<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>I was awarded a New World Scholars award through NEU's business school today, $3500/year.</p>
<p>I have already received my tentative financial aid award, which includes around $9000 in university grants per year, not including my Dean's award or my Stafford and Perkins loans. My family EFC (as per NEU) is about 24k. My current award (without the new scholarship) is about 30k in grants, (including the 20k Dean's), $1500 in work study, $1000 in Perkins, and the $3500/$2000 sub/unsub. Stafford (and this is all yearly, not by semester.)</p>
<p>So my question: will my aid package change at all with the addition of a new $3500 scholarship? As in, will my total grant aid increase so that my family will end up paying less? Or will my current grant aid be deducted less the amount of my new scholarship? I'd be pretty bummed if this scholarship didn't really affect the cost for my family.</p>
<p>Is it possible that this scholarship be added on top, but then they take away my Perkins loan or work-study?</p>
<p>I've emailed my financial aid counselor, I'm just desperate for answers because this is something I want to be excited about but I just have a horrible feeling this scholarship doesn't actually mean anything for my cost.</p>
<p>Need-based aid is affected by scholarships, because it’s based off of how much you can pay out of pocket. It is definitely possible that your need-based package will change based on receiving this additional scholarship. When I got some outside scholarship money ($2000-3000) beyond what I got from the university, my work study went away (which I think was also around $1500). Your additional scholarship probably won’t mean $3500 less out of pocket, but it’s still better than not getting the scholarship.</p>
<p>It is possible, but not always that need based aid is affected by merit. But it usually, and I say usually without knowing NEU’s policies, not such a bad thing because MOST schools will take the money off the self help first. If you lose Work Study money or Stafford Direct Loan money, you can still find job on a non work study basis, and still take the Staffod loans but just not on a subsidized basis, so you aren’t losing dollar for dollar and could even make out with the work study part. </p>
<p>A lot of work study jobs are on the same list as regular student jobs; you just get paid out of the WS fund, and many kids get their own jobs that are more convenient and even pay more. My niece did not use her WS allotment at all her freshman year till the last minute because she found a higher paying job with the hours she wanted, closer logistically, than anything on the WS list. You are not guaranteed the job or the hours with work study. It’s not technically an award, as you do have to find the job from the list, get the job, and neither thing is a sure thing, and then you have to work the hours before getting penny one. You get my drift here. </p>
<p>The way it works with federal money, is that the amounts HAVE to be reduced, if your awards are such that you are paying less than EFC. The FAFSA EFC is the LEAST you can pay before you get federal subsidies and funds. But you can get the Direct Loans on an unsub basis to pay towards the EFC.</p>
<p>It comes down to how NEU will apply all of this. Unfortunately, some school do have internal financial aid policies that will grab any merit grant money and apply it directly to the grants that they give on a need basis. So, yes, that is possible. But usually it goes off the self help first and that is a good thing.</p>
<p>I called today and was told that my grant aid will not be affected whatsoever, but it wasn’t clear whether or not my WS will go away or my Perkins or anything like that. Still, I’d rather have a scholarship than a loan! Thank you both for the insight, it helped a lot!</p>