<p>So I was wondering whether or not to apply for scholarships if we are getting a decent amount of financial aid from Penn. Lets say someone gets anywhere from 10k-40k in scholarships from penn. Would it be worth it to spend time on submitting scholarships? The reason I ask is because they do mention that they will change the amount of financial aid given depending on how much in scholarships you get. My career counselor said that unless I get enough scholarships that will amount to more than penn is giving me, then it might not be worth it because you will still be spending the same amount. For example, they're saying that if they gave you $20,000 in financial aid, but you get $5000 in scholarships later on, then they will reduce your financial aid to $15000 and you'll be spending the same amount.</p>
<p>[Financial</a> Aid - Is Saving Penalized? - financial-aid - College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/financial_aid/ants.htm]Financial”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/financial_aid/ants.htm)</p>
<p>I READ UP ON THIS! once Penn gives you their aid, you can go out and get all the scholarships you want. the scholarships will FIRST go toward the money you owe. AFTER that, it will go toward the work study, if you have one. THEN LASTLY, if there is any left, they will deduct it out of their aid. but at that point, it’s a free ride anyway. so it goes toward YOUR FAMILYS contribution. but you won’t have any left over to, as some people say, make money going to school.</p>
<p>there is an entire section on Penn’s website about outside scholarships.</p>
<p>Does Penn offer many scholarships?</p>
<p>^He meant need-based aid. Ivies do not offer scholarships unless you consider the occasional bending of need-based aid for athletes.</p>
<p>i mean, applying for scholarships now. wouldn’t that get factored into their financial aid expected family contribution and the money in assets that i have and deduct it?</p>
<p>no. scholarships usually pay out in the spring anyway. and it does not factor in, since that isn’t considered your family’s income. you won’t pay more for being a fantastic person and getting scholarships for it. trust me, I am getting all of this from the Penn website and my own knowledge of the subject.</p>
<p>I mean, call/email Penn SFS just to be sure, because sometimes their REAL policies contradict their posted ones.</p>
<p>
I know, but in this part I think you meant to say financial aid:
</p>
<p>direct quote from website:
When you receive an outside scholarship (i.e., scholarships awarded from non-governmental sources outside the University), you will receive a dollar for dollar reduction in the self-help component of your financial aid package. Self-help includes expected savings from summer earnings, and work-study. University grant will be reduced only after all self-help has been eliminated.</p>
<p>correct me if i’m wrong but lets say someone has no work study or summer earnings in his financial aid report… does that mean any scholarship would be seemingly useless because it will just start to take out of grant money?</p>
<p>Every student has a summer earnings requirement. Outside scholarships are first applied to the summer earnings requirement, second to the work study, and third to the aid provided by Penn. They aren’t applied to the parent’s contribution until after they are applied to absolutely everything else - which means never. </p>
<p>(Parent of current student with personal knowledge.)</p>
<p>There is no way to outmaneuver paying the federal EFC amount. Freshman year my S’s outside scholarships paid for his computer, funded the “gap” between institutional EFC and federal EFC, paid for his portion of school insurance, and eliminated his work study portion of financial aid. He had more outside scholarship money than the sum of these things and it was absorbed by the college. In other words, you lose that amount of school sponsored financial aid and must pay your EFC based on fafsa calculations. Some schools seem to get around this, but most are not so inclined. </p>
<p>We felt badly about winning scholarships that could have benefited others, but one doesn’t know when applying for scholarships how the finances will shake out, and what level of success one will have in applying for scholarships.</p>
<p>that doesn’t answer my question…
i’m saying i DO NOT have anything but grant money in my financial aid and I’m not missing something so don’t say I just don’t see it.
My question again is if there is no work-study or summer contributions, does th scholarship get taken directly out of grant money?
I’ll also add the question if its easier to answer… Is there any point to applying for scholarships if my financial aid only includes grant money?</p>
<p>Do you have a “gap” between your institutionally computed EFC and federal EFC - or does your school only use federal (fafsa) EFC? If you have a gap, scholarship money will help.</p>
<p>If you don’t and also do not have any of the other components we have all mentioned then you will not benefit from applying for scholarships, since they will simply reduce aid you have already been awarded.</p>
<p>Can you explain this gap thing to me Getalifemom, thanks.</p>
<p>For some there is no gap between the two methods of computing/determining financial aid: federal (fafsa) and institutional (CSS Profile for example or in the case of Penn, their own form) </p>
<p>Living very frugally and in the same home for 20 years, we have a good deal of home equity. The federal method does not consider home equity and gives an EFC of 6K, but many institutional methods DO consider home equity. Ours is capped at 2 1/2 times income which helps and is less than actual equity, but we’re expected to tap into that amount of equity to pay for college. Not unreasonable, except in today’s current economy, it’s VERY risky and home equity loans aren’t as easy to obtain. Plus, our present income would make it terribly hard to make payments on the loan. Our institutional EFC is 13K.</p>
<p>The “gap” is the difference between fafsa EFC of 6K and institutional EFC of 13K. We must come up with the additional 7K, but can use outside scholarships to pay it without losing school financial aid. We cannot use outside scholarships to pay the fafsa determined 6K EFC. </p>
<p>I hope providing the numbers helps make this a little more clear. We struggled a bit to understand this concept early on too, so don’t feel jaded about the process. Any financial help offered by others is to be gratefully and graciously appreciated. Feeling that we’re owed something is unhealthy and counterproductive.</p>
<p>i still dont understand this. lets say fafsa gives no money, penn gives around 40k in scholarships, and you have to pay 16k. how would the scholarship money be distributed?</p>
<p>@PhotoOp:</p>
<p>You’ve raised an interesting point. At this point, on my PennPlan Online page, there’s a Financial Aid section, and an Estimated Total Amount to be Covered by Family. I see that the Federal Work Study is limited to $3100, but where can I find the summer earnings requirement you mentioned? There’s a Student Summer Employment, but that falls under the Estimated Total Amount to be Covered by Family. If this is the summer earnings you’re talking about, does that mean the scholarship money I earn can actually be used to lessen how much my family (parents) have to pay in the end (since there doesn’t appear to be a limit on summer earnings)?</p>
<p>what if FAFSA determines a 10k EFC, but the institution calculates a 6k EFC. then what happens?</p>
<p>In the end, Penn’s financial aid statement is what you got to work with.</p>
<p>You’ll submit your FAFSA, CSS, tax forms, etc. to Penn and they’ll do their own magic calculations and spit out a number for you. I feel like, though more often than not, they follow pretty closely to the EFC given by your FAFSA.</p>
<p>If Penn manages to give you more money than expected, hurray!</p>