Hi there!
I’m an incoming freshman at Vanderbilt University. Recently, I received my final invoice and realized that my university-provided financial aid had been lowered by $5,000, coinciding with my $5,000 of outside scholarship money that I had earned.
My “estimated student contribution” was $1,756, which they subtracted from first, then they took it out of my actual need-based grant.
I understand the thinking on this, as I know they would like to share the wealth and give out the money where it’s needed; however, it’s very frustrating for me to have put in the work on all those scholarships for it to not make any difference at all in what I have to pay.
Is there any way to change this?
Thank you!
Vanderbilt’s normal financial aid package expected you to contribute only $1,756 in student loans and/or work earnings? That seems unusually generous – many good financial aid schools have an expected student contribution of around $4,000 to $5,000, and many other school expect up to around $10,000 (probably the outside limit using federal direct loans and work earnings).
It looks like the last FAQ on http://www.vanderbilt.edu/scholarships/faq.php indicates that Vanderbilt first applies outside scholarships to reducing work earnings expectations. It does not mention substitution of student loans, but a quick check of Vanderbilt’s net price calculator indicates that it does not appear to expect students to take student loans.
So it looks like Vanderbilt’s policy on applying outside scholarships is fairly typical, replacing student contribution first, but then reducing financial aid grants. So the net effect for you is to reduce your net price by $1,756 (though you could still work for pay if you want to).
Of course, if a school expects a low student contribution, but a high family contribution, the application of outside scholarships under this type of policy may be less favorable than if it expects a high student contribution, but a low family contribution.
You still got a reduction in your student contribution…which you didn’t have before.
Did you expect the school to give you that $5000 in cash?
It looks like you’re paying $1756 less. You did get a great deal.
Vandy is “no loan” for lowish income students, so there are no loans to remove.
Yes, it’s frustrating.
There is nothing unusual about this. This is how it works. If you want to change it, you would have to be a player in the financial aid policies of universities I suppose. When your ‘need’ is reduced because you have more resources for school in the way of grants then your need aid is reduced. The family always pays the EFC unless the award is so large it covers all need aid plus.
You have some benefit it seems, a nice award for your resume and a contribution to your school by needing less so yes, it can got to others. Some low income people don’t apply to grants for this reason, but I think it helps you more than hurts you. Sometimes awards can be held in reserve for grad school if you have no gap to cover, that depends on the terms of the scholarship.
Last year, my D has no loan but grant. The grant amount also reduced by the exact amount of external scholarships. This year she has some loan on the financial aid package and only one of the external scholarships from last year is renewable. However, it still offset the grant amount instead of loan because it is funded by the state government and cannot be stack with other state aid. Now I look back, we should have asked one of the other external scholarships to defer the money till this year.