<p>I'm wondering what other music students' experiences are regarding Outside Scholarships and their conservatory/college.
My son won two outside music scholarships, totaling $7,000 for his freshman year. As required by the first scholarship, he endorsed a check to his university and forwarded it to them. The university then re-tallied my son's financial aid, which we qualifed for under FAFSA, using the $4,000 outside scholarship as part of his Financial Aid Package, which resulted in reducing his University Grant and the amount of subsidized loans he is entitled to.
Needless to say, I am very upset and am trying to work with the second scholarship organization to see if they can give my son the check and he can re-write it as payment to the university so it comes directly from him.
Am I missing something here? The financial aid people keep telling me these Outside Scholarships--if the payment comes directly to the university--are part of his financial aid package.
?????</p>
<p>I'm under the impression that this practice varies by school. What school are you talking about ?</p>
<p>The practice does vary by school. Son had about $1500 across a couple from high school. The way they were set up, the school wanted first semester grades to release payment. The checks were cut directly to my son. We did not inform the school.</p>
<p>D got a nice local one for $4000, renewed second year for $6000. We had already gotten her aid letter, ao I informed her school. They made no adjustment to aid (she had a combination of merit and need based). Year two for the $6000, we had no idea it was going to be renewed. Again, she already had her aid award, we informed the school of the renewal, and again they made no adjustment to her aid.</p>
<p>We were lucky.</p>
<p>Some schools will reduce it dollar for dollar, some will reduce a portion of the institutional aid, and a few will not adjust their aid, letting you "keep" it.</p>
<p>There's a few discussions on the financial aid forum.</p>
<p>You can always try and cite a new string instrument upgrade as a special circumstance; some will factor that into consideration.</p>
<p>My older son's school (UPenn) did exactly as you described. His financial aid package was a combination of grants and loans. They reduced his loans by the amount of his private scholarships. They would also reduce it by any "money from Grandma" or anything else they knew about.</p>
<p>This was because they figured out what the "expected family contribution" was, and that number was etched in stone. So if any outside money came in, it did not affect that number - that what what mom and dad were to pay. Money our son earned via scholarships or gifts from other family was not condisidered to be part of "our" contribution, but rather, paid on behalf of S by a third party (which, actually, it was). They were nice in that they used it first to reduce loans, rather than grants. So S still benefitted. (We read about the policy ahead of time, and therefore, asked dear Grandma to make her graduation present check out to S, not to the school.)</p>
<p>The school's argument is that any money they give my S to meet his "need" is being removed from other students' use. If my S then doesn't "need" it, then the release the money for other students.</p>
<p>We differ on the definition of "need", of course, but I do see the school's point of view.</p>
<p>I am happy to say that S2's school (Juilliard) does not have the same policy. His scholarships reduced our total.</p>
<p>In our experience, in looking around, S1's school's policy is much more common than S2's school's policy.</p>
<p>Edit: I just wanted to add that the policy is dictated somewhat by federal guidelines. I don't hang out on the finanical CC pages often, but they might have more details there. Basically, Federal loans are based on how much "need" you have according to a very strict formula. Anything that alters the numbers in that formula alters the end result. If your kid's income suddenly changes because he got $4k scholarship - earmarked for his college expenses, then his need according to federal guidelines goes down an equal amount. In this case, it's not an arbitrary decision by the college.</p>
<p>Also, if the organization giving the scholarship claims tax deductions or whatever, then they will have to give the check directly to the college, not to any individual. That is the only way they can prove it was spent the way they designated it. Otherwise it's a "prize", not a scholarship.</p>
<p>For the fun of it, I looked up the policies on a few random schools. Here are some excerpts.</p>
<p>Oberlin</p>
<p>In most cases, receipt of merit-based scholarships from non-Oberlin sources will not affect the amount of grant and scholarship assistance that a student receives from Oberlin College.
• Scholarships based totally or in part on merit will not affect aid received from Oberlin sources, provided that the total amount of grants and scholarships from Oberlin does not exceed billed costs (which may include tuition, room, dining, and activity fee). These scholarships will replace self-help (loans & employment) offered in the original aid package.
• Need-based grants, awards, entitlements, and benefits from federal, state, or other sources (including tuition benefits from student/parent employers) will replace Oberlin College Grants and/or Scholarships dollar for dollar (e.g., a $1000 state grant will replace $1000 of Oberlin College Grant).
• Financial aid from federal, state, and other sources will be adjusted in response to receipt of outside scholarships and awards in accordance to eligibility rules established by the Department of Education or other program administering body.</p>
<p>Your outside scholarships/awards normally reduce Federal Work-Study first, then Federal Perkins Loan, and then Federal Stafford Loan. If you prefer, we can first reduce your Federal Perkins Loan.</p>
<hr>
<p>Brown</p>
<p>Receiving outside scholarships and tuition benefits is an excellent way to help reduce your need to work and/or borrow student loans while at Brown. When you receive an outside scholarship, our office is required to reevaluate your financial aid package and account for the additional resource. Keep in mind that federal regulations stipulate that an outside scholarship cannot be used to reduce your parent contribution. </p>
<p>Note: This policy does not apply to entitlement awards (State Scholarships, Pell Grants, ACG, SMART and Federal SEOG). Receipt of these funds will result in dollar for dollar reduction in University Scholarship </p>
<p>Outside scholarships can be used to reduce the following:
Student Contribution from Summer Earnings<br>
Work-Study/Campus Employment Expectation
Loans </p>
<hr>
<p>UNC</p>
<p>Should you receive any outside funding, federal law requires that you must report this information to the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid. Completion of the Outside Scholarships and Resources Reporting Form must be done every year for ALL external/outside awards. If you learn that you have been awarded an outside scholarship or benefit after returning the Outside Scholarships and Resources eporting Form, you must notify our office by submission of an additional copy.</p>
<p>Outside funding will be used first to reduce any Federal loan funds, then Work-Study awarded.
• If the outside funding exceeds the amount of Federal loans and Work-Study awarded (or if your original financial aid award package includes only need-based University scholarships and grants), any awarded need-based scholarship and grants must be reduced or cancelled.</p>
<hr>
<p>Stanford</p>
<p>Outside awards benefit you by reducing and even eliminating your need to work to help meet your student budget. Your outside awards will reduce the Student Responsibility portion of your financial aid award dollar-for-dollar. Your Stanford scholarship will be reduced only if your outside awards exceed your Student Responsibility.</p>
<hr>
<p>WUStL</p>
<p>It is the policy of the University that your receipt of an outside scholarship will not result in a reduction of your Washington University scholarship. </p>
<p>In rare cases, the University is compelled to reduce your Washington University scholarship. These infrequent situations include: </p>
<p>When the total amount of all scholarships and grants exceeds your annual cost of attendance at Washington University;
When you have been awarded a federal or state grant as part of the financial assistance package and the total of these grants -- along with a Washington University scholarship and outside scholarships -- would exceed your federal need.</p>
<p>My head is spinning--but thank you for all the interesting input.</p>
<p>I'm still processing but my latest understanding about my son's school is:
First they take from the University Grant
Second they take from the Perkins Loan
Third they cut the Subsidized Stafford Loan
Pushing us into 4th: Unsubsidized Stafford.
They've been nice enough to not touch my son's University Academic and Music Scholarships (which could have been better...) but I am still very unhappy. They also took as aid a new scholarship that my son got for staying in public schools since first grade. All of these scholarships really seem to end up benefiting the University more than they help us. It's so frustrating!</p>
<p>I agree. I think it's shameful that they cut the University Grant first. Many schools seem to take the first $500 cut from loans, and then it is split even between loans and grants. However, "grant" usually signifies financial need rather than merit, so it is within the realm of things to cut.</p>
<p>I'd be calling them, though, and asking to split the cost between that and loans. Or work study. Point out to them that it would be nice to at least realize some benefit from your S's achievements. If this is at a university with a separate music school, you may wish to contact the music school dean as well, and ask for assistance.</p>
<p>The policy does vary by school, so you need to check each school. Your son did have $7000 in money that actually reduced his need calculated by FAFSA by that amount. That is why your financial aid was adjusted. Truthfully, you are supposed to report ALL outside scholarships whether they are sent directly to the school OR to you. Some schools allow "stacking" of aid up to the cost of attendance....others don't.</p>
<p>I asked them in advance about the outside scholarships and the school's financial aid officers were NOT forthcoming about how these would affect my son's financial aid package. The closest I got to this was a mumbled "it might affect the college grant..."</p>
<p>When I spoke with them again yesterday to clarify why our aid was reduced, they indicated that if they don't receive an outside scholarship check, they won't know about it (i.e. they do not seem to require that we report an outside scholarship). In fact, they cried for pity about all the outside scholarship paperwork they have to deal with! Poor guys...</p>
<p>I would not jump to any conclusions concerning official school policy based on that comment from the financial aid officer. They may agree with you that the official policy is harsh and are trying to help you avoid any penalties in an unofficial way that is not likely to be detected. It is quite possible that the school's published policy is that everyone must report all outside scholarships, but some people conveniently "forget" to do that in cases where the school is unlikely to find out the source of the money.</p>
<p>I don't think I'm going to have a choice with the second scholarship, anyway; I think that organization will insist on sending it directly to the school. </p>
<p>I'm adjusting.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your input. It has helped me get over it--</p>
<p>enough that I realized today that I should be getting excited for my son and I got him new college bedding. Moving on...</p>
<p>Hi Mom4...hope your son has a wonderful college and music experience!!</p>
<p>Just bumping this up as the result of an interesting find in the financial aid forum in the thread here: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/676095-where-send-scholarship-award.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/676095-where-send-scholarship-award.html</a></p>
<p>The direct link to the program mentioned is here Scholarship</a> Programs - College Scholarships from Scholarship America . The searchable feature should indicate if your institution of choice participates.</p>
<p>As a rule of thumb, it sounds like Need-based awards probably will be reduced by amount of outside scholarship, but Merit awards should not be affected. This makes sense to me. </p>
<p>It can make a big difference, in the need-based award schools, to have the reduction come from 'loans' as opposed to 'grants', of course. Wonder if f.a. offices might be open to some negotiation on this point...</p>
<p>Some schools will apply merit scholarships to your "need" so watch out for this!</p>
<p>True enough, but the devil is in the details. If all of the merit aid replaces need-based grants, then it did not help. If it replaces only loans and work-study, then you are still benefiting from it. Most likely, it will fall somewhere in between and reduce some of each.</p>