She probably will be able to reduce her loans, and no I will not charge her for gas. She will get a job, so FWS is made up with the same effort on her part. She can cover the “other educational costs”with that. She actually has another scholarship STEM for being top 10% and going into Biochemistry– that won’t kick in unless tuition is not covered in subsequent years.
Question is: Has anyone else had this done differently. If so I suppose they wouldn’t be on a forum reading posts about financial aid, they would have been happy with their college’s decision. But there are one’s that say this has been the policy, which I actually am greatful for. One said s/he never heard of a school applying to aid before loans/FWS - although they did do FWS first then she received 1832 more. Until she emailed to complain and they changed things, they had removed aid only, didn’t even apply her scholarships to unmet need. Maybe I am wrong, but I am looking at the 615 Parent PLUS loan they had as unmet need of the net cost (“Options to Replace Expected Family Contribution or Net Cost” on the award letter) since EFC was 0 – again, maybe I’m wrong. The changes they then made were “making an exception.”
The local scholarship boards should probably ask for their award letter, find out about the different school policies, and factor that into their decisions. The SUNY she’s attending doesn’t have their policy on their website, but I’ve found two other SUNY’s (Buffalo and Albany) that do and they’ll do unmet need, then FWS/loans before aid. She’s supposed to be getting a call from the director to explain their policy.