I just received a half academic scholarship from my school (SMU). It was a transfer scholarship that was awarded late.
I checked my financial aid after receiving it and I lost a $19,000 Opportunity Grant, which I believe was awarded by the school.
Is it typical to lose grant money when you get put on a scholarship, or is this abnormal? The grant and scholarship combined don’t cover tuition if that matters.
Depends on the school but yes it’s pretty common. For my child her school gave us a pretty decent grant. Also included in the FA package was work study and a small loan as well as our efc. She was able to apply scholarships for the work study and loan amounts but anything beyond they would reduce her grants by that amount.
Merit aid in most cases will replace need based grants. If the need based grant exceeded the merit aid then you would likely keep the amount of the excees.
How large was the scholarship, and was it an outside scholarship or one awarded through SMU?
The OP said it is from his school: SMU.
ucbalumnus,
$22.5/ year, awarded through the school.
I.e. a net improvement of $3,500 ($22,500 scholarship added, $19,000 grant removed).
Before receiving that scholarship, what amounts did your financial aid offer have for:
A. Loans.
B. Work-study or work earnings expectations.
C. Unmet need (if listed).
?
Loans and work study remained static: 4.5k/yr in loans and 4k/yr in work study.
Unmet need wasn’t listed, but it exists. I would need about an additional $8k/yr for myself and my parents to stop being paycheck-to-paycheck.
I’ll be 24 years old next year and am kind of banking on getting a large financial award when I am no longer categorized as a dependent and don’t have to claim my parent’s earnings and assets.
Hmmm, so they offset only $3,500 of the $8,500 loan + workstudy amount before reducing grants. Or perhaps they thought that your unmet need was $3,500 and offset only that before reducing grants.
That is less favorable than what some other schools do, which is to apply the scholarship to student loans, workstudy, and unmet need first before reducing grants.
Well, then they don’t seem to meet 100% of need, if you still have a $8k gap. If the scholarship will also be there for your senior year, I don’t expect your grant aid to increase.
Or is your EFC as a dependent student $16k? $8k plus $4k work study and $4k loan.
@Nomoreschool which college are you applying to (business, engineering, etc)? Individual schools give out scholarships. Engineering gives up to about 9k/year and Business 7k/year. They may have left some room so the individual colleges can award you money.
If you qualify for the half-tuition award, you’re in the running for a pretty hefty award from your college of choice. (can only verify the amounts of business and engineering. I have had talks with the associate dean of engineering about them) He said those award amounts come in around New Years.
Did you apply early decision? I applied Early Action and have not received anything
What was the EFC of the latest FAFSA for 2017/18, for senior year, with you being independent and only listing your income/assets?
Is it typical for financial aid to reduce grant aid before reducing loans?
To answer some questions, I am currently in the business program at SMU, my scholarship is worth $22.5k annually, my current package falls $6k short of reaching my need according to my EFC, and when I’m classified as an independent next year (senior year) my current package will fall between $12-15k short of need.
This ‘falling short of need’ is much more common than meeting full need. Only a handful of schools meet need, and many of those that do include loans and work study as part of the package.
This money is all coming from the school, they are just calling it a transfer grant or a need grant. You get the same amount (well, in fact you get a little more by taking the transfer grant). If a student didn’t have any financial need, he’d be happy to get the transfer grant. If a student had a lot of need but didn’t qualify for the transfer grant, he’d rather have the need grant.
There is a bit of a difference.
To get the grant all that you have to do is get admitted and have financial need. To get the 50% academic scholarship you need to have at least a 3.7 GPA, 50 credit hours, and be selected by an admissions & financial aid committee.
I understand that, so that’s why I said the student who didn’t qualify for the transfer grant would like to have the financial need grant. Better to have $19k than nothing.
When you applied, they determined your need (THEY determined it) and felt you needed about $19k to attend after looking at your family income, assets, etc. When you received $22.5k in grants, you no longer needed the $19k. They felt you needed $19 and look, you got $22.5k so you no longer have need. That’s how they look at it. Next year you may only get the same $22.5k. Just because you are independent doesn’t always mean there is extra money available for the school to award.
But go over to FA and talk to them. They may be able to restore some of that opportunity grant if it was need based and you can show you still have unmet need.