Penn State will award $50 million in COVID-19 relief grants to students this fall in order to help cover the cost of emergency expenses or any component of their cost of attendance that was caused by the pandemic.

These grants are a portion of the $76.2 million given to Penn State from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). This money, authorized by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021, was allocated to Penn State for “emergency student financial aid.”

The $50 million in grants will be distributed in two rounds. In the first round, about 31,000 students who are in financial need, according to their 2021-22 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), will be offered grants in the amounts of $1,000, $1,500, or $1,800.

In the second round, all remaining funds will be distributed in awards of $1,000 to students with financial needs who either didn’t file a FASFA, were not eligible for a FASFA, or did not qualify for the first round of grant distribution.

Students who are awarded a grant in the first round of distribution will receive an email from the Office of Student Aid to their Penn State email accounts that notifies them. However, those students must accept their grant by November 15. All unclaimed money will roll over into the second round of distribution. Details about how to apply for the second round will be released in the coming weeks.

In the summer 2021 semester, more than $8 million in ARP grants were distributed to more than 8,000 Penn State students. At the end of the two rounds of fall distributions, the remaining ARP funds, which are projected to be about $18 million, will be distributed during the spring 2022 semester.