@itsgettingreal17 All students are eligible for the unsubsidized loan regardless of need.
The school is never bound by federal law to do anything except follow federal regulations as they apply to federal aid. Here is the scenario you suggest:
COA = $60,000
EFC = $25,000
Need = $60,000 - $25,000 = $35,000
Need based grant = $35,000
Now add a scholarship:
COA = $60,000
EFC = $25,000
Need = $60,000 - $25,000 = $35,000
Scholarship = $20,000
Need based grant = $15,000
The reason the need based grant is reduced is because there is no longer $35,000 worth of need - the $20,000 scholarship reduced the amount of need to $15,000 so the need based grant was reduced accordingly.
Different schools have different philosophies about how outside scholarships will impact institutional aid. LOTS of different philosophies … it can be very confusing! But all philosophies are allowed - federal rules impact so many things for schools, but they don’t govern institutional awarding policies.
@kelsmom Thank you. That is what I have been trying to understand. Brown’s statement made me think they had to replace institutional grants, but it seems like really it is just falling within the way they calculate need and that need has been reduced.
I appreciate your taking the time to reply.
That I get. No need based-fed aid (except Pell) awarded that would reduce those contributions, but I think the fine folks a Brown need to high-tail it over the English department and have someone diagram the sentence to illustrate its ambiguities for the admins who wrote it. The most common reading would be that outside money can’t cut into EFC. And it can, just as long as there is no need based federal (or state) aid in the picture.
The way I understand it at a school like Brown a family with AGI over 100K will still benefit from external scholarship:
COA = $65,000
Institutional EFC = $35,000
Federal EFC = $20,000
Student award:
Federal Workstudy - 2K
Student summer earnings - 3K (not an award but lets them claim they meet full need)
Federal Loan Sub - 3.5K
Federal Loan Unsub - 2K
Need based grant = 65K-35K-2K-3K-5.5K = $19.5K
Now add a Coca-Cola scholarship:
COA = $65,000
Institutional EFC = $35,000
Federal EFC = $20,000
Coca-Cola = $20,000
Student award:
Federal Loan Sub - 3.5K right?
Federal Loan Unsub - 2K
Need based grant = 65K-35K-20K-5.5K = $4.5K
or maybe even
Need based grant = 65K-35K-20K = $10K
and you can still request unsub loan
The ambiguity may well be intentional. At my school, while yes if there is no federal or state aid left we technically “can” allow outside scholarships to replace EFC that does not mean we “have” to. And an ambiguous “public” policy often makes it easier for us to explain to parents that for equity purposes we do not allow outside scholarships to replace EFC when there is any need based aid (federal, state, or institutional) remaining in the award. While I don’t, and haven’t, worked at Brown I am confident that they put a lot of thought into the language they publicized on their website. As always the best course of action is to speak with the school’s financial aid office directly.
FAFSA EFC: $27K (So, approximately $130K with two kids (1 in college) and typical assets
COA: 67K
“Need” = $40K
Harvard says this family (with “typical assets”) will pay no more than 10% of income or $13K, or an aid package of approximately $50K after the student work expectation – way more than the “need” as calculated by the EFC.
And the federal government does not seem to mind at all.
@arabrab There are schools offering full-rides to students without any consideration of need. My question pertained to how schools treat outside scholarships and the ability to decrease the parental contribution. The most common outcome seems to be that outside scholarships reduce your need and reduce institutional grants, not stack on top of the school’s aid. There are schools, however, that will stack the scholarships on top their awards.
Looking at Harvard, since that was your example, its stance is the same as Brown’s, outside scholarships can reduce student contribution but not parental contribution.
https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/types-aid/outside-awards
@mom2physicsgeek Princeton follows the same protocol as Harvard, and similarly they take ownership for their policy rather than blaming federal regulations like Brown.
In S15s college search we discovered that WashU does not decrease their institutional aid by outside scholarships. They even told us that they would “work with us” to expand the COA as long as we were reasonable. (FA officer cited $200 sheets as not reasonable, lol.)
@planner03 Thank you for the information about WashU. I am slowly making a list of schools where they allow outside scholarships to stack.
And I agree that taking ownership over the policy is definitely a worthy stance.
That just seems…dishonest. Or maybe the school just thinks I’m too dumb to understand that fed/state rules dictate how outside money is handled when need based aid is involved. Probably neither is true, but why wouldn’t an institution choose to be more transparent? In our process, each school was pretty clear about how outside scholarships would be handled given the tuition benefit we were using, even in situations where there was need based aid.
Sorry for bumping up this thread five years after the last response but @Mom2aphysicsgeek is there any way you could share the list of schools that allow outside scholarships to stack? I think that would be a really good resource.
Thanks!
Very old thread and you’ve already started one on this topic. Closing