The invention relates to a glutamic acid modified chitosan adsorbent as well as a preparation method and application thereof. The preparation method comprises the following steps: dissolving chitosan into an acetic acid solution, adding tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), carrying out stirring for 30 to 40 min, adding aqueous ammonia, carrying out stirring for 24 to 26 hours, carrying out suction filtering, washing with ethyl alcohol till the mixture is neutral, and carrying out vacuum drying to obtain CS-SiO2; mixing CS-SiO2 with the ethyl alcohol aqueous solution, adding epoxy chloropropane, carrying out refluxing at the temperature of 70 DEG C for 3 hours to obtain a product, cooling and filtering the product, washing the product with water and the ethyl alcohol, and drying the washed product to obtain an intermediate product I; and dissolving glutamic acid into a sodium carbonate solution, adding the intermediate product I, carrying out refluxing at the temperature of 80 DEG C for 24 hours to obtain a product, cooling and filtering the product, washing with distilled water till the product is neutral, and carrying out drying to obtain SiO2-CS-Glu. The adsorbent prepared based on the preparation method goes green, is environment-friendly, pollution-free and high in separation and enrichment efficiency, can avoid waste of rare earth resources, and is also applicable to selectively adsorbing scandium from a solution mixed with rare earth ions.