<p>Hey everyone. So I received an email yesterday informing me to fill out an outside scholarship notification form. So I basically have a $20,000 dollar scholarship which is to be divided $5k per year. Here's Columbia's policy on outside scholarships:</p>
<p>How do
outside scholarships affect my Columbia financial aid award? The
scholarships you receive from outside sources will be used to reduce the
work study portion of your financial aid package. For example, if you are
awarded a $2,000 National Merit Scholarship, your work study expectation
will be reduced by the full $2,000. Only after your work study has been
completely eliminated will your scholarships begin to reduce any Columbia
Grant you may have received.</p>
<p>After allwork-study eligibility has been eliminated, any remaining
scholarshipamount(s) will be used to reduce your Columbia Grant. PLEASE
NOTE: Outside Scholarships may not reduce the Parent Contribution or the
Student Contribution (summer work expectation).</p>
<p>Correct me if I'm wrong, but basically lets say my Columbia grant is $15000 and my federal workstudy is $2000 and student + parent contribution is: $33000</p>
<p>so if I have $5k a year, then all of my work study goes away (5k - 2k) and the remaining 3k from my scholarship will be subtracted from the Columbia grant? So that means my end results will be:
fedearl work study: 0
parent + student contribution: $33,000
Columbia Grant: $12,000</p>
<p>If this is the case... what point was there in getting a scholarship? My parents and I still have to pay the same amount....... basically Columbia just takes my scholarship money? I actually want federal work study since I like to have some pocket money and New York is
expensive.</p>
<p>Does this mean I get no federal work study and we pay the same amount of money? So doesn't the scholarship cause me to lose out here? >_> And here I was so happy I had received the scholarship.....</p>
<p>If this is the case, how can I tell the financial aid ppl I still want the federal work study......?</p>
<p>I’m kinda in the same boat as you, as I want to work during the school year, and my thinking is that I might as well do work study since there’s a nice listing of jobs and wages right on the school website.</p>
<p>I think what you believe is true. However, what I’m doing is using my scholarship money to buy a laptop ($1500 can go towards computer supplies). I believe that the amount of money you spend on computer costs will be taken away from your parental contribution. From an earlier email:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You and/or your parents still end paying the same net amount, but in this scenario, you get a new laptop. Please correct me if I’m wrong.</p>
<p>Thanks dococtopi. I remember reading something similar a while back too! Except I thought you had to be in extenuating financial circumstances or something like that…ANyone else have any insight on how scholarships work at Columbia?arghhh stupid Columbia’s policy…</p>
<p>The one plus is that, because you’re not expected to contribute work-study to pay for school itself (tuition, room/board, fees), you can work just as much but save the cash for your own purposes.</p>
<p>Federal Work/Study, as part of a financial aid package, implies that you will work for $X, and apply that exclusively to what you owe the school. Now with your scholarship, you get to keep any money you earn.</p>
<p>So yes, in effect it’s as if you only got a $2000/year scholarship rather than a $5000 one (although the laptop loophole may help you keep an extra $1500 this coming year). But that’s a long way from nothing.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply Denzera. Wait… so I can still get work study even with the scholarship? It just means 0 dollars of the $2000 dollar wokr study allotment has to go to student contribution?</p>
<p>well, you can still get JOBS and do WORK. And there’s plenty out there, even if you’re not federally subsidized for work-study. in fact, the best-paying jobs for columbia students really aren’t work-study kind of stuff. Tutoring, programming, translation, editing services, test-prep… some of that you can find on-campus in work-study form, but if you look for work in NYC as a whole, you can get stuff paying 40, 50, even 60 dollars an hour (particularly tutoring and test-prep).</p>
<p>As a columbia student you have instant credibility on almost any subject, so with a few references in each case you can charge the market rates of a professional. It’s how I paid my way through Columbia: made an average of $20k/yr through freelance IT and business consulting, some of which went to tuition and the rest to general fun and expenses.</p>
<p>a lot of students think that work/study is the only way to get employment. false. not even the best way.</p>