<p>I know that Athletic and Merit awards can be combined - as long as the total does not exceed c of a.</p>
<p>And I know that Merit and NeedBased Financial Aid can be combined.</p>
<p>Can Athletic and Need Based Financial Aid be combined - or does the athlete choose the greater of the two?</p>
<p>Yes, they can be combined, they will let you know what your need based aid will be after you fill out the Fafsa…</p>
<p>All three can be combined. Some schools reduce financial aid if merit aid is awarded however so make sure you check into the school policy on how that is applied.</p>
<p>As SteveMA said, I think it’s pretty typical for a need-based award to be reduced by any outside scholarship $ received. </p>
<p>Thinking out loud here - since most schools will meet demonstrated need with a combination of grants and loans, if the award is prioritized in such a way that the loan component is the first to be reduced if you receive scholarship $, there would be a definite benefit to combining. If the grant money is first to be reduced - well, there’s not as much incentive there.</p>
<p>Anyone have experience with that?</p>
<p>I would think that combining need based aid and an athletic scholarship would be a fairly common situation for an athlete who attended Stanford.</p>
<p>I don’t know about all programs, but fully-funded Div. 1 programs can’t let you combine athletic money and financial aid, since the total dollar amount received would count as an athletic scholarship and would thereby put the program over their allotted scholarship limit. This rule is to prevent wealthy schools like Stanford, with good FA, from gaining an athletic advantage over their competitors by essentially giving all their athletes a full ride. Athletes have to chose which money source they want to accept. But in reality, it doesn’t come down to a real choice because coaches have an idea in advance of who is eligible for FA in what amounts, and so they plan their recruitment choices and budget accordingly. Therefore, they would use their athletic money to attract top athletes from affluent families, knowing their middle and lower class athletes will receive a nice enough chunk from FA to draw them in.</p>
<p>Good info GFG.</p>
<p>Each school likely has their own policy</p>
<p>Our student’s school would REDUCE the Need-based aid by any outside merit aid awarded…
they would NOT stack it so that the parent/family part would be reduced.</p>
<p>The merit aid could also not reduce the on campus job or summer job expectations…</p>
<p>GFG - that’s what I thought when I wrote the question, but I can’t find it anywhere “official.” So, is it fair to say the following for D1:
athletic and merit can be combined
merit and financial need award can be combined
athletic (with or without merit added) and financial need can NOT be combined</p>
<p>True?</p>
<p>Great info here:</p>
<p>[The</a> Truth about Athletic Scholarships | Informed Athlete | The Allen Group, Inc. |](<a href=“Facts about NCAA Athletic Scholarships and Financial Aid Issues”>Facts about NCAA Athletic Scholarships and Financial Aid Issues)</p>
<p>GFG is correct, once an athlete receives ANY athletic money, all other sources of aid count against the team’s scholarship money unless very specific guidelines are met. My daughter receives an athletic scholarship from her school and academic scholarships from outside sources. She does not receive any financial aid, so her outside academic scholarships directly reduce our contribution. In order for her academic scholarships to not count against her team’s scholarship total, her scholarships were carefully scrutinized by compliance. We had to provide information on the criteria used for determining recipients for her largest renewable scholarships to prove that it was based on academics not athletic ability.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you are including in “financial aid,” The GFG. Are you including merit aid or need-based aid? My DD has a partial athletic scholarship, a merit scholarship from the school, and a National Merit Scholarship. The latter two were earned independently from sports and in no way count toward the NCAA scholarship limit.</p>
<p>We found it interesting that during recruiting, some coaches took a very active approach in finding academic money, personally taking her transcripts and SATs to the admissions office to see what they could get us, while others told us they could not do this per school policy and we should apply for merit scholarships on our own. I do think that her being a NMF made it pretty easy to justify the fact she was not getting special treatment.</p>
<p>From the NCAA D1 2012-2013 manual</p>
<p>15.02.4.3 Exempted Institutional Financial Aid.</p>
<p>The following institutional financial aid is exempt and is not counted in determining the institutions financial aid limitations: (Revised: 4/29/04 effective 8/1/04)</p>
<p>(a) An honorary award for outstanding academic achievement or an established institutional research grant that meets the criteria set forth in Bylaw 15.02.6 (and must be included in determining if the student athletes
cost of attendance has been met); (Revised: 1/10/91, 1/10/92, 10/31/02 effective 8/1/03)</p>
<p>(b) A postgraduate scholarship awarded by an institution in accordance with Bylaw 16.1.4.1.1; (Adopted: 4/25/02)</p>
<p>(c) Federal government grants awarded based on a students demonstrated financial need [e.g., Supplemental Educational Opportunities Grant (SEOG)], regardless of whether the institution is responsible for selecting the recipient or determining the amount of aid, or providing matching or supplementary funds for a previously determined recipient; (Adopted: 1/15/11 effective 8/1/11)</p>
<p>(d) State government grants awarded based on a students demonstrated financial need, regardless of whether the institution is responsible for selecting the recipient or determining the amount of aid, or providing matching or supplementary funds for a previously determined recipient, provided the aid is administered in accordance with the federal methodology for determining a students financial need and has no relationship to athletics ability. However, such aid is not exempt for purposes of determining a football or basketball student-athletes counter status pursuant to Bylaw 15.5.1.2; (Adopted: 1/15/11 effective 8/1/11)</p>
<p>(e) State government merit-based grants, regardless of whether the institution is responsible for selecting the recipient or determining the amount of aid, or providing matching or supplementary funds for a previously determined recipient, provided the aid is awarded consistent with the criteria of Bylaws 15.5.3.2.2.1, 15.5.3.2.2.2 or 15.5.3.2.2.3 and has no relationship to athletics ability. However, such aid is not exempt for purposes of determining a football or basketball student-athletes counter status pursuant to Bylaw 15.5.1.2; and (Adopted: 1/15/11 effective 8/1/11)</p>
<p>(f ) Matching payments made by the Department of Veterans Affairs pursuant to the Yellow Ribbon G.I. Education Enhancement Program [see Bylaw 15.2.5.1-(e)]. (Adopted: 1/15/11 effective 8/1/11)</p>
<p>The institutions financial aid limitations is the total athletic scholarships money available for that sport and has an upper limit set by the NCAA (i.e. number of equivalent scholarships).</p>
<p>I wonder if people are confusing full-funded programs for sports that give full athletic scholarships. Say a basketball player on a full ride also gets “financial aid” to cover costs for say books and travel above the college equivalency price, which isn’t always the total cost of attendance, they would not be able to accept more aid to cover that difference. At our D’s school the equivalence price is about $2000 under the estimated COA. They would not be able to add financial aid of $2000 to their award.</p>
<p>For athletes that get partial scholarships, they CAN and do offer merit aid to reduce the cost of attendance. They have to be awarded on academic merit though. Many schools have set guidelines for GPA/ACT/SAT to earn those awards. It’s pretty easy for a better student to get these awards and not have them count against their scholarship total. I do know at a couple schools that our D applied to, had she gotten one of their full ride scholarships they would not have given her athletic money, but then again, she wouldn’t have needed it. The coaches would have also been able to give more money to a player or add another player to their roster.</p>
<p>So on the question of combining need-based financial aid with athletic scholarship money, need-based grants coming from the Government (Fed, State or Veterans) are okay. </p>
<p>But need-based grants from the institution will count as part of the athletic $ award.</p>
<p>Thanks varska. That was my impression from coaches, and I thank you for verifying.</p>
<p>You’re welcome imafan, but don’t give me credit - I just sort of condensed the info provided by GFG and Swimkidsdad</p>
<p>I agree with the clarifications from varska and swimkidsdad. Merit money may be accepted from outside sources such as local organizations, so long as the award was not given solely for athletic ability. D had to return a scholarship from the high school booster club for having been a 3 sport athlete, but kept one from her elementary school PTO for which she had to write an essay about her experiences there. D is receiving a NM corporate scholarship as well as one from a professional organization, and those are OK. The scholarship organizations did have to sign a form for NCAA compliance certifying that their award was not given for athletics.</p>