<p>Hello CC. If I were to receive a merit-based scholarship, how would this impact the amount of financial aid I get (grants)? I'm OOS, if this makes a difference. </p>
<p>Your need, which is defined as Cost of Attendance minus FAFSA EFC, would be reduced by the merit scholarship. You will still have to pay your EFC at very least, unless your merit money covers so much of your cost that it not only erases your need but also pays some of your EFC. You can’t use financial aid to pay your EFC. </p>
<p>Since Pitt does not guarantee to meet need, if your merit aid is not that big, you may evens till have to pay more than EFC… </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse I used cost calculator and it estimated that I would receive around 8K in FA (grants). I received a 15k merit scholarship. So, I most likely won’t be considered for any FA because of my merit-based scholarship?</p>
<p>sinjbad, my best guess is you won’t get any grant money now but i am not totally up on Pitt regarding this issue, that is generally the case at many schools nationwide and i am assuming pitt is similar on this issue </p>
<p>Not sure, I didn’t think Pitt gave institutional need based aid. Did the 8 k of grant have a breakdown? Like Pell, work study, it didn’t mention a direct loan, did it?</p>
<p>FAFSA has a calculator you can use to estimate what kind of financial aid you could receive. It takes into account a lot of factors: income, whether you are out of state, cost of attendance, merit scholarships awarded, etc. </p>
<p><a href=“https://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/estimate”>https://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/estimate</a></p>
<p>mommdc, my son qualified for a need based grant of around $4700 so yes, pitt does offer need based grants. </p>
<p>@ctl987 Did your son receive a merit based scholarship, and are you instate or OOS?</p>
<p>no, he did not get a merit scholarship and we are instate. this is for last year but he filed a FAFSA and qualified for need based aid per the award letter that we got. as an fyi, the cost calculator did not reflect he would get a need based grant so that was a good suprise to find out he qualified. i still think for you though that your scholarship may wipe out your anticipated grant aid since the scholly is bigger. i suggest you file your FAFSA as close to Jan 1 as you can. i think i stiill have the aid letter. i will look and tell you how long it took to get the financial aid letter. </p>
<p>ok,. his financial aid award letter was mailed March 21st. if i were you, assume you won’t get any grant money and base your costs on that assumption, if you get a grant, you can be pleasantly suprised in March. i think we filed his FAFSA in January but maybe it was early Feb. </p>
<p>@ctl987 the priority deadline for sending in the FAFSA is March 1st. It wouldn’t make a difference if I sent it in today or if I sent it in on February 28th, correct?</p>
<p>@ctl987, thank you for correcting me. I was not aware of the need-based grants. All that showed for us on the NPC was the state grant, but you said you had the same experience. </p>
<p>@sinjbad, Check out this FAFSA FAQ for an answer to your question: <a href=“http://www.fafsa.com/understanding-fafsa/fafsa-questions#Q3”>http://www.fafsa.com/understanding-fafsa/fafsa-questions#Q3</a></p>
<p>@hailtopitt1787 Once again, you’re awesome. However, what I meant to ask was would it make a difference in the amount of grants I receive if your staff received my FAFSA tomorrow or two months from now?</p>
<p>I.e. does Pitt have some sort of “priority deadline” for the FAFSA?</p>
<p>@sinjbad, The only deadline we ask you to meet is the March 1st priority deadline! </p>
<p>sinjbad, no, it would not make a difference on your amount of grant aid but you might get your financial aid letter eariler if you file your FAFSA earlier and then you would have a definitive answer to your question. i doubt you would get letter before mid March regardless of when you file, however, if you file FAFSA Feb 28th, then it might be April before you get your financial aid letter if Pitt handles letters in a first in, first out manner. also, you may know this, but you can’t file the FAFSA until Jan 1st. </p>
<p>You ask that if the Pitt Calculator comes up with 8K in grants, and you get a $15K merit award, whether the grants would be reduced by that merit award. The answer is MAYBE, MAYBE not. You have to talk to the fin aid officer. The fact of the matter is that Pitt does not guarantee to meet full need. We do not know if your package would give your full need and if the NPC is meeting full need. What is your FAFSA EFC? Does the Pitt calculator come up with your family having to pay close to the FAFSA EFC? Do you also have loans and workstudy listed along with that grant? </p>
<p>I can guess 50 ways as to how a school in that situation would treat the merit award, but you want answers pertaining to PItt, so do call the financial aid office and ask them outright You should run a FAFSA EFC estimator, so you know what your EFC is as compared to what the Pitt NPC shows. You can then ask what the effect of the merit award would be on the stiuation. Remember that most of the time, you have to pay your FAFSA EFC before getting any financial aid. So if your merit award exceeds your need, you won’t get any financial aid. You can get more merit money than need, but it does reduce the need and sometimes the financial aid But schools do this differently and you need to know how Pitt does it.</p>
<p>i will note we ran into this possibility with another school and no one would give me a straight answer as to how merit aid v need based grants would likely play out, cpt’s point is well taken though that people at Pitt’s FA office and possibly admissions would be the best resources for this question as schools can vary on this issue. and as i think i noted above, most schools offset need based grants with merit scholarships. however, i do not know how Pitt handles this issue and there may be case by case variations. </p>
<p>By law, they cannot give federal (and possibly state) funds until the EFC has been met, and the merit money will increase the EFC by that amount of the award. Most schools have internal policies that mirror that. </p>