<p>I'm wondering if anyone has figured out the relationship between the net price calculator and institutional grants. At a particular private school, our net price comes out to be $35K (total unaided cost is $55K). If we win that school's $15K/year institutional scholarship, does what we pay drop by $15K? Or, does winning that scholarship mean we have less need and therefore we don't really see the whole $15K?</p>
<p>My experience has been the merit decreases your need. So if your need was $20k ($55k - $35) and you get a $15k merit then your remaining need is only $5k which could be covered with loans. If the merit were larger than your need i.e. $30k was the merit award then your net out of pocket would be less ($55k - $30k = $25k). My understanding is if there is any financial aid component they typically will not award more than your need. If there is no financial aid component they can award as much merit as they want.</p>
<p>So you mean…merit aid doesn’t stack on top of whatever you get for financial aid? Darn.</p>
<p>^depends on the school…some stack, some don’t</p>
<p>Few schools will stack merit on top of grants to reduce a family’s contribution.</p>
<p>Merit usually gets applied to need FIRST.</p>
<p>Merit usually only reduces “family contribution” when it’s soooo large that it’s larger than need…so it covers need and “cuts into” merit.</p>
<p>Many families are upset to learn that the various merit scholarships their kids get don’t reduce their EFC…unless as described in the above para.</p>
<p>Also, outside schlarships are very often applied to the “need” side of the equasion and will decrease loans from the need based package but are not applied to EFC. I have also recently discovered that at many Profile schools grandparent owned accounts or contributions reduce “need” and are not accounted on the EFC side of the costs. So, ESAs and grandparent contributions, if following the strict intent of many profile schools, will reduce need dollar for dollar rather than helping the family meet the efc. If these assets are held by the student or parent they are assessed at the parent asset rate of 5.6% instead of 100%.</p>