<p>Hi! I'm a first generation college student and I don't really know how to approach reporting scholarships and the situations regarding that.</p>
<p>I won a few scholarships from private educational foundations. And, the foundations wrote me a check for education purposes so that I could put that into my bank for books and other educational fees. I understand that a lot of colleges reduce the aid they provide when scholarships from private companies are used to pay for the EFC. My EFC is around 20K and I was wondering if I am obligated to report the scholarship money that I received as a check. My family income AGI this year is ~50K, and I don't understand how my university expects my parents and I to pay for the EFC (especially when it's almost half of our income). I really need to use this scholarship money to lessen the burden on my family at the moment and I don't know how I should approach the checks from my private scholarships.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input! I really appreciate it! :D</p>
<p>Yes, you are required to report these scholarships to the colleges. Typically colleges will reduce your loans first. But unless I’m mistaken, you can then request the Direct Loans anyway.</p>
<p>If your AGI is $50,000, either you have significant assets (and that is how the schools expect you to pay your EFC), OR you made a mistake someplace on that FAFSA, OR your parents are self employed.</p>
<p>On my FAFSA, my SAR indicated that my EFC would be $11,180 but my school only gave me a formal estimated financial aid package with an EFC of over 20K. Should I appeal this? </p>
<p>Does your school also require the CSS Profile as a financial aid application form? If NOT, then your college does NOT guarantee to meet full need for all, and they did not.</p>
<p>For FAFSA only schools, the FAFSA EFC should be viewed as the MINIMUM you will be expected to pay.</p>
<p>Your FAFSA EFC is $11,800. It is NOT $20,000. That $20,000 is what the school is expecting your family to pay after the aid they awarded you.</p>
<p>As an FYI, colleges usually do NOT fund the EFC,. They expect the families to fund that. In all cases, the first in line to pay for college are families. </p>
<p>You need to report those outside scholarships.</p>
<p>Right now the option that you have mentioned is unaffordable. Do you have any less expensive options on your list? Can your family meet the FAFSA EFC?</p>
<p>You need to look for some place that you can actually afford to attend.</p>
<p>Nerdy, bottom line is you need to report all outside scholarships even if you received the check(s).</p>
<p>If you want informed advice about appealing and so forth you are going to have to provide more info. Looking at your other threads, is this Columbia or UPenn? You received the Jack Kent Cooke scholarship correct? Are your parents self-employed or do they own a business? Both of those could make your expected contribution at a school more than your fafsa efc.</p>
<p>So if you want more informed advice you are going to need to provide more detailed info on the financial picture.</p>
<p>Thanks! I’ll make sure to report my outside scholarships to my universities. They work for companies (not self employed). The only thing that I think that made our FAFSA EFC at 11K is that we have a rental property in addition to the house we live in. But that’s reported on our FAFSA EFC as well as the IDOC and CSS Profile. </p>
<p>This estimate is from Columbia. I just thought it was odd that the FAFSA EFC was significantly different than what the university provided. Do I have “grounds” to ask the financial aid office what the reasoning was or appeal?</p>
<p>You can ask Columbia. They should be able to tell you. If I were guessing, your parents took some allowable deductions (tax wise) for that rental property that were NOT allowed for financial aid purposes. I’m guessing but that is possible. The FAFSA EFC would not have taken that into consideration (the deductions part). Colleges using the profile scrutinize your income and assets in far more detail than the FAFSA does. </p>
<p>You don’t need “grounds” to ask for an explanation of your financial aid award. Just ask. And if you don’t understand the answer, ask again. It’s your financial aid package, and you have the right to understand how the school calculated your ability to pay.</p>
<p>Yes, colleges require that outside scholarship be reported to them, and yes, most colleges will decrease your financial aid accordingly. Look up outside scholarships on your school’s web site and it will likely tell you how that is handled. Usually, self help aid like work study and loans are reduced first. </p>
<p>As others have aptly said, you should understand how your need was calculated and what the school took into account in their own methodology that was not in FAFSA. I agree with Thumper that the rental was probably a culprit. One often gets tax depreciation and expenses as deductions with rentals that the fin aid process does not recognize and adds back into income. But mistakes do happen, and there could be items that are disputable when the school did the process. So you should know what was done and get explanations for anything questionable to you.</p>