<p>I know that in most schools, a scholarship will REPLACE grants that you receive.. </p>
<p>ex: if a school costs 50k, and they give me a 30k grant (I am expected to pay 20k), and I bring in a 5k scholarship, then that will reduce my grant to 25k, and I will basically have to pay the same thing out of my pocket (yes, I know they usually replace work study& loans first, then grants)</p>
<p>I was wondering if this applied to Rice Merit Scholarships too. I don't know how merit scholarships/need grants work together. Would getting a trustee scholarship for 16k be ADDED to your financial aid, not replaced?</p>
<p>I would appreciate any information on the topic.</p>
<p>Selter</p>
<p>If you get a Rice merit scholarship (this is probably true of merit scholarships anywhere), any other outside scholarships you get have no effect on it. Rice doesn’t even ask you what other scholarships you’ve gotten.</p>
<p>Berkeley Mom - I think he is asking about needbased grants and merit scholarships… Selter, unfortunately — The Rice Merit scholarship would reduce your “need” so the needbased grant would be reduced to reflect your lower need. It would not reduce your EFC. That’s the way it works at virtually all the schools…</p>
<p>Hm. So, at pretty much every school that meets 100% of need, merit scholarships are kind of useless. I mean, it has no real effect on the price I would pay :p.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info :-)</p>
<p>Oops! You’re right. I somehow missed this: “I don’t know how merit scholarships/need grants work together”. Thanks for the correction, anxiousmom.</p>
<p>Selter, merit scholarships are helpful for those of us who are told that we can afford way more of the cost than we really can. That’s our only hope for DS to get into a lot of schools.</p>
<p>Well, the scholarships reduce your loans (DS has no loans his first year due to outside scholarships, and reduced loans the other years due to a smaller renewable scholarship. That’s great!) and if the scholarship reduces or eliminates your workstudy (like my DD), it means that workstudy money is given to you as grant, and that frees you up to work a non-workstudy job and make money. Again, you come out ahead!!! There are lots of non-work-study jobs on campus, plus lots of jobs in the neighborhood, including tutoring, etc. which pays well. 
And having no loans means you graduate clear and free. :)</p>
<p>1 question:</p>
<p>Say my EFC is 16k, and I am planning on taking 10k of those in loans- would those 10k in loans be replaced by the scholarship, or would they not count because they’re loans “outside” of my EFC? </p>
<p>@MaineLonghorn:
I understand that. I am not that well off financially, and I am thankful for need based aid, but my EFC would still be overwhelming.</p>
<p>Just want to clarify an earlier statement- Rice does expect you to report outside scholarships. My freshman son received 2 outside scholarships- $500 one-time award and $1000 renewable. We reported both and signed the checks over to the university. </p>
<p>Contact the financial aid department with your specific questions. They’ve been terrific in quickly answering all our emails.</p>
<p>Selter, I think Rice is on the more generous end when it considers outside scholarships, inside scholarships, and need aid. But Rice, like all schools expects your parents to fully fund, at a minimum, the Federal EFC. Rice does not “gap” students, so any loans above and beyond the $2500 limit each student is expected to hold per year are considered to be the choice of that student’s family. You can remove those work study and 2500 loans with outside scholarships, but any additional scholarship funds do not directly help you unless the total amount exceeds all of the need based aid you have been promised.</p>
<p>If, for the sake of round numbers, we assume Rice COA is $45k and you have a Rice-determined EFC of $16k, Rice will award 45k - 16k - 2.5k - 1.8k = $24.7k as a need-based award. </p>
<p>If you receive a 3k outside scholarship you would still get $24.7k from Rice (and lose all Rice loans and $500 in work study). If you won a 10k scholarship you would be Rice-loan and workstudy free, but your Rice need-aid would be reduced to $19k - your family (you or your parents) would still be expected to provide the full 16k.</p>
<p>I cannot address the interplay between merit scholarships and need aid, but I believe they also do not stack. If you won a merit scholarship from Rice, it would only help you if it exceeded the need-based aid you were to be awarded. Others can probably address this (and as always) if you want to be sure contact the financial aid department at Rice.</p>
<p>It may not be what a prospective student wants to hear, but scholarships reducing need is the policy of all “guarantee to meet full need” schools that I know of. Most colleges are far less generous.</p>
<p>Thanks! All your answers have helped me a lot. I appreciate you all taking your time!</p>
<p>Selter</p>