Question : (Based on the below 3 facts) Will my son be able to use his $4K NMF Corporate Stipend/Scholarship for UG College Room/Board/Book expenses? (NOTE: Tuition is already paid by the Univ. Scholarship)
Fact #1: 2 Months Ago.
My son was awarded $1K per year stipend from NMF as follows. The award letter says as “The full amount of the payments for this Scholarship must be used to meet college undergraduate costs”.
Scholarship Name : National Merit Foundation Scholarship
Scholarship Sponsor : The Foundation
Stipend Amount : $1K per yr
National Merit Corp said, if we need more money, then they wanted us to send our CSS profile to them. So we sent it.
Fact #2: Last Month.
My son awarded MERIT based full tuition scholarship to a OOS Private Univ in US. He is going to attend this Univ this fall. This scholarship has NO relation to NMF.
Fact #3: Yesterday.
Yesterday, my son is awarded in total $4K per year stipend from NMF as follows. The award letter says as “The full amount of the payments for this Scholarship must be used to meet college undergraduate costs”.
Scholarship Name : National Merit Foundation Scholarship
Scholarship Sponsor : The Foundation
Stipend Amount : $4K per yr
Since tuition is already paid by the Univ Scholarship, we want to use this NMF stipend for Room/Board/Book expenses. Will my son be able to use it?
Usually this is a question for the college he is planning to attend and they can tell him whether the scholarships can be stacked.
This statement usually means the money will only be given to the school and not you. It does not seem to say anything about Tuition only which means it can go into covering other costs. Which costs is upto the school.
Thanks @texaspg. I feel Univ has nothing to do with this. I believe it is upto NMF to agree/not-agree. I may be wrong.
- Do we know about NMF scholarship policies in the past?
- Whether it was used to pay for room/board/books?.
Either way, we plan to ask this question to NMF, but wanted to see whether any one in this forum has any concrete information.
All NMSF does is send the money to the school. Since we pay the rest of the full pay bill for our kid, we have not had any specific issues but our college bill essentially says scholarship(s) and what is owed. It does not specify what part of the bill is being reduced.
Cool. That is good to hear.
@parentofs you really need to check this out at your school, some schools will reduce their merit aid by the amount of outside scholarships, University of Miami comes to mind, others will let you “stack” merit aid. I think most schools will let you use the NM scholarship for room and board but it’s still best to check with the school to make sure.
@3scoutsmom . Thank you. My son is going to attend Univ of Miami. U mean they do stack up OR dont?
The time I checked they expressly said that they don’t stack and the will reduce merit by outside scholarship. This was a year or so ago so maybe they’ve changed, do check with them so there aren’t any surprises.
I found this on their FAQ
Q: How will scholarships or grants that I am awarded from outside agencies impact my University academic scholarship and total financial aid award?
A: All general University scholarships are limited to the amount of a student’s tuition, or net tuition after the addition of other scholarship or grant aid that is also restricted in whole or in part to the payment of tuition. If University scholarships, in conjunction with other tuition-restricted awards, exceed tuition, the University award is adjusted downward until the values equal tuition. Also, in the event that University scholarship funds, in addition to other scholarship, grant, and/or stipend resources, exceed the total cost of attendance, the University scholarships are adjusted downward to ensure that total aid does not exceed the cost of attendance. University need-based resources, in combination with other assistance, may not exceed the lesser of financial need or cost of attendance. In the event that a student’s total aid exceeds these restrictions, the University aid will be adjusted until the restrictions are met.
Since the NM award isn’t restricted to tuition and since room board and books are part of the COA and $4K won’t put you over COA you should be ok.
But check with them to make sure.
Hmm. OK. Thanks. I will check it up.
NMSF splits up all payments by semester / qtr and sends the $ directly to the college before each semester/ qtr begins . So if your U of M bursar acct shows that you owe X $ for R& B in the Fall qtr in late Aug, and U of M allows it, the NM $ should reduce the amount you owe them for R & B.
Thank you all for the info. Appreciated.
I found this thread and hope that you are still out there, @parentofs . Did you child in fact attend U of Miami? Did they receive National Merit scholarship on top of merit that UM offered? My daughter is looking very seriously at attending there fall of 2017. thank you!