Can the school adjust your FA after school started?

<p>I know that if you get a scholarship, the school takes away some financial aid because scholarship is counted as a student's asset. So, if I got a scholarship after I accepted my financial aid package and the school has already started distributing the original FA money, then can they take away more money from my FA package again because of the scholarship? (P.S. the scholarship $ is sent right to the school)</p>

<p>If I understand your question correctly, you have need-based aid and got an outside scholarship. In this situation schools will almost always (and if your aid is federal, they <em>must</em>) reduce your financial aid dollar-for-dollar by the amount of your scholarship. Your need just goes down by the amount of the scholarship. If you are lucky, they will be willing to reduce the self-help portion of your FA package (loans and work study) before taking away any grant money.</p>

<p>One thing that may help: ask if there is any way to petition for your cost-of-attendance to be increased – if your meal plan or dorm room cost more than what is in the school’s standard COA, or if you need to pay for their health insurance, or other extra fees, or even occasionally, if you need to purchase a laptop before you start school, the school can sometimes grant an increase to the COA. The reason that helps is that the greater the COA, the greater your need. So your need might be reduced by your scholarship, but if you can increase it by a similar amount in legitimate ways, then you wouldn’t lose any aid from your original package.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Yes they can. Call the school to see what their policy is.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that most schools require students who have been granted need-based financial aid to proactively report outside scholarships to the school as soon as you know that you’ve received it. Some may also revoke a financial aid package if they find out an outside scholarship has not been reported. So, I would suggest contacting your FA office immediately to report it - don’t wait for it to just be processed by your schools bursar’s office - that may cause bigger problems.</p>

<p>If your parent lost a job just as school was starting you would hope the school would recalculate, right?</p>

<p>Many schools will take self help aid first, such as loans. If your school did not do that, you might call and ask about that policy as sometimes errors can be made</p>