Application Guide

The West Virginia Nursing Scholarship Program provides scholarships to LPN, RN, LPN teaching certificate, and masters or doctoral nursing students. In exchange for agreeing to complete a service obligation in West Virginia, participants receive scholarship funds for their nursing programs.

The West Virginia Nursing Scholarship accepts applications for the next academic year from April 15 through June 1 each year. The application is online. Applicants should ensure they will meet all eligibility requirements within the academic year of application before applying.Depending on what kind of scholarship you are applying for, your specific eligibility requirements may differ from others. The eligibility requirements are as follows:

LPN Eligibility Requirements

- Enrolled at least half-time in an accredited West Virginia Nursing Program
- Be in good academic standing
- Have a cumulative and nursing GPA set by the Center's Recruitment and Retention Committee
  - In the 2023-2024 award year, the minimum GPA accepted is 3.00.
  - Most LPN programs do not have non-nursing classes, so cumulative and nursing GPAs are the same for most LPN students.
- Meet their nursing midpoint.
  - The nursing midpoint date is the date in which a student has completed at least 50% of the nursing curriculum needed to obtain their nursing degree.
  - Since most LPN programs last one year, it usually is 6 months into a program.
  - Pre-requisites do not count for purposes of calculating the nursing midpoint date.

RN Eligiblity Requirements

- Enrolled at least half-time in an accredited West Virginia Nursing Program
- Be in good academic standing
- Have a cumulative and nursing GPA set by the Center's Recruitment and Retention Committee
  - In the 2023-2024 award year, the minimum GPA accepted is 3.00.
- Meet their nursing midpoint.
  - The nursing midpoint date is the date in which a student has completed at least 50% of the nursing curriculum needed to obtain their nursing degree.
  - Pre-requisites do not count for purposes of calculating the nursing midpoint date.
  - Applicants enrolled in bridge programs should be advised that nursing midpoint refers to your bridge program specifically and not to the time it takes in total to earn your terminal degree. If your bridge program is 30 hours long, you will only become eligible after completing 15 hours of your program.

Graduate Nurse Eligibility Requirements

Application Tips

When applying for the scholarship using our online application portal, please be sure to do the following:

- YOU MUST APPLY FOR AN AWARD EACH YEAR TO BE CONSIDERED FOR AN AWARD - If you have received a past scholarship award, you must apply to receive another award during our open award cycle to receive another award in another award year.
- USE A PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS ON YOUR APPLICATION - Email is the primary means of communication regarding the scholarship both before and after you are in school. Some schools revoke access to school email addresses after graduation. If the email address you have on file is a school email address, you might miss vital information regarding post-service obligation requirements.
- SELECT ALL TERMS ON THE APPLICATION IF YOU ARE UNSURE OF WHEN YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE - We are unable to alter the terms in which you applied to receive funds after the application cycle closes and cannot extend you an award for a term that you did not select on your application. To ensure that you receive the maximum amount of award disbursements in an award year, please select all terms listed. If you select a fall term and are only eligible to receive funds in the spring term, you will not be able to receive an award.
- YOU DO NOT NEED TO SUBMIT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO DETERMINE YOUR ELIGIBILITY FOR AN AWARD AFTER YOU HAVE SUBMITTED AN APPLICATION - We will contact your school after the application period closes to verify your enrollment/acceptance, obtain your graduation date, nursing midpoint date (if applicable), cumulative GPA and nursing GPA. Once this information is received, WVHEPC will establish the minimum GPA accepted and set award levels by application type for the application year. You will be contacted in July or August concerning the award decision.
- IF YOU ARE APPLYING FOR AN LPN OR RN SCHOLARSHIP, CONTACT YOUR NURSING PROGRAM TO OBTAIN AN APPROXIMATE NURSING MIDPOINT DATE - If you are unsure of when you will reach your approximate nursing midpoint date, contact your nursing program to get a date estimate based on your current class load so that you will have a better idea of when you might be eligible for an award.
- IF YOU ARE APPLYING FOR A GRADUATE NURSING SCHOLARSHIP, BE ADVISED THAT YOU MUST BE WORKING AS A NURSING EDUCATOR WHILE IN SCHOOL TO OBTAIN AN AWARD - The graduate portion of this scholarship requires that recipients work as nursing educators while in their programs in addition to the nursing educator service obligation after. Be sure to list your employment as a nursing educator on your application.

Online Application

The online application is open from April 15 through June 1 for the 2024-2025 academic year (Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Summer 2025). When the application cycle is open, use the link below to apply. You will need to create a WVSAM account before applying if you do not already have one.

Click Here To Apply