<p>Hello CC Community. I just had a quick inquiry about my FA Award. The college I plan to attend has a COA of $59,700 (including Comprehensive Fee--Tuition/Room&Board, Books and Supplies, Travel and Personal). They offered me $51,238 in Institutional Grants (scholarship), $1700 in Student Employment (Work Study); My parents are expected to contribute $4,962 and I am expected to contribute $1800. </p>
<p>I believe I am eligible for the Pell Grant of $5,500 (we had an EFC of 00000), unfortunately the college has a policy on State and Federal Funds in which monies awarded by the State and Federal authorities will deduct the overall scholarship that I was given by the college. I was wondering if it were in any way possible to negotiate with the college to allow me to keep the Pell grant without having it deduct my scholarship. It wouldn't be as if I'm asking them to allot me more of their institutional aid, but I'd like to know if anyone on CC has dealt with a situation like this. I'm worried that I may not be able to rely on my parents to pay their share and I don't want either of us to have to take on any student loan debt. I would just work off the amount of money I and my parents need to contribute, but I'm afraid that earning more than my work study allots me will drastically change my EFC for next year. What should I do?</p>
<p>I doubt that earning $4-5K will significantly increase your EFC. You can take up to $5500 student loan for freshman year and work to pay it off. It seems likely that the school is already incorporating your Pell Grant into their Institutional Grant, since getting $51K in merit scholarships is rather rare.</p>
<p>You can also reduce your costs in the area of books (half.com) and personal/travel expenses. Buy the cheapest meal plan.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t hurt to ask about getting the Pell on top of the scholarship. I did something similar with a school which offered a full tuition scholarship to my daughter and wasn’t going to accept a state grant. I got them to agree to stack the awards so she got full amount of the scholarship offered and the state grant.</p>
<p>Thanks, I was just worried extra from work study would increase my EFC and I don’t want that to happen. The “scholarship” I was awarded is purely need-based, however. I’m not sure if that means anything. The college does not award merit or athletic aid.</p>
<p>In my daughter’s case the scholarship was a competitive merit scholarship, so it may be different. The schools who offer need based aid usually determine the need based on their own standards, so you may not be able to get an appeal without special circumstances. It wouldn’t hurt to call and ask - they won’t recind their offer.</p>
<p>Work study has no effect on your EFC. One of the FAFSA questions asks how much of your AGI on your tax return is from your WS and the taxable portion of your scholarships/grants and deducts those from your AGI before calculating your EFC.</p>
<p>Additionally you have almost $6,000 protected income on FAFSA, so you can earn that much in non WS without it affecting your EFC.</p>
<p>If the school’s policy is to reduce their institutional grant money by any federal grants, I doubt they will change that policy just for one individual. If they do it for you, they will be expected to do the same for everyone. All schools take into account federal aid a student is eligible for when deciding how much other need based funding to give them. You have an extraordinarily generous FA package. Most schools that are so generous with their own funds will expect a student contribution.</p>
<p>Didn’t you ask this a couple weeks ago? If the answer from the college is that the Pell will replace the institutional aid then you have the option of the federal direct loan and/or your summer job (assuming you are working to earn transportation money and whatever else you will need in cash before any cash reaches your hands from loan disbursement and work/study.) And yes, I agree that any money you earn this summer and work/study likely won’t impact your personal FAFSA accounting next year.</p>