<p>I probably won't let this stop me, but I'm just curious: I've been hearing that merit scholarships will simply make colleges expect you to pay more. After sending in the FAFSA, CSS, etc to my colleges, I'm now looking into to various local merit scholarships. Is this even worthwhile? Once I've secured a scholarship or two, will colleges simply expect me to pay more?</p>
<p>I’ve been hearing that merit scholarships will simply make colleges expect you to pay more.</p>
<p>I think you misunderstood. Colleges wouldn’t expect you to “pay more.” They will often take out the loans or gaps from your financial aid package if you get a merit scholarship. And, that’s a good thing. Free money is better than a loan or a gap.</p>
<p>For instance, if your FA package looked like this…</p>
<p>$20k in grants
$5k in loans
$5k in EFC</p>
<p>and then you got an outside scholarship of $5k…then your FA package would likely look like</p>
<p>$20k in grants
$5k in outside scholarship
$5k in EFC</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>Possibly. It varies from college to college; each has its own policies on this. Check with the financial aid offices about how they treat outside scholarships.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider: See if you can find any renewable scholarships, meaning that you’d get funding each year provided you meet their requirements. Many private scholarships are for one year only, which means you’d need to decide if you can afford Years 2, 3 and 4 without the funding.</p>