<p>Allright, so suppose that in my financial aid package, I’ve got a $10000 trustee grant, a $2900 work study job, and around $31,000 expected family contribution. I’ve won $5000 in outside scholarships… how does this figure into Penn’s new outside scholarship policy, because for the life of me I can’t understand what exactly it means! thanks</p>
<p>If they're going to take away fin aid, they'll take away the work study before the grant.</p>
<p>The new finaid policy is good. Last year when I had a boatload of outside scholarships, it didn't really make a difference, since they allowed you to apply the first 500$ and then out of every dollar after that, they took 50%.</p>
<p>This year, you can apply all the money you want toward reducing your self help (for freshmen, i think this is 2,500 or so) and then the rest can go toward reducing w/s or something.</p>
<p>I believe the order was Loans, Expected Summer Earnings (2100 for Freshmen), and Work Study. Your outside scholarships will take away from those SELF-HELP aspects of the financial aid. Once those are covered with outside scholarships, the take away from grants and stuff.</p>
<p>do they tell u what your expected family contribution is, or do u come up with that yourself? on the application, it says "list the amount you expect to contribute..." and there's this symbol which says "for SFS use." what?</p>
<p>just for clarification reasons, when "Self- Help" is stated, does it refer to family contribution or something else? (I'm so confused about this policy)</p>
<p>Is it possible to negotiate with the financial aid dept and ask them to first eliminate loans and then lessen the family contribution? I know I wouldn't mind the work/study at all and I plan on working summers between my college years to help pay my part of the tuition..
Also, what if your parents refuse to pay the family contribution (or rather can't realistically afford it)? Would that sum then fall upon the student?</p>
<p>how much is usually loans anyway?</p>