Employees

Eligibility

Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program Eligibility Requirements:

In order to be eligible for the program you must:

Be a first-generation college student (neither parent has graduated from a 4-year college before you turned 18-years-old

AND

Low-income (family income does not exceed 150% of poverty level established by US Census Bureau)

OR,

If you are not a low-income individual who is a first-generation college student, you must be a member of a group traditionally under-represented in Higher Education (African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Native Alaskan, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander)

Additional qualifications include the following:

Full-time undergraduate student status at PSU
Cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better
Junior or Senior status, based on total credit hours at the end of the current academic year
US citizenship or permanent US residency
Intention to graduate from PSU and immediately enter an academic graduate program with the goal of attaining a PhD

The US Department of Education considers students who are Africa-American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Native Alaskan, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander as underrepresented in higher education.

The federal government defines a first-generation college student a student whose natural or adoptive parent(s) with whom he or she resided before his or her 18^th birthday did not receive a Bachelor’s degree from college.

The term low-income individual means an individual whose family's taxable income for the preceding year did not exceed 150 percent of the poverty level amount.

Federal TRIO Programs 2008 Annual Low Income Levels (Effective February 2008 Until Further Notice) are listed below.

Size of Family Unit	48 Contiguous States, D.C., and Outlying Jurisdictions	Alaska	Hawaii
1	$15,600	$19,500	$17,940
2	$21,000	$26,250	$24,150
3	$26,400	$33,000	$30,360
4	$31,800	$39,750	$36,570
5	$37,200	$46,500	$42,780
6	$42,600	$53,250	$48,990
7	$48,000	$60,000	$55,200
8	$53,400	$66,750	$61,410

For family units with more than eight members, add the following amount for each additional family member: $5,400 for the 48 contiguous states, the District of Columbia and outlying jurisdictions; $6,750 for Alaska; and $6,210 for Hawaii.

The figures shown under family income represent amounts equal to 150 percent of the family income levels established by the Census Bureau for determining poverty status. The poverty guidelines were published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Federal Register, Vol. 73, No. 15, January 23, 2008, pp. 3,971-3,972.