I recently received an email to a school I applied to, and I got accepted. This is how it went:
“Congratulations! I am pleased to offer you admission to – University for the 2018-2019 academic school year. We are excited to offer you the following scholarship:
Trustee $24000.0
This scholarship is renewable annually for up to four consecutive undergraduate years at – University. Your next step is to complete the FAFSA4CASTER…”
and they proceeded to give me a link and tell me I needed it in order for them to tell me how much it will cost for me to attend their school (my EFC).
My question is, is the scholarship mine? Or are there a set of tasks I need to complete if I choose to attend the school?
I’d like to know before telling my parents I won a scholarship and have them get ecxited over it, when it probably won’t be mine.
Sounds like either a merit scholarship or ‘institutional’ aid, but you can only know if you either phone the admission folks as suggested above, or email to clarify.
If it’s a merit or institutional award, that means that it’s separate from and in conjunction with any federal aid dollars and renewable yearly, likely based on your GPA.
The federal aid - what you would fill out the FAFSA to receive - can be in the form of grants and loans or, depending on your family income (EFC), both.
My question to you is why the award letter says “…for the 2018-2019 academic school year.”
Did you defer for a gap year?
@TomSrOfBoston It did sound fishy to me! However, I did as suggested by the first two repliers and emailed the admission office of the school. Turns out it was a merit scholarship they are offering me based on my academic record and what I put on my application.
As to your question, no, they never once required credit card information for access.
Also, they gave me the link to FAFSA4CASTER which colleges require in order to see if I can afford going to their school (It’s a link to the fafsa website, in case you weren’t aware).
Most schools have not opened their applications for 2018/19, so I guess this is a rolling admission school.
Can you share the name of the school?
Is it a school that you’d like to attend? Does the award make it affordable?
Be sure not to be too impressed with any awards/grants they’re giving you – the number that you want to look at
is the net cost that you’ll end up actually paying.
Total co$t of attendance (including tuition, R&B, books, incidentals and any transportation) - award dollars = net cost.
The FAFSA4CASTER is an estimating tool to help you assess your Estimated Family Contribution (EFC).
Colleges do not require this of their students.
Odd that they’ve given you this impression.
Do you have other schools that you’ll be applying to?