We have heard that schools like Brown, Harvard and Yale can give grants to recruits that don’t qualify for financial aid. We have heard that they are “renewed” every year in similar fashion as most scholarships. Does anyone know anything first hand? The Ivies have a huge advantage in recruiting because there is unlimited FA verses capped scholarships for sports like lacrosse etc.
False. Financial aid at HPY reaches deeper into the middle class and upper middle class pool, but there is not money for a family which is not otherwise eligible for financial aid. The Ivies don’t give merit awards and they don’t give athletic scholarships. It is financial aid or bust. Suggestions otherwise could come from parents misinterpreting coach speak, or framing their financial aid as “athletic” grants because they don’t want to say they get financial aid.
“Qualify” might be the moving target.
gotcha…
My daughter was a Brown recruit that didn’t qualify for financial aid–there were no grants whatsoever for those in our position (And we are, for Los Angeles, very middle class).
FYI- It’s said that H & P have the most generous FA
This is not correct. However, as some have noted, the need-based financial aid they offer is extremely generous - especially at Princeton. You might qualify for aid and not realize it.
I also think that some of the coaches/athletic departents are very good at guiding the student through the process to get every dime he is eligible to receive. There is a poster on CC who tells the tale that they appealed with medical bills and got more money that they might not have receive if they hadn’t been encouraged to appeal.
But no extra money just for being and athlete.
One other happy note, outside scholarships can be used to reduce the ‘student contribution’ or ‘student employment’ and do not count as income against FinAid, which is the case at many schools.
@chelsea465 - I’m not sure this is correct. I believe that the CSS profile requests information about any outside sources of income, including scholarships. Also, depending on the size and nature of the award, the student might have to file a tax return and report it. Most are tax free if used to pay for college, but there are exceptions.
Student Employment (I think this is an Ivy term?) or Work Study (for the plebes) is available to all students, with priority given to those receiving financial aid. You are not given the financial aid work study dollar amount up front. This is something the student earns by actually doing a campus job. If the student does not work, you are effectively paying the amount allocated to Student Employment/Work Study in college costs with no offset from the college.
The “student contribution” (I believe this is another Ivy term) appears to simply segment off a portion of the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) and allocate it to the student. Personally, we use the SC as a guideline for summer and school year earnings by our children. It causes them to own the costs of college and to have some sweat and skin in the process. I think to your point about reduction of the SC, we do the same thing. Our children do not do work study during the school year, but rather meet the contribution through summer and even school year jobs outside of college.
^In my experience, both with an Ivy and another “hooty-tooty” school, outside scholarships are first accounted for in a straight reduction to the student summer savings contribution, then any student loan component, and then the expected student employment/work study contribution (basically, the school’s budget for comprehensive costs will require the student to work less hours per semester) before the school will reduce the university grant in aid. Unfortunately, outside scholarships do not reduce the parent contribution 
A student is taxed on the amount (from whatever source) of grants or scholarships used for non Qualified Educational Expenses. QEE includes tuition, fees (some), and books but not room and board, insurance, travel or misc expenses. Schools that have big fees for on-campus transportation or football tickets have to break those out as they are taxable to the student if paid with a grant and not eligible for the parents to take the AOTC.