Rams Scholarship Hub for Scholarship Administrators and References/Reviewers
Welcome VCU Rams Scholarship Hub Administrators! The Rams Scholarship Hub operates using Blackbaud Award Management and is a centralized location for VCU donor funded and departmental scholarships. Hub administrators can utilize the hub to collect scholarship applications, form review committees, make award offers, and collect post-acceptance information for donors. On this page, you will find information and resources for new and existing administrators. Please feel free to contact the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships for any questions.
Note: If you are signing in as a reference or reviewer, you will need to click on the “References and Reviewers” tab before logging in.
New/Update Admin Profile Form
This form is intended for:
- New VCU Employees wishing to gain administrative access to the Rams Scholarship Hub
- Current Hub Users who are needing to have their administrative role within the Hub updated
- Please allow 2-3 business days for requests to be processed. Users will receive an email confirmation once access has been granted/denied.
- For any questions or issues that arise, please contact Casey Toney and Lacy Rudisill
- Further instructions are provided within the form
Add New Scholarship Portfolio to the Hub
This form is intended for:
- Departments and Scholarship Coordinators who are seeking to add a new portfolio/opportunity to the Hub
- Departments and Scholarship Coordinators who need a Financial Aid Fund Code for their new opportunity in the Hub
- For any questions regarding the form, please contact:
- Stewardship or portfolio setup - darawards@vcu.edu
- Fund code questions - Casey Toney
- Further instructions are provided within the form
Hub Resources
Rams Scholarship Hub User Guide
FAQs
- What are the different administrative roles and what can they do?
- What are reviewers? How do I find reviewer instructions?
- How do I create Reviewer groups? What are attached vs. detached groups?
- Can I upload files to my scholarship opportunities so applicants can click and view necessary documents/information before they apply?
- What is Cycle Management?
- What does it mean when an opportunity is "freezing/frozen"?
HUB Terminology
- Apply-To: An opportunity that requires an applicant to manually apply for the scholarship and complete any additional requests that may be required. If an applicant meets the minimum criteria for this type of opportunity, the Rams Scholarship Hub will include the opportunity on the applicant’s “Recommended Opportunities” list.
- Auto-Match: An opportunity that automatically reviews all students to capture those who meet the qualifications for that opportunity. If an applicant meets the minimum criteria for an “Auto-Match Opportunity”, an application will be generated and placed into the application profile without any further intervention by the applicant.
- Conditional Application: An application used to target a specific group of applicants as a follow-up or additional step beyond the General Application. It is an additional application that can have its own details, questions, qualifications, start and end dates, reviews, and assigned scopes.
- Dashboard: A view of the Rams Scholarship Hub that shows a real-time picture of your current opportunities and applications.
- General Application: A questionnaire comprised usually of broad, generic, applicant-facing questions created to gather basic information about applicants in order to move them forward in the matching, applying, reviewing, and awarding process. The General Application is the basis of the system as it is the first step applicants must begin before being matched to opportunities.
- Grid: Used to organize information, create exports, and perform bulk actions. Allows users to filter data to show only desired information.
- Opportunity: A scholarship, award, fellowship, or grant to which applicants apply. An opportunity contains all application materials (questions, qualifications, etc.) as well as individual applications related to a single award.
- Portfolio: A single heading that bundles together related opportunities. Portfolios contain details about related opportunities that do not change from year to year, such as fund codes, scopes, and financial information. The portfolio is created first and then subsequent opportunities are created to collect applications and make awards for specific periods.
- Qualification Group: Group that contains the qualification criteria for an applicant to be eligible for the scholarship (i.e. minimum GPA, major, classification status, etc.).
- Recommended Opportunities: A list of all the opportunities the Rams Scholarship Hub has determined the applicant meets the minimum qualification for, and therefore is eligible for consideration. A recommended opportunity requires the applicant to manually apply.
- Renewable Opportunities: Opportunities that distribute funds over a specified period of time (e.g. multiple years). These awards often include compliance checks to ensure that applicants are maintaining certain standards.
- Reviewer Groups: Helps you organize reviewers and applications, as well as standardize your review process.
- Attached groups: Receive default notes, questions, and rubrics from the reviewer group template.
- Detached groups: Can be customized with unique notes, questions, and rubrics.
- Scope: An organizational label used in the system to indicate an area of interest, focus, or responsibility. Opportunity Administrators must have scopes added to their account in order to gain access to the portfolios, opportunities, applications, reviewer groups, and/or reference questionnaires.
- Student Import: Student data that is imported each day from Banner into the Rams Scholarship Hub. The data includes enrollment information, classification, major, etc.
- Supplemental Questions: Scholarship application questions that the applicant is requested to answer in order to apply for an “Apply-To Opportunity.” The questions are more specific and would not be broad enough to ask on a General or Conditional Application.
Blackbaud Knowledgebase
Knowledgebase includes Blackbaud product documentation, articles Blackbaud support associates have written about the questions they're asked and answers they provide, and Blackbaud.com web pages.