Northeastern has offered me 36.2K in gift aid, but that leaves me w/ 30K+ in costs to pay on my own. I plan to use outside scholarships to carry a lot of the costs, & some I have already applied for are annual 4 year scholarships. I plan on doing 5 years with 3 co-ops (maybe finishing a semester early??).
So, if an outside scholarship offers to pay annually for 4 years of college, how would Northeastern divvy it up for a 5 year plan? Would the school take the funds and apply it accordingly, or would my scholarship funds stop being applied after I finish my 4th year?
(And if you have any other insight into how NEU works outside scholarships that would be much appreciated!)
Funds (aid and scholarship) are applied only when you are in classes, except for federal aid which varies slightly but has minimal effect. Federal aid will always be available during classes or sooner though.
If you have enough AP/IB credit to graduate a semester early (16 credits can mean one less semester of classes if planned properly, 32 for 2 semesters), you will save the COA for that semester.
The same aid model applies for summer sessions if used. If you have a 10K a year scholarship, 2.5K per summer session will be granted, and 5K for a traditional semester. The scholarship and aid will only run out after all 8 academic semesters have been used. Summer sessions count as half a semester in both cost and credit.
On co-op you pay no tuition but still have room/board costs, which are usually covered by co-op. Salaries vary by major, but the general rule is assuming break even.
The one negative: outside scholarships will only drop Northeastern aid. In fact, since the Northeastern Promise locks in your aid your first year, extra scholarships can make you need to reevaluate your aid package if they ever go away. So the outside scholarships won’t help. You’d have to talk to the FA office to get specifics on that. Outside scholarships also decide how they are divvy’d up, not Northeastern, so that can also vary.
My son has $20k/year in merit aid and eligibility for a small amount of loans. If some local organization awards him a $500 scholarship, will his merit aid or financial aid be reduced???
@bethanylm291 Outside scholarships will not affect merit aid. Nor will it affect subsidized federal loans as eligibility for those is determined by income reported on FAFSA.
Need based grants may be affected.
Thank you @TomSrOfBoston. So, if part of his financial aid package is listed as a Direct Unsubsidized Loan, that will be reduced with outside scholarships?
@bethanylm291 No, unsubsidized federal loans are available to anyone regardless of income or assets. Outside scholarships would only (possibly) have an effect on need based Northeastern grants.