Chance a rising senior with a reachy list for polysci + suggest safeties and matches?

[ucbalumnus]

@Mwfan1921

Bottom line, most selective schools don’t stack scholarships. Look on the schools’ websites to make sure you know their policies before spending time applying for outside scholarships.

Many allow limited stacking up to the student contribution (student loan plus expected student work earnings).

List of outside scholarship + financial aid policies ("stacking", "scholarship displacement")

Since the interaction between outside scholarships and financial aid varies for different colleges, how about making a list of different college policies? Specify the order in which parts of the financial aid package are replaced. Use the following abbreviations for common terms (not all colleges include all of the following): UN = unmet need SL = student loan (federal direct loan) SW = student work expectation or work study SC = student contribution = SL + SW IG = institutional grants (i.e. grants from the college) PC = parent contribution expectation Full “stacking” examples (IG is reduced last): CMU: UN, SL, SW, PC, IG https://www.cmu.edu/sfs/financial-aid/types/scholarships-and-grants/outside.html Maryland public universities: (UN + SC + PC), IG https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-md-scholarship-displacement-20170704-story.html St. Olaf: SL, SW, PC, IG https://wp.stolaf.edu/financialaid/outside-scholarships/ Better for the student than typical policy, but not f…