<p>I am a financial aid recipient and because my family owns a business, Columbia asked us to contribute almost double of our FAFSA EFC. I have outside scholarships, though, that would alleviate much of the financial burden from my parents, but I learned that Columbia instead of letting them be used for my parent contribution would actually use them to replace my grants.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any tips in getting outside scholarships to be used for family contribution?</p>
<p>thats what happened to me.................insted of accepting less grant money, i took some of the scholarship money and bought me a new laptop.</p>
<p>that's so cheap, grrr</p>
<p>some scholarships of mine pay directly to me (which is less common, isn't it?), which means they're taxed, right? But at least that means I can use it towards the student contribution, right? My student contribution is more than 25% of what I have, so (actually it's more than all of what I have) . . . . what, do they want me to use more than all of it in my first year? If that's it, I don't know what they're thinking about.</p>
<p>they told me that they're taken off the loans...which is good...</p>
<p>oh my god. Columbia's financial aid is HORRIBLE. They want to know EVERYTHING you and your ancestors own/owned. Its rediculous. They gave the WORST financial aid out of anyone, and only in loans ($5000).</p>
<p>Luckily, Princeton gave six times that....in grant.</p>
<p>ivyboy- wow! Are you serious?!</p>
<p>yeah ivyboy, if thats true than thats pretty much a full scholarship.</p>
<p>NOT true...Columbia gave me financial aid that was approximately equivalent to the other schools...and almost all in grants. They gave me almost as much in grant as most of the other schools (non-ivy league) gave me in merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Me too, Columbia matched my Dartmouth letter when I showed it to them. I've heard that Columbia is notorious for being stingy. Either way, the whole outside scholarship thing eating into grants is bull. Is there any way around it?</p>
<p>It definitely varies depending on a case-by-case basis. Of all the colleges I applied to a while back, Columbia gave me the most, and Cornell was the worst (made me pay twice as much as Columbia).</p>
<p>They way it works is that first outside scholarships decrease the loans, then work study, only after that does it decrease the grants. However, if you call they can arrange for it to decrease EFC. But i think there has to be some extenuating circumstances.</p>
<p>I doubt any college would let you take off from the EFC. EFC is the amount, through a formula, that your family can pay based on the information given. Whether or not you have scholarships, that's the amount that your family can pay. Therefore, the college will take off from the other money they gave you. It makes most sense, of course, to take off from the loans first, etc.</p>
<p>Columbias been good to me. I had to pay 45k bc at first all my aid was loans. However, i showed what cornell and penn gave me and it double that amount in grants. Im getting 8.5k in grants which is pretty good.</p>
<p>Stingy!? What!?</p>
<p>I'm getting a good $31k in grants. Thank God, or I would have died. Then again, my family's financial situation isn't exactly fantastic, but it definitely makes my life easier.</p>
<p>Excellent, parking cars!!! Fin-aid is so variable, wow.</p>
<p>Yeah, it definitely varies from person-to-person. I guess that we tend to forget that people from all walks of life and all income classes are going to the school. It just depends on the situation, and I guess who the school thinks needs help the most. There are some people who are able to attend Columbia for almost nothing.</p>
<p>Do you think schools try to attract the kids they want most using fin-aid, or is it all math? Of course, they say it's all math. But the math sure produces many different answers.</p>
<p>penn and columbia gave me the best fin aid
NYU and NU were the absolute worst</p>
<p>I spoke with a fin-aid officer on my Days On Campus, he told me that if outside scholarships are involved, they would first take off loans, then work-study, then parent/student contribution, and LASTLY grants.</p>
<p>A couple of people I know (and including me) are getting very good fin-aid deals from Columbia...So axlifter (and anyone else), I suggest you call them up and ask personally instead of "learning" the information from other people.</p>
<p>I thought if you got grants from another need-based university, that Columbia would meet their offer.</p>