Q: Merit-Scholarship vs. your Financial Aid Package

Paying for College
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<p>I have a question regarding Merit-based vs. Need-based awards and the FAFSA.</p>

<p>I am in the process of picking up my GPA to achieve a particular Transfer Student Scholarship that is Merit-based. ($12,000 award for a 3.2GPA renewable per year.)</p>

<p>Based off of a preliminary Financial Aid Award, I will receive roughly ~12.5k in Grant assistance and 5k in Loans (subsidized stafford & unsubsidized stafford loans) in addition to an optional 2.5k in Work Study.</p>

<p>Without the Scholarship being accounted for, the Aid Package amounts to around 20k.
The Tuition (and Housing combined) for this particular University amounts to 34k.</p>

<p>My question is this: If I achieve the GPA needed for that particular 12k transfer scholarship, would the Fin. Aid Office know about it and would that lessen the amount of Grant money I'd otherwise receive, or would the total cost of attendance truly be an estimated ~7k per year? (~2k for tuition and ~5k in loans all said and done.)</p>

<p>OR would they cut the amount of Grant money and suddenly have my parents and I looking at a 14k bill each year because I qualified for the Scholarship and figure I wouldn't know the difference?</p>

<p>If you see where I'm coming from with this plan, that merit-scholarship makes a world of difference in my situation to attend this Private University if it could mean being a better value than even my State school choice, where I wouldn't receive any Grant money nor Scholarships to attend and would be taking out the full cost of attendance in Loans (federal and private) alone, as my sister is currently being faced with.</p>

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<p>It really depends on your school and where the grant is coming from. A scholarship may reduce your need and affect your need based aid. In my D’s case, the scholarship replaced the grant and part of the loan.</p>

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<p>Yes, the finaid office would know about the merit award so contact the school and ask if it will affect the grant and how. Since you say you wouldn’t get any grant aid at the state U, the $12.5k grant must be all university money and only they can tell you what would happen. If any of the grant were federal(Pell) or state grants, you would get those at the state U also.</p>

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<p>@annoyingdad‌ </p>

<p>Okay. I’ll give the University a call and hopefully straighten things out.</p>

<p>I just know, at this point considering our family situation, that me and my siblings will be paying the full outstanding costs (whatever FAFSA determines is our EFC) on our own through a majority or Private loans. (which is something I’d like to keep minimized to the best of our ability.)</p>

<p>My plan was to attend our local CC for one semester to boost my GPA, then Transfer to a local Private University.
(However, this whole thing could fall apart if the cost of attendance still becomes a barrier.)*</p>

<p>I was hoping this could turn out to be a winning situation for me, by doing something I didn’t originally want to do for a short period of time (attend my local CC) to eventually get to the place I wanted to be (a Private Christian Education as opposed to my State School choice). My only other option (to really keep prices down) would be to stay at my CC, obtain an Associates Degree, and then transfer to a State School for the remaining 2 years of study and degree completion. (a choice that would result being closer to 36k in debt rather than closer to 60k had I chosen to do 4 years at the State U. and quite possibly going the same route with the private education plan I had previously, if the merit scholarship won’t transpire the way I had intended it would.)</p>

<p>Right now, my sister will be attending one of our state universities and despite having a strong GPA and tennis career, was given no Grant or Scholarship assistance, however, her Fin. Aid package covers the majority of costs through Federal Loans and Work Study. My parents will not qualify for the Parent PLUS Loan included in her aid award, and she’ll receive an additional 4-5k (something in that range) in federal loans. Basically, she’ll have close to 55-60k in student debt by the time she graduates.</p>

<p>*I was hoping that by achieving a Merit Scholarship at the Private University I wish to attend, that it would help control the 32k price tag and in all hopes bring it closer to the 8k range including the Institution’s and State Grant assistance. However, if this Merit Scholarship will only act as a ‘substitute’ or ‘filler’ for a portion of Grant money and lessen the Loan amounts, I may still be looking at a 15-17k’s worth of outstanding payment, despite my extra efforts in pursuit of this merit award. -in which case, the university would be too expensive to attend. </p>

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<p>@annoyingdad-- not in all states. The rules for my state’s grant are pretty clear. One cannot receive that state money unless there is need. So, if merit + outside scholarship meet need, the state money is not disbursed. So, in our case, D received an outside scholarship. The school will take away her FWS and her sub loan, but then they’ll have to reduce the state grant because she has no need left. </p>

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<p>It does depend entirely upon the school. Some schools will apply outside scholarships to loans and other self help first before have it replace their own funds. Some have outside awards go directly to their own grants. If the school does apply the grant against the loans first, only part of the scholarship will disappear, and you can still take out the Direct Loans on an unsubsidized basis as well. Also, is this a renweable award? One can take a big hit when an award is only for one year, that next year. </p>

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<p>@cptofthehouse‌ -yes, the scholarship is renewable.</p>

<p>I just went ahead and filled out the NPC on the U. website for Transfer students and, according to the predictions, it looks like they replaced all Grant aid with the scholarship entirely. :confused: When I filed out the NPC a second time, this time without having the chance to obtain the Scholarship, the Institutional and State Grant money was added.</p>

<p>Still, the total cost of attendance, after the NPC’s calculations, was just over 17k not including the 5.5k in federal loans that it had predicted would be a part of the package. (so here we are again at that 23k mark we would never be able to afford.)</p>

<p>If Grants were to be included in the package, even 10k’s worth would bring that price back down to the competitive cost of 13k a year, the same cost it would be for me to attend UW-Oshkosh each year.</p>

<p>I know that the NPC isn’t the most reliable, and perhaps it is missing something, but on the other side, perhaps it’s accurate in the sense that it’s taking the Scholarship amount and literally replacing any opportunity for institutional Grants. -The very thing I feared would happen.</p>

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<p>When you go to the financial aid site of your school, is there any mention of outside scholarships and ho they are specifically applied? You still need to talk directly to the fin aid director and get the scoop directly from that person but some web sites make if very specific and clear. Ask the director if the scholarship can be applied to your loans and work study rather than to your grants, and that many schools do things that way. Good luck.</p>

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<p>@cptofthehouse‌ -I just received my answer, and it’s rather unsavory. </p>

<p>If I were to qualify for the merit-scholarship of 12k / year, it would effectively replace any Grant assistance UNLESS I were to apply for admission as an Independent student (at at least 24 years of age.)</p>

<p>After plugging my information into the NPC, and speaking to a Fin. Aid. Officer, it was confirmed that I would be looking at roughly 17k total in out of pocket costs, and 22k total after adding the 5k in federal loans from the aid package. So in reality, the difference between obtaining the scholarship vs. not being able to qualify for it and instead accepting Grant money, would be saving me only 3k between the two. (In my opinion, it’s not worth it.)</p>

<p>In order for me to achieve that Merit Scholarship, I was told that I’d need to attend my local CC and attempt about 32 credits, receiving no less than a 3.5 GPA per every class taken, in order to level out to the 3.0-3.2 range needed to qualify for the 12k scholarship! It seems like a lot of demand for little in return considering that the scholarship isn’t combined with the previous Grant money you would have otherwise qualified for.</p>

<p>Am I right? -shakes head- It’s kind of crazy how they assume, in a way, that just because you made the mark for their merit award, that all of sudden, that previous amount of need-based grant money you would have qualified for is now no longer needed. (no) -I still need that assistance, I just thought I could be smart and go the extra mile for additional aid through your merit awards. How do you people make any sense out of that? ):</p>

<p>I guess the moral of the story is that in the end, College is still a Business, and at the end of the day, truly affordable tuition for the average student when parents cannot afford to help is just a dream. Your still going to pay through the nose to earn that piece of paper, that in this current economy, won’t even guarantee you a job. Not anymore. Very sad and upsetting.</p>

<p>At this point, I will have no choice but to attend my local CC to earn my Associates degrees in Graphic Design and Business Administration, leaving with close to only a few thousand dollars in debt…hoping that I can find work afterwards in either field, and as far as furthering my education in the future, I am unsure where that will lead. I don’t believe that any company will willingly pay for a Bachelor’s Completion Program. (I only know of those offers reaching those seeking Masters Degrees in such and such a program.)</p>

<p>Perhaps it is not all bad, and obtaining an Associates will allow me to move onto better things, like my dream of being able to leave the state of Wisconsin behind for the cities of Renton or Seattle in the state of Washington. Perhaps I’d be able to afford living there long enough to qualify for in-state tuition and attend a public university to complete one of my degrees. Just…so many thoughts swirling around my head now. This changes a lot of things, but perhaps not all is for the worst. </p>

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<p>I am sorry that the school in the picture has this way of doing things. Not all schools do. Many will allow grants to first be applied to self help and only offset grants after the self help is used up. But then some school specifically insist upon a dollar for dollar replacement of specific grant money. Especially with their own in house awards. They are a little smarter than this school usually, in that they do all of the integration in-house. so you don’t see the process. Another school that does this transparently is Lafayette. Their most prestigious award is the Marquis. Posters with fin aid grants found, that like you, that when they get the Marquis, it is applied directly to the financial aid grant money, not the work study and loans from the federal government, and that it replace the grants so that someone who wins this big scholarship ends up not seeing any more than someone who does not. It’s stupid, and the school can lose those kids who get a bad taste in their mouth, even as they are the top kids in the class, the ones the school wants to attract. But that’s the way it works.</p>

<p>It is possible to find work with tuition reimbursement for bachelors, or really any courses. Companies set their own rules on what and how they reimburse if anything. It’s finding a job, any job that pays a living wage, with any benefits that’s an issue. </p>

<p>Hugs to you. I hope you get your Associates, and are able to do what you so please thereafter. If you are doing well in CC, you truly have a lot going for you. In such cases, to take on more debt for the bachelor’s is an investment, and I am way against borrowing in many cases. That is an exception. Do look very carefully at residency rules college by college. They vary widely and are not the same as getting in state residency for voting, paying taxes, getting a drivers license, etc. Especially for dependent students, and you know how that is defined. By age, that’s age 24–never mind that you’ve been supporting yourself all along. But I seem to remember the UWash has some possibllities that way, unlike many state schools, especially flagships. </p>

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<p>It is basically the same way my D experience. Getting 2 scholarships but the actual benefit is only 1/3 of the total scholarship amounts less in loan.</p>

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<p>@cptofthehouse‌ </p>

<p>Thank you for all your responses and input. I appreciate it.</p>

<p>Good point, I guess it all depends on the company. Perhaps that (might) be something that will be offered to me someday, perhaps not…but it’s nice to know some companies offer that option to select employees.</p>

<p>Yes, the whole idea of debt is not something I’d like to get too tangled up in, if at all if I can help it. I used to think that being $96,0000 in student debt for the ideal private christian education I was seeking from my dream school -Seattle Pacific University, would be worth it. That it wouldn’t matter as long as I was getting what I really wanted out of my “ideal college experience”, while living in the state I so wanted to call my Home. However, I eventually realized that having that amount of debt had far greater consequences -including the very real possibility of having no choice but to return back to Wisconsin as soon as I graduated, and having to move back in with my parents as a result of this astronomically high debt load. </p>

<p>Someone put it to me well by saying this: “The choice seems to be to borrow heavily to escape for a few years (hopefully getting a good education) only to return to your home state (or wherever you parents are located) for many years until you are financially well off to pay back your debt…which will have far reaching implications throughout your future.” </p>

<p>I guess the key here is that no education is worth that high of debt, no matter where I try to reason with myself that it -could- be. It’s just not. Someone I knew who was spokesperson for managing money and debt said that after a college speech at a private university in Georgia, two students walked up to her and said they each had about 90k in debt, and were getting engaged that July after finally having graduated from their programs. You know you hear about stuff like that, and here are these two young, 20-somthing year-olds just beginning to plan their life after college, and already have over 180k combined in student loan debt. It’s insane to consider that’s even possible. </p>

<p>Thank you for your words of encouragement though. I will be sure to continue researching but in the meantime, I have scheduled a tour to check out my local CC in depth, and will begin my future plans in pursuit of my Associates there this Fall. </p>