<p>Is it worth applying for scholarships when I'm going to receive financial aid? Does it hurt the aid package or help it out? Thanks</p>
<p>Do you know if you’re going to receive enough financial aid?</p>
<p>Are you only applying to schools that “meet need” ? And, do you know if your family will pay their expected contribution?</p>
<p>Where are you applying?</p>
<p>It’s not that typical to know this early that you’d get into a “full need” school and know exactly what your EFC is.</p>
<p>scholarships usually replace “self help” needs. They often replace loans first, then work study. If you win a large scholarship, any excess above the self help will usually reduce your need (and so don’t seem to help you).</p>
<ol>
<li><p>you cannot be absolutely sure that you are going to receive finanical aid. </p></li>
<li><p>Some schools will give you an admit-deny package. Admissions wise they will admit you but will give you a financial aid package that will make it impossible for you to attend.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>3.the vast majority of colleges in the US do not meet 100% demonstrated need. This means even if you should receive some financial aid, you have no way of knowing if the school will still be an affordable option for you and your family</p>
<p>4.The schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need with large amounts of grant aid and minimal or no loans are amongst some of the most competitive schools to gain admission regardless of your stats.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Should you receive outside scholarships, the policies are varied. some schools may allow you to apply it to the gap in your finanical aid packages. Some schools will reduce the self-help portion of your financial aid package (loans and work study). After your self help aid has been eliminated, they wil then reduce the institutional aid. </p></li>
<li><p>Some schools will allow you to use the funds for a one time purchase of a computer. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>7.You would need scholarships that first cover all of your demonstrated need before the money could reduce your EFC.</p>
<ol>
<li>Any scholsrship monies over the cost of tuition and books are considered taxable income.</li>
</ol>
<p>I’m applying to LACs like Swarthmore and Middlebury and safeties that match around 90-95%. We’re expecting at least half in financial aid, but that’s always up in the air.</p>
<p>*and safeties that match around 90-95%. *</p>
<p>What does that mean? </p>
<p>What safeties will “match around 90-95%”???</p>
<p>And what are they “matching”? Are you saying that your safeties will match Swat or Middlebury???..There won’t be anything to “match” if you’re not accepted to one of those top schools.</p>
<p>What are your safety schools?</p>
<p>We’re expecting at least half in financial aid,</p>
<p>based on what?</p>
<p>Middlebury and Swat are not matches or safeties for anyone.</p>
<p>That’s very nice that you are applying to schools like Middlebury and Swarthmore that give good aid packages, but have you looked at the acceptance rates. I know a whole lot of kids with great stats and resumes who applied to those schools and were not accepted. Getting accepted to such schools is more difficult than getting aid packages at some schools that do not meet need. You gotta get accepted before you get the aid.tony gatto</p>
<p>It’s fine that you apply to these schools. It’s great, and I wish you luck. You can apply to them and add HPY to boot, as long as you have some options that you KNOW you can afford and will definitely accept you. Those are the most difficult schools to find for your list since they have to have those characteristics and still be schools you like and can fit your needs. That is the true challenge of the college search. The rest is just the dessert. And if someone offers to pick up the check for you, it’s even more wonderful.</p>
<p>Something’s not right here.</p>
<p>If you get accepted to Swat or Mid and you get a good aid package, then you don’t need your safeties.</p>
<p>If you don’t get accepted to Swat or Mid or you don’t get great FA, then what would your safeties be matching?</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know of any safeties that match or nearly match the aid of full need schools…but maybe there are such safeties.</p>
<p>Op also thinks that he is a “hooked” applicant because he is a first gen. Wrong and misinformed. First gen is not a hook, it can be a tip factor when combined with other things.</p>
<p>Thanks MSmom&dad for answering my question.</p>
<p>Here’s some additional info for how some of the most generous schools (need-blind, meet full need, CSS schools) will go one step further in helping the student out with regards to outside scholarships. As sybbie mentions above, some schools will reduce the self-help aid first - work study and loans - before reducing institutional grants. A small number of schools that I know of (Vandy, Dartmouth, Georgetown, UChicago to name a few) will go one step further - some will look at the FAFSA EFC and if it is less than the IM EFC, they will change the EFC to the lower federal amount. This allows the school to allow the inclusion of more outside scholarship funds before reducing their own grant aid. Some of these schools will also apply the outside scholarship funds towards the student earnings component of the EFC, effectively eliminating that $2000-$3000 earnings expectation at those schools.</p>
<p>Thanks dukedad</p>
<p>apply for as many scholarships as you can. Loans are included in financial aid packages, and wouldn’t you rather use scholarship money to help pay for college than have to take out loans?
What is your EFC???</p>
<p>DS is going to a school that meets his needs with no loans…but they still expect him to provide a share (summer earnings) and work study. Outside scholarships CAN and do reduce his share before school scholarships/grants that were provided are reduced. He received approx. $2500 which replaced his summer earnings share…if he gets any more, it will reduce his work study, then school scholarships/grants. Also if he gets more in scholarships than his total share, we could elect to purchase him a computer (up to $2000) and COA would be increased. No more aide but scholarship would be used.</p>
<p>Apply…you may or may not get any…</p>
<p>I think you are putting the cart before the horse.</p>
<p>You need to do the following
[ol]
[<em>]Apply to set of schools that include reaches, match and safety including financial safety schools.
[</em>]Apply for a reasonable amount of scholarships. It will be great if you apply for every scholarship that can find, but it also takes a lot of effort to apply to scholarships.
[/ol]</p>
<p>You have to realize that you will not admission to every college you apply to or every scholarship you apply to. Once you have your scholarships and admissions, you can then see how it plays out.</p>
<p>Once again, a simple question with a simple answer, and a thread hijacked by people who insist on answering questions the poster has not asked. Some of whom don’t even bother to carefully read what the OP has said.</p>
<p>The answer: it depends on the college. We’ve asked the specific question at each college we’ve visited, and each college has different policies - from reducing the amount of need-based grants, if any; to replacing loans and work study in an FA package; to helping defray the EFC. Therefore, OP, you need to ask the question of those colleges where you plan to apply.</p>
<p>The OP got a lot of information here. Maybe some that s/he did not want or need, LOL. The answer is as Annasdad has said, “it depends on the college”. </p>
<p>Scholarships can affect your financial aid package in some situations. If a school gives you a full need package, for example, and you get an outside scholarship, what usually happens is that part of the package, usually loans and self help first are replaced by that outside award. But some colleges do allow kids to keep the outside award. So it all depends.</p>
<p>Be aware that in most cases, you won’t know what your financial aid award is until spring when the acceptances come out. So it isn’t a bad idea to have some headway in getting some outside awards.</p>