Hey guys. So, I was lucky enough to get a full ride from the school I committed to, but I have around $10,000 in outside scholarships that have been made payable to the school. What can I use this money for? Once I pay it to the university, do they just keep it on my account or give the money back to me?
Thank you for all your help!
It really depends on the schools, what the outside scholarship allows, and what makes up your full ride from the school. Was the full ride athletic? No, you can’t keep the extra money. Need based? Unlikely as your need has gone down $10k. Is the outside scholarship restricted to tuition?
You need to contact the FA office and see how they apply outside aid.
And be aware that even the full-ride scholarship has tax implications. Any amount exceeding qualified educations expenses is taxable. Room and board is not a qualifying expense.
Varies from school to school. At most schools, the outside scholarships first go to replacing any required summer or term time student earnings, next to reducing any loans, followed by reducing financial aid grant scholarship. Don’t expect to get any cash back.
You may want to go through expenses not included in your cost of attendance (fees, computer, etc.). Adding these would allow you to have those expenses covered with the extra scholarship money.
@twoinanddone It’s not athletic. The full ride basically states that they cover 100% of unmet need, including tuition, books, housing, meal plans, etc. I checked their policy on checks made out to the university, and it said they would deduct anything owed to them and then make a check payable to the student and return it. Does this mean they will utilize my scholarship money before they apply the full ride?
I think they will. I think they will reduce the full ride, which covers need, and find that you have less need.
If the school’s scholarship was based on need, your need has been reduced by the outside scholarship. If it was entirely based on merit, you might be able to keep the outside scholarship.
I think they will use the outside scholarship to cover part of your unmet need…and THEN provide thenadditional funds to cover the rest.
But the only way to know…contact the school.
@twoinanddone Thank you. You’re very helpful. I have one last question. If a check for a scholarship that can only be applied to the fall term arrived after everything is already paid for, would it then come back to me or do you think the school would still keep it?
I think they would process it. Most likely, they’d back off the school issued grant, apply the outside scholarship, and then adjust the school grant for the remaining balance. My daughter’s school plays a ridiculous game of posting charges and payments/scholarships, backing them off, reapplying them, backing them off, splitting them into smaller charges…she has 5 things charged (tuition, 2 fees, insurance, and a meal plan), and 9 types of FA, and her bill goes on for two full pages of posting and reposting. Her school loves to post and repost all the charges and all the ‘payments.’ There are two sources of FA that are unknown at the start of the semester (one pays per credit, one adjusts by about $100 if the school has more funds than they originally thought they would), but that justifies two reposts, not 30.
You should talk to the school about keeping some of the outside scholarship to use for a computer, incidentals, books and supplies they aren’t covering (dictionary, reference books, pencils and notebooks), travel. It’s not likely, but worth a try. Take a list of all your costs (be inclusive but not ridiculous for incidentals and travel), with a list of all the costs they are covering, and see if you can justify them letting you keep some of your outside scholarship.
As mentioned the school may allow extra scholarship to cover for a technology allowance. I’d call and get details about any way you can use the outside scholarship before they reduce your need.
Are there any pre-college summer experiences you would be interested in? Would the school work with you to “bank” the outside scholarship money towards a program for next summer?