<p>I've received my financial award letters from the colleges I applied too and noticed a little disclaimer on several of them about private scholarships.</p>
<p>They say that any private scholarship received must be reported to that college, and will contribute to my (student's) expected contribution (not family), which basically means the $2,000 Work Study they offered.
After that $2,000, the scholarship I received then replaces the grant from the college.</p>
<p>Does this mean that unless I land a $50,000 scholarship to cover full tuition, my family is going to have to take loans for the EFC, and that the only way a private scholarship will help is that initial $2,000 Work Study?</p>
<p>*Does this mean that unless I land a $50,000 scholarship to cover full tuition, my family is going to have to take loans for the EFC, and that the only way a private scholarship will help is that initial $2,000 Work Study? *</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>If the school costs $50k…AND…you get a scholarship that covers $50k per year, then why would your parents have to pay EFC? ??? At that point, there would be no EFC to pay. Right?</p>
<p>However, if the school costs $50k…AND…you get a scholarship for $30k per year, and your EFC is $20k, then your parents will still have to pay their EFC.</p>
<p>Sorry, I punctuated that wrong. I meant that in order for my scholarship to help my parents since they are paying, I have to get a scholarship that exceeds the grant that the college is offering?</p>
<p>And I really appreciate the quick response!</p>
<p>Yep, that’s pretty much what it means. At most schools, private scholarships are considered to be a resource which your family has to pay college costs – that is, it’s aid which you don’t need from them since you’re getting it somewhere else. This means that the college can reduce their grant without increasing your out-of-pocket cost. Unfortunately, this also means that the private scholarship doesn’t actually help you unless, as you say, the scholarship exceeds the grant, which is rare. Sometimes, schools will reduce loans and/or workstudy before they reduce grants – which is better than reducing grants first – but that doesn’t help with your out-of-pocket cost. Most often, the only party who benefits from a private scholarship is the college.</p>
<p>However, you said that “several” of the schools had this disclaimer. What about the others? Different schools have different policies, and some will allow you to “stack” scholarships; that is, will allow you to use the private scholarship to help pay the family’s portion of the bill. This definitely is to your advantage. You’ll need to check with each school’s financial aid office.</p>
<p>In all cases, if you’re getting aid, you must report private scholarships.</p>
<p>^^How would a school know if you got an outside scholarship? Just curious. I reported all of my daughter’s and I wish I could say it is because of my integrity, but it is because I am certain I would be caught if I did something wrong. But…how would they know?</p>
<p>I don’t know, some, if they are local, or if the student had to put the college she would be attending, might get notification. One of my daughter’s had a local scholarship for 1500. and in the same town as her college. She reported it and they took away all of her contribution, but they said any more would not help me, just her. If she went over her contribution, she could use it for a computer, things like that, but not the rest of her EFC. That didn’t seem right to me, it still owed money, but everyone has their rules. </p>
<p>We reported everything, but a 200.00 mini scholarship that was given to her after many snafus and months after she started.</p>
<p>Sometimes the scholarship is made out to the school. My son has a private scholarship and he has to give it to the school because the school’s name is on it.</p>
<p>^^ I gather she’s asking about cases where the check is payable to the student. If the payee is the college, it would be awfully hard to hide it from them…</p>