<p>^ if you increase your COA budget then they will take less away from grants when you get scholarships. You should talk to a FA counselor to see if they still do that. My experience is that it works for one time expenses not already included in the COA. And you might only be able to do it once (usually freshman year). For example, I needed some expensive software for Comp Sci so my grant didn’t decrease when I got a $2500 scholarship.</p>