So basically, my colleges COA of around 66k but that includes things like books, transportation which are NOT billable. My college is giving me around 61k in scholarship/grants and my tuition/room and board is 62k.
62k-61k= $1,740 … which I’m guessing how much I have to pay.
They are already giving work study around 3k.
I also have a scholarship that gives me 3k yearly. (i think i can use this so that i don’t have to do work study)
Another 6k, 1k, 2k, and a 3k scholarship.
I do not want all this scholarship funds to be wasted on one academic year. Can I use that scholarship money on books, personal items and transportation fees? This would be about 3-4k.
AND if not, then how should I ask for reimbursements?
You need to report any scholarships paid directly to you to the school. They will adjust any aid they are giving you based on the type of scholarship it is - need, merit, state grant, etc. Some schools reduce work study and loans first, others need based. Some allow the extra to be used for non-direct billed items. Nice problem to have.
Unfortunately, I think these scholarships will reduce your grant aid once it has been used to cover your work-study. Double-check with the school, because many will allow you to use $1000 or so towards a one-time laptop allowance.
@OrchidBloom I just want to use those scholarships for books, educational supplies and health insurance so couldn’t i just use that for that instead of it having my grants reduced? But i guess i will check with my college. Its just like, was applying to scholarships then even worth it?? I mean, tons of my friends didn’t get my scholarships and i feel bad now. They are on loans and ugh.
Scholarships are nice because you can list them on your resume. A lot of schools will let you use them to replace work/study and loans first before grants. I seems you school is already granting you money for the COA that is not tuition, namely books/supplies and personal. You can ask for a laptop allowance if you need it. You just won’t be able to use it for your EFC or for anything not in the COA, like health insurance may not be in the COA. But your EFC is so low you may not need to come up with it if you don’t spend everything listed int the COA allowance.
Any money coming in from outside to replace your grants frees up more money for your college to give other students with need. So it is doing good. You can’t pick what money goes to your friends get. If you didn’t get those scholarships it would likely got to someone you don’t know. So at least the money can be used for colleagues at your school. That’s just how it goes sometimes.
COA includes transportation but the amount allocated may be more or less than you actually have to spend. Look you said you only have to pay 1700 or so. Where is that coming from?
Look. to get an analysis, please print out your COA and your financial aid award from your letter.
You need to talk to YOUR college. Some colleges will include transportation and the like in the cost of attendance,me specially for low income students. Give your school a call.
In any event, if all of this is need based aid, you can’t be awarded in excess of the cost of attendance at most schools. But you really need to see if the school does…or can…include these other costs you mention in the cost of attendance for you. Call and ask.
What is the exact COA on your FA award? You, say 66k, but what is it exactly. The COA already includes the non billable expenses like personal expenses, travel, and books. If health insurance was not already included that will increase your COA, so yes that can be covered by the outside money, but at many schools if you need the health insurance the school will increase grant aid to cover it.
You say you got FA of 61k and work study of 3k. So how is the other 2k to be paid? Student or Parent contribution?
If it is student contribution, normally the school will allow that 2k and the 3k work study to be replaced with outside funds, however every school has their own policy on this. If it is a parent contribution outside funds cannot be used, so you are limited to the 3k of work study replacement.
So, as a rough example if your circumstances allow the 5k outside scholarships to be used, 1k would go toward the amount still owed the school(you stated they gave you 61k, but billable expenses are 62k) and the remaining COA of 4k would be refunded back to you to cover your travel, books, misc. expenses.
As someone else mentioned, some schools will allow you to take outside scholarships for a one time computer purchase.
So you have 15k in one time outside scholarships? You have a few options. You can go back to the scholarship grantors and see if any of them are willing to defer the funds to a future year. You can decline the scholarships and allow the money to go back into the organization's funds. You can forward the funds on to your school, and they will reduce your FA by the amount of the excess and the FA that was replaced will then be available to other students at your school in the future.
Don’t think of it as “wasted” money. The objective of scholarships is to cover your college expenses. Once tuition, room, board, fees, insurance, travel, books and even some spending money is being provided for you, you should not begrudge giving excess money back to the outside scholarship organizations or to your college to help someone else.
Oh no! Poor you;). Just kidding. I get your issue re allocating across the years to get full value. Only your FA officer can figure it out for you though. Too much personal info to post to get a full answer here.
You also need to know now that scholarship money that is not used for tuition, fees, books, and required materials, will almost certainly be taxable. When you speak with the financial aid office, find out how the scholarship, loan, and work-study money is allocated, and talk with them about the best ways to plan ahead so you have money available to pay any of the federal (and possibly state and/or local) taxes that might come due.
You also need to know now that scholarship money that is not used for tuition, fees, books, and required materials, will almost certainly be taxable. When you speak with the financial aid office, find out how the scholarship, loan, and work-study money is allocated, and talk with them about the best ways to plan ahead so you have money available to pay any of the federal (and possibly state and/or local) taxes that might come due.
OP is accepted to Wesleyan (he has a duplicate thread in that forum.) He really needs to show what Wes considers his EFC. They are strange because they don’t put personal expenses in EFC. Likely he need to talk with them to see what the scholarships can be applied to. They do put
Transportation 1,000
Books and supplies 2,665
So the grants can be used for that, work study and any loans.
Health ins is separate and they charge 1,570. These are all numbers from last year I have in my files from another student.
I just want to emphasize @happymomof1 ‘s post. Everything above tuition and fees (including books if the books are not required or purchased somewhere other than the university) is taxable at your parents’ unearned income tax rate. you need to be prepared for it.
You can try asking some of the outside scholarship organizations to delay giving you the money until January, in order to defer reporting it to your college and to defer or reduce the income tax consequences.
Books and materials that are specified in the course syllabus are qualified expenses - you can buy them anywhere, provided the item is absolutely required for the course. So yes, that specific dissection kit for biology, or that specific version of PhotoShop for a design class, would count too.
