<p>I finally got my financial award package! I must say it was very generous and significantly better than what my family expected. We have a local alumni club here in Oklahoma City that has been keeping in touch with us. One of their goals is to provide financial assistance to students of this area to attend ND. I saw on the financial award letter that there was no alumni club scholarship component. I thought that it was already added to the University Scholarship. I called up to the Financial Aid office and asked if it was not included in the package. She said no and said that it would be added to the total aid and not deducted from my current ND financial aid package. Is this true because I thought outside scholarships reduce your total aid?</p>
<p>My son received an alumni club scholarship after his financial aid package was sent to us. His package was a combination of scholarship, work study and loans. When the Financial Aid Office was informed about my son's outside scholarship, they deducted one of his loans and added the alumni scholarship to his award package. By doing so, his aid was increased by $1500. The alumni scholarship was $1500 more than the loan that was deducted, thus the additional increase to the aid package.</p>
<p>So the alumni club scholarship only reduces loans? Did they not reduce an additional $1500 from the work study or university scholarship?</p>
<p>No, the university scholarship and the work study were not touched. If you read the financial aid information packet that was sent with the award package, it implies that there is an order in which items are deducted in regards to an outside scholarship. My son's perkins loan was deducted and the alumni scholarship was then added on, but since the scholarship was $1500 more than the loan, the package was increased by that amount. I tend to think (but I am not sure) that the University Scholarship is the last item to be deducted because what would be the point of attempting to receive an outside scholarship if all it does is take away from another scholarship - why would anyone put in the effort to apply for the outside scholarship if that were the case? Am I making sense...?</p>
<p>How closely was your aid package tied to your EFC? We have parochial school tuition which we hope will be considered, but at another school had no effect. Are loans a large part of your package? Our local alumni club does not appear to discuss scholarships ahead of time; my impression is that they work through the finaid office only. I guess we will get our letter any time now.</p>
<p>The University Scholarship was the largest part of my son's award package. The local alumni club had actually sent out letters at the end of March and they had received the names of the students through the Financial Aid Office. Notre Dame was very generous with the aid package but we were still left paying a balance of approximately $10,000 over our EFC. But even still, we will be paying less than if my son attended our state university, which gave us absolutely no help - even with two kids in college.</p>
<p>So there was a "gap" of $10,000 between your EFC and the aid awarded? In other words, you will have to fund EFC plus $10K? I'm inferring your EFC was relatively low, but I don't want to be presumptuous. Amazing that with two in college, you were offered so little from the state U. But it is wonderful that your son can attend ND for less than your state U. Great result!</p>
<p>We submitted everything in January, but then were asked for additional documents for verification. Don't know if we missed the boat on alumni club aid as a result, or if our EFC of 39K disqualifies us in any event.</p>