparent in the application. In making decisions about scholarships, we want to consider your personal attributes and gain some sense of who you are; your experiences, accomplishments, and a variety of qualities such as motivation, self-discipline, leadership, commitment to others, your intended field of study and your career goals as well as your academic record. 

Each year, Fresno State receives applications from many more students than we can award, and the academic records of these students are usually very similar. In order to discover and evaluate the distinctions among these applicants, scholarship selection committees look closely at an individual's entire application. The academic record, information about accomplishments and activities, and personal statements help us gain insight into a student's level of achievement and character. Taken together, these factors enable us to weigh what we can offer the applicant. In some cases, the personal statement can be a critical factor in the selection process. 

Carefully read the instructions and/or questions on the application. A common mistake applicants make is to skim through the instructions contained in the application. Take time to read and understand all the instructions so your application is a true and complete reflection of you. 

Remember that your application will be compared to other qualified students, many of whom have shared similar experiences or academic achievements.  Your personal statement needs to clearly convey what you think is important for us to know about you. In reading your statement, we look for personal characteristics that include creativity, intellectual curiosity and achievement, personal initiative, motivation, leadership, persistence, exceptional recognition and rare talent, the ability to overcome hardship and get along with others, and service to others. In any case, your statement should clearly convey what you think is important for us to know about you and convey a sense of a full human being behind the GPA and test scores. If you are applying to a specific major, you should discuss your interest in your intended field of study.

We expect you to write the personal statement yourself; write in your own voice. At the same time, it is probably wise to have a friend, teacher, or parent read the statement to advise you on how well it conveys what you want it to say, and if it reflects who you really are. Remember: the purpose of the personal statement is to help selection committees know you on a personal level.

It should not be a chronicle of events or an autobiography. The statement is about you, not about events. What is important is what you have learned, or changed, or how your sense of direction was solidified, or how your image of yourself and others has changed, and so on.  Also, please do not use bullet format or résumé style outline for your narrative statements.

In addition to suggestions cited above, you should discuss your interest in your intended major, describing any related work or volunteer experience and explaining the way your interest in the field developed. In general, your statement should focus on relatively recent activities and experiences, although scholarship selection committees are  interested in any special circumstances that may have had a significant impact on you earlier in life. You should define your motivation, achievement, leadership, and commitment.