<p>I got a local scholarship for $1,000 and thought that would be helpful to lower the amount of money I would be responsible for college. It turns out one of the institutions reduces any of their grant aid with outside scholarships first. That means instead of reducing my efc by $1,000 it reduces the amount of aid instead. Darn, that was a monkey wrench I hadn't expected. </p>
<p>So much for all the work and essays to try and get a few scholarships!</p>
<p>Here is my question, one of the other scholarships that I think I may have a shot at specifically says on the application that they will not award the scholarship if the school uses it to reduce their aid in this matter. Therefore even if I am lucky enough to receive this scholarship it will not help my cost at all. Is there anyway to get the scholarships awarded directly so you can spend it for transportation, fees, insurance, etc. ? (For example the school estimates $600 for travel. I live 10 hours away and do not have a car so I will have to fly. $600 will cover about 2 round trip flights so it seems like it will cost me more than that. I take public transportation for local use.)</p>
<p>If not, it seems the moral thing to do is just decline to accept it so it can be awarded to another student where hopefully it can do them more good. Would that make any sense or am I overlooking something?</p>
<p>If you receive need-based aid, outside scholarships rarely reduce your EFC. (Unless the outside scholarships total more than your need.) Many universities will, however, apply the amount of your outside scholarship to your subs Stafford or work/study award. Some will not. The only way to find out is to contact the financial aid office and discuss it with them.</p>
<p>YOu may double check with the school. My DDs school said that certain merit aid (Byrd, etc) would reduce self help aid first (loans & work study), but then they reduced her grants, which I only realised because I had printed the initial award and then compared it to the 2nd one.</p>
<p>My daughter’s college applies outside scholarships to self help aid, not to their own grants. But this varies by institution. It’s good to know these policies ahead of time if possible but I would think that most people don’t think about it as an issue if they haven’t had experience with college admissions and financial aid.</p>
<p>Some scholarship organizations will go to bat for you with your college financial aid office to make sure the scholarship is applied first to self-help. They want their dollars used to make things better for students, not just replace college grant aid. So you might want to contact the organization that gave you the $1000 to see if they can help. If you already have no self-help in your package, then this doesn’t apply.</p>
<p>I do know of scholarship organizations that will make sure the money they give is a net gain for the student, whatever that takes. I don’t think they’ll write you a check, but they might write a check to the bookstore, for example. Or buy you a laptop.</p>
<p>Juniata College (Huntingdon, PA) will not deduct outside scholarships from your financial aid. They think it’s ridiculous to penalize you for using your initiative to get the outside scholarships. </p>
<p>At the open house last weekend, they even told us, “If you’re torn between Juniata and another college and the other one gives you a little better aid package, give us a call and we’ll see what we can do.” No guarantees, but at least they’re willing to consider bumping up the aid.</p>
<p>For others…St. Louis University also told us at a FinAid presentation that outside scholarships would not reduce need-based aid as determined by the school.</p>