<p>The schools that my son is agonizing between choosing right now have offered outstanding FA packages which do not include loans or work study. We have nothing to apply a scholarship toward.</p>
<p>I have seen mention of asking the scholarship fund to do something like buy the student a computer in lieu of $. How do you do that? What other things could they buy on the student's behalf? Would a gift card to like Amazon.com be an option?</p>
<p>The one scholarship he has in hand says that a check will be made out to the school and himself and is a local organization. Another scholarship he anticipates will be a check made out to him and not the school (does this still technically need to be reported to the school?), this one is also local. </p>
<p>I expect that any other scholarships he receives from national organizations won't have this potential for negotiation.</p>
<p>Is there some line that defines a "scholarship" versus a gift or some other aid assistance? Hypothetically even if S received a computer in lieu of $ would he have to report that as a "scholarship"?</p>
<p>If he receives/accepts the outside scholarships, he will have to report these as income (and pay taxes on), correct?, even though they will be used only toward the school's specific grant (so that they pay out less).</p>
<p>Any help appreciated.</p>
<p>Schools have their own rules regarding scholarships. Colorado College allows them to applied to EFC. University of Chicago allows them to be put towards the student’s contribution expectation. Some had a 50/50 split policy, some allow them to be used towards books and computers. </p>
<p>You do have to check the tax laws specifically, but generally, grants that exceed tuition, supplies, books have to be reported as income. If they go towards the school’s grant and the net effect is the same, that is not a problem Most schools want all outside awards reported to them and make it part of their policy. </p>
<p>You need to talk to each college financial aid office and find out exactly what the policy is and how any award would affect the award. This is not one of those things that can be given a general answer.</p>
<p>The schools will “eat” the money. That I already know.</p>
<p>My question I was really trying to ask is how to get something in exchange for cash that would not need to be reported as a scholarship.</p>
<p>S will have to deny the scholarship awards otherwise.</p>
<p>The school may not eat the scholarship. I would suggest you call and ask. My D1 is at a meet need/no loan school and had a large o/s scholarship freshman year. At this school they do include an expectation for summer earnings and during school earnings from the student. They did not spell that out in the FA package - it was “inside” the EFC. So unless you are paying nothing - you probably will be able to apply the scholarship to the student portion (most no-loan schools do this). Also the Federal Regulations allow for Professional Judgement to add the cost of a computer to the COA - and the scholarship could be applied to that. I did this successfully. Note some will require a receipt for the computer purchase.</p>
<p>How this worked - they raised the COA by 1800 (or so) applied the scholarship - which actually went NET to out of pocket (so EFC reduced by $1800) then I purchased the computer out of pocket. So net/net I paid the same overall but got a new computer out of the deal. </p>
<p>In later years she had o/s scholarships applied to expected student earnings. The scholarships were larger than the credit - so the school did net a little money too.</p>