I attend Florida Gulf Coast University, and I planned to receive financial aid from various sources that total $22,327.08 for the year (fall 2018, spring 2019, and summer 2019). I recently found out that one of the scholarships, from a donor linked through the school’s foundation, was cancelled ($3000 for the year). I contacted a financial aid advisor and was told that I was “overawarded” for the year and that my aid exceeds my “cost of attendance”. I am going to be living off-campus with a roommate, and commuting to school daily. I still have an additional scholarship that has not been put into my account and I was told that I should find a way to defer this scholarship until the summer semester, which coincidentally cannot be done. Are they allowed to revoke these scholarships that I worked hard to qualify for and earn? The advisor informed me that there is no way I can get back the scholarship, which I find to be frustrating and unfair as a student. Is there anything I can do?
Are you a Florida resident?
Most colleges do not give forms of aid that exceed the cost of attendance. So yes, the school can revoke your award.
Yes, I am a Florida resident.
Yes, the schools limit financial aid to the COA. It will also make a difference the order they apply the financial aid. If you were awarded any work study or loans, ask those to be removed before the $3k. You can always work a non-work study job. If you are going to get $3k as a grant rather than $3k as a loan, take the grant.
If they are including the summer 2019 in the total package, ask them to move the $3k to the summer. You will have to report the outside scholarship too, and if the school will not move anything to the summer, you’ll likely lose more money. You may also be able to have your personal COA increased to include the summer and the rent and board costs for the summer if you will be a student.
Some forms of aid can only be applied to certain billed items. At my daughter’s school (private), any money from the school could only be applied to billed items, nothing could be refunded to the student from a merit scholarship even for rent or food. Even Bright Futures money they limited like that (it is a choice the school has). The Florida resident grant (only for private schools) can only be used for tuition, not for r&b, not for fees, not for insurance. The order of application of the awards made a difference of $1000/sem for my daughter. One FA officer was very helpful and applied it all so that anything refundable was applied last. She left the school and for the last year my daughter got $2000 less for her rent and living expenses. Sucked. It was like losing a $2000 scholarship.
I suggest you take your bills (for 2 semesters or for the summer too) and list everything out separately, then list all your personal expenses and see if it exceeds the total COA the school gives you. If so, appeal for an increase in the COA. If not, work with the school on the order of applying the grants and scholarships you were awarded and see what can be refunded to you (Pell grants, the BF if your school allows that and most Florida publics do); apply those last.
So, your cost of attendance for an academic year, if you don’t live with your parents, is $20,390 as determined by the school. This includes tuition and fees, books and supplies, room and board, $1,700 for personal expenses and $1,700 for transportation. Do you think that you should be provided with more than it costs to go to school full-time and support yourself?
When I was a high school senior, I ran into the “issue” of extreme overage (like, tens of thousands of $ in scholarship money beyond what I could actually accept). Some awards could be deferred; others were just lost, or adjusted to $0 + allowed me to keep the ‘title’ of a X Scholarship Winner. Iirc, when I looked it up, there is an actual law preventing schools/etc from awarding you above the cost of attendance.
There’s really no need for any sour grapes here. If you have funding all the way up to the cost of attendance, you will still receive a “refund” check you can use for living expenses, rent, etc. It’s quite generous, or at least is in my school’s case. It’s always been enough money to pay my expenses and then some while at school, so not being able to accept even more $ above and beyond what it REALLY costs to go to college… is not really a problem. Hopefully this makes things clearer 
At this point it may be too late, but another option is to work with them on changing the COA. A one time purchase of a computer can sometimes be included in a COA (it was for my daughter). Is the cost of books used to calculate the COA accurate? Do you have enough for transportation, etc?
Well, it might have something to do with living off campus now, versus on campus. Some schools have different COA numbers based on living situation.
So if the COA for off campus is less than for on campus, you can only get aid up to the lower number.