<p>Hello</p>
<p>my case is as follows. My university costs $7,000 per year but covered the full cost of attendance ~$15,000. </p>
<p>About $7,500 of the financial aid package are grants, $6,000 loans, and $2,000 work study.</p>
<p>Therefore, the grants cover tuition fully.</p>
<p>However, there is an outside scholarship of $6,000 not included in this calculation.</p>
<p>My question is,</p>
<p>would it be better to accept the loans, and then declare the scholarship,
have the scholarship replace the loans idling in my account, and get the money paid out to me?</p>
<p>Or,</p>
<p>to decline the loans and then fight to keep the scholarship for personal expenses, trying to convince the university that I should be allowed to use the scholarship for books and transportation instead of climbing into debt with federal loans?</p>
<p>The scholarship is undeclared because I do not posess the money; it is promised but not delivered yet.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for any help you can provide me.</p>
<p>-mixdeep.</p>
<p>You should definitely check with your school about their outside scholarship policy. Also, many scholarships do not pay the student, but rather pay the school directly. You probably want to follow-up with them regarding this.</p>
<p>It is typically not recommended to withhold information about scholarships. You may be putting federal and institutional aid at risk. Even if the overall amount of your financial aid package doesn't change, many schools will reduce your loans some to offset the increase in scholarship awards.</p>
<p>Again, failure to report your outside scholarships could result in you having to repay need-based loans, so make sure that you get all the information you can.</p>
<p>Hope this helps. For others grappling with financial aid award letters, below are a couple of useful resources:</p>
<p>Article about outside scholarship policies -
<a href="http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/outside.phtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/outside.phtml</a></p>
<p>Tool for comparing financial aid award letters -
<a href="http://www.lunch-money.com/College-Calculators/resCalcEval.aspx%5B/url%5D">http://www.lunch-money.com/College-Calculators/resCalcEval.aspx</a></p>
<p>Article about steps you can take if the award package won't meet your financial needs -
<a href="http://www.lunch-money.com/Articles/resAward.aspx%5B/url%5D">http://www.lunch-money.com/Articles/resAward.aspx</a></p>