<p>I will be attending an in-state university that determines need based on FAFSA only. I've already received merit scholarship award offers to attend both my state choices. However, since my merit offers were received, state tuition has increased at each state school and other expenses (room/board/etc.) may increase as well. I'm certain the universities' merit scholarship offers will remain the same.</p>
<p>My mom has a chronic illness and is on a very modest amount of private disability (non-government). Due to her illness, our health/medical, insurance, and other expenses make it difficult for my parents to assist with college. There is also some personal and small business debt they are repaying that will probably not be reflected accurately on the FAFSA. </p>
<p>If I receive private scholarship money, will private scholarships help reduce my family's EFC, or will the state universities only take part of my award away (such as a much-needed student loan or possible grant money) and leave the same amount of EFC in place? I understand I can't receive more funds than the cost of attendance, so I'm simply referring to much-needed "gap" money, as my state universities are under no obligation to meet total need. </p>
<p>Thanks for any help or suggestions. I'm reading up on this, but could use some additional advice.</p>
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<p>If I receive private scholarship money, will private scholarships help reduce my family's EFC>></p>
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<p>Private scholarships usually reduce your NEED. You say that you received merit aid. In most cases, private scholarship do not reduce merit aid unless NEED is tied to the award. </p>
<p>In any case, the only way to know how private scholarships affect aid at your college(s) is to contact YOUR colleges and ask.</p>
<p>I don't know of many situations, however, where the private scholarships would reduce your EFC. EFC is what your FAMILY is expected to contribute...and is not paid with scholarship monies in most cases. However, there are some schools which allow "stacking" of financial aid up to the cost of attendance. You need to ask YOUR college.</p>
<p>Scholarships generally reduce your need. If a school is meeting your full need then an outside scholarship would reduce your financial aid awards. If they are not meeting your full need, as calculated by the COA less your EFC, then the scholarship should be able to be used to cover the GAP. It cannot generally be used to reduce the EFC. </p>
<p>For instance if the school costs $20,000 and your EFC is $8,000 then your 'need' is $12,000. If you have merit awards of $5,000 then your need is reduced to $7,000. If you are awarded $7,000 of need based aid then your full need is met. If you got an outside scholarship of $1,000 it would reduce your 'need' by $1,000 (not your EFC) so they would generally reduce your need based award to $6,000 to reflect this (usually loans and WS are reduced before grants). </p>
<p>However if they had only awarded you $5,000 in need based aid then you would have $2,000 in unmet need. A scholarship of $1,000 should be able to be used toward the $2,000 unmet need.</p>
<p>It is always best to ask your school for their specific policies.</p>
<p>Personal and business debt is not taken into account by FAFSA. However, if your family has a large amount of out of pocket medical expenses because of your Mom's health problems you can ask for a special circumstances adjustment to reflect this. You file FAFSA with your actual income and assets. Then you contact the school financial aid office and explain the circumstances. You will be asked to provide detailed supporting documentation of medical bills. If they approve an adjustment they can go into your FAFSA and reduce the income to reflect this. (note - they can adjust it - you cannot). Then FAFSA will produce a new EFC. We did this a couple of years ago when we had over $10,000 in medical bills and it reduced out EFC by $2-3,000.</p>