<p>I received a scholarship for $500, and FSU reduced my aid by $501.. Why is that? </p>
<p>I spent hours working on that scholarship -_-</p>
<p>Oh and are the people in the FA office usually buttholes? I called awhile ago and the guy on the phone basically said “Just email this kind of question to <a href=“mailto:ofacs@admin.fsu.edu”>ofacs@admin.fsu.edu</a>” and they haven’t responded even though I asked weeks ago regarding this situation… But they can send me an email in about 30 minutes saying that they “adjusted” my FA package (read: punished me for having a scholarship) based on the outside scholarship money…</p>
<p>I’m trying not to get upset, but everyone kept saying “They’ll reduce portions, just portions… and they’ll give you the rest.” not that they’d take everything away and then some…</p>
<p>It seems so unfair, but your EFC is your EFC, and any outside scholarships reduce institutional aid, but they leave your EFC the same. You sign paperwork that you have to report outside scholarships, and most insist on making the check out to the U anyway. Hiding it means you could loose ALL your aid. </p>
<p>The only students who directly benefit from outside scholarships paid to the school are those not on FA. And many non for profit local scholarships really don’t understand that they are not always benefiting the student. They are really benefiting the school.</p>
<p>A student receiving financial aid in the form of subsidized Perkins or Stafford loans, or doing work-study, surely directly benefits from receiving outside scholarships when the student is able to pay down the loans or not have to work as much in a work-study program.</p>
<p>I still want my dollar back >_> </p>
<p>and I wish they had told me that I wasted my time applying for scholarships and winning… I’m taking money from other people since I can’t do anything with the money when they could have… I feel horrible.</p>
<p>@lizard - I didn’t receive any loans because I have an EFC of 0.</p>
<p>Dnerd, it sounds like you were fortunate enough to be awarded more than enough money in grants and scholarships to cover all of your college expenses. There are tons of students though with low or even 0 EFCs that don’t receive enough in grants or scholarships to cover all college expenses and are “awarded” loans in their financial aid packages and/or work-study.</p>
<p>Yeah, I don’t care about any of that. This is extra stuff that I spent months working on and I even put off some school work to write essays for other scholarship competitions. That money is going absolutely nowhere when it can at least go to someone who can actually use it (like the people you mentioned). I guess I’m going to have to politely decline the other scholarships I won and hope that they give them to the "runner up"s.</p>
<p>Yea, you have a problem others wish they could have. Maybe, with the permission of the people who gave you the scholarships and the financial aid office, the “extra” outside scholarships you won could be put on ice legally in a bank trust account and you could use the money later for graduate school?</p>