Unethical?

Parents Forum
1

<p>My college's financial aid department (I'm an incoming freshman) has a policy to reduce my financial aid package one-to-one wiith any outside scholarships I receive. First they reduce the loans, then the grants.</p>

<p>So the college I'm going to costs $31,000. I got $4,500 in loans and $20,000 in grants, so my family's expected contribution is $6,500. Obviously, I wouldn't mind getting rid of the loans by getting scholarships, but I'd hate to see the grant money slip away, especially as my family is in really bad financial shape now. To demonstrate how my college works in the finaid department, I'll give these scenarios:
-if I were to receive $24,000 in outside scholarships, my package would look like this: $24,000 outside scholarships, $500 grants, $6,500 in family contributions.
-if I were to receive $3,000 in outside scholarships, my package would look like this: $3,000 outside scholarships, $1,500 in loans, $20000 grants, $6,500 in family contributions.</p>

<p>So obviously, my college has really made sure that no matter what, we'll still have to pay the $6,500.</p>

<p>Here's my situation:
I've received $7,000 in outside scholarships. For $4,500 worth of them, the money will be paid directly to the school. But for the $2,500 scholarship, the money will be payable to me. Is it unethical for me to not report that scholarship to the college and use the scholarship money to help reduce my family's contribution discretely? I can either do:
1. $4,500 in outside scholarships reported to college, $20,000 in grants, $2,500 with the scholarship I didn't report to the college, and $4,000 in family contributions.
2. $6,500 in outside scholarships reported to college, $20,000 in grants, and $6,500 in family contributions. </p>

<p>Is choice 1 ethical? If I could follow through on choice 1, I'd be really less-stressed, since my parents really can't afford to pay for my college costs at all (we're really low income) since I have another brother in college. But on the other hand, no matter how hard something will be financially, I'd rather do that than do something unethical.</p>

<p>I've already talked to the college, and they have a strict finaid policy of reducing and want all scholarhips reported to them. But I can probably "hide" the $2,500 scholarship from them, as the check is payable to me, and that scholarship never even interacts with the college. But is that unethical??? I'm so confused. :(</p>

2

<h2>"they have a strict finaid policy of reducing and want all scholarhips reported to them...But I can probably "hide" the $2,500 scholarship from them..."</h2>

<p>Hiding something to avoid compliance with a strict policy sounds unethical to me.</p>

3

<p>
[quote]
Is it unethical for me to not report that scholarship to the college and use the scholarship money to help reduce my family's contribution discretely?

[/quote]
Yes. Absolutely. You would be purposefully lying about your financial situation in order to get more aid. </p>

<p>You should be able to handle most of $6,500 through summer earnings. Work on finding and getting a high paying summer job.</p>

4

<p>Gotta agree with the other posters. It may seem like you're just throwing away money but you have to follow the guidelines. And congrats on getting in and getting some generous $$$.</p>

5

<p>When you're using a word like "hide", even if you put it in quotation marks, that's a tipoff that you're not talking about an ethical course of action. (Unless, of course, you are hiding Tutsi babies from genocidal Hutu mobs, or something like that. Your college's financial aid policy is unjust and unfair, but it's not that unjust and unfair.)</p>

<p>I suspect you knew that already.</p>

<p>While you're at it, you ought to ask what the consequences would be if the college learned that you had not reported the scholarship to it. Expulsion? Cancellation of all financial aid? Immediate recoupment? Penalties? "Ethics" probably aren't all that's at stake for you here.</p>

6

<p>Yes it's unethical, and you will be kicked out if discovered. Scholarships don't reduce EFC.</p>

7

<p>Well - of course it's unethical. </p>

<p>It's no different than lying on your financial aid application. You know their policy - and you need to abide by it.</p>

8

<p>Bear in mind that need-based grants aren't given to you because you're entitled to them - they're given because you need them. And at the point that you no longer need as much, you're not given as much. But that said, if some of your outside donors are willing to give the checks to you rather than to the university, perhaps they're willing to designate the money for something other than tuition. For instance, Coca-Cola Scholars are allowed to apply their awards toward computer purchases or study abroad as well as tuition. If the donor is willing to re-define the purpose of the funding, the school will probably not object (at least, I assume they won't because this advice is what my D's school told her about outside scholarships).</p>

9

<p>I work and make about 8K a year...I'm in highschool. If you can't make 6.5K a year while in college, you are being lazy. Don't lie because you are being greedy.</p>

10

<p>A) You know it is not ethical.</p>

<p>B) It does not matter anyway. Here's why. There is some value for the lower income family to look upon the education of their child as an "enterprise" for the whole family. In many poor families, teenage kids need to work, not for spending money, but for family food money - the teen contributes to the family's economy, so anything that improves the child's economic benefit to family.
Applying this analogy to your situation, you could think of what your "family" is expected to pay as a total of $11000, not $6500. If you look at it that way, outside scholarships are reducing the family's obligation. Who's to say that some students (or parents) wouldn't have to go out and borrow most of that $6500? What you really want to know from the college is if there is a way to get the lowest possible interest rate on the money that you still have to borrow after you have gooten the scholarships, worked this summer, etc.</p>

<p>My guess is, as someone else posted, that you can cover what will be left after the outside scholarships, with your summer earnings if you work as much as possible (may take 2 jobs). The problem will be if your parents are expecting your summer earnings to contribute to the family economy - I know that it cna be a problem for some families just to have the child leave, the family needs his income. If that is the case, I would go to FA for assistance in just borrowing the whole amount (should be about $4000), that is not at all too much to come out of college in debt.</p>

11

<p>Anytime you have to question whether something is ethical, it's probably because you know it's really not</p>