For the 2025-2026 school year, this scholarship award process is for community college, trade, and technical education (CTE) students. If you are attending a four-year institution, please see our FAQ for scholarship administration information.
The Chime Scholars Foundation is here to support you on your educational journey and we recognize that school is expensive, even when your community college may be free or low in cost. Our loan repayment scholarship award process focuses on paying down educational student loans (federal or institutional). Chime Scholars are eligible for up to $5,000 per year in our program in debt repayment upon graduation.*
CSF Loan Repayment Program Benefits
It’s faster.
We want you to have the funds you need to pay for your educational expenses before you incur them. Many financial aid offices have students go through a reimbursement process to receive their Chime Scholarship funds after the scholarship is applied to tuition and fees to ensure those expenses qualify. We get it. We like it. But for Chime Scholars with less than $5,000 in tuition and fees, we know this can be challenging and that students need their scholarship funds before the rent is due. Educational loans are restricted to educational expenses and are usually disbursed directly to students after tuition and fees are paid. That means you should receive the funds earlier in the school year and have them on hand to pay educational expenses such as rent, school-required equipment, books, bus fare, and more.
Gooaaal!
We know that graduating or transferring to a four-year school is your goal. It’s ours too, which is why we support our Chime Scholars with Beyond the Check programming [link]. Let’s reach the finish line together and allow you to start your career with less debt or no debt. Once we receive proof of degree, we’ll send that big check to your loan servicer. Even better, this may help boost your credit score and help you stay on track for future payments if you have remaining debt [source].
Loans enhance, not replace.
Loans are “last gap funding,” which means they do not take the place of other financial aid. The result: a maximum aid package. Scholarships paid directly to schools may make a student ineligible for other institutional support1. Loans don’t. Plus the Chime Scholars Foundation loan repayment program should not disqualify students from other federal or private loan forgiveness programs. That’s a yes-yes in our book!