<p>This is from the FinAid website:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Most schools have favorable policies that first apply the outside scholarship to unmet need, and then reduce self-help (loans and work-study) before touching institutional grants.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Since most schools do not meet full need, this would mean that in most cases outside scholarships are worth pursuing since they would not reduce a schools financial package. Theyd go straight to meeting the gap. Is my understanding correct?</p>
<p>Lets take this case:
COA: $50,000
EFC: $20,000
School FA award: $20,000
Unmet need/Gap is $10,000</p>
<p>Example A Outside scholarship reduces gap:
BEFORE outside scholarship:
- School FA award: $20,000
- Unmet need/Gap is $10,000
AFTER adding in outside scholarship:
- Outside scholarship: $4,000
- School FA award: $20,000 (unchanged)
- NEW gap after outside scholarship: $6,000 (reduced)</p>
<p>Example B Outside scholarship reduces schools financial aid
BEFORE outside scholarship:
- School FA award: $20,000
- Unmet need/Gap is $10,000
AFTER adding in outside scholarship:
- Outside scholarship: $4,000
- School FA award: $16,000 (reduced)
- NEW gap after outside scholarship: $10,000 (unchanged)</p>
<p>Which is more typical? According to the information above, it would be Example A.</p>
<p>You need to check the policies of EACH school with regard to need based aid and outside scholarships. YMMV.</p>
<p>Agree with Thumper- lots of families make assumptions that later cause grief.</p>
<p>And remember that “need” isn’t always a matter of subtracting your Fafsa EFC. The college will calculate what it thinks the family can pay. Using your example, the Fafsa EFC could be $20k and the school could recalculate that you can afford, say, $25k. Thus, the “gap” in this example would be $5k.</p>
<p>I realize policies vary so it’s important to check with each school, but my question was whether “most” schools reduce unmet need as the quote says. Does your knowledge or experience concur with the quoted statement?</p>
<p>Good point, lookingforward. I used EFC as a shorthand for the amount the college believes you can afford.</p>
<p>Yes, at schools that will likely gap you, it’s good to cobble together some extra outside scholarships. </p>
<p>But, check each school’s policy.</p>
<p>It all depends upon the school and how they define and enforce their outside scholarship polices. One thing that becomes clear when you look at “college world” closely is that they do not use definitions other than their own in the way they operate. Your kid is a dependent under most cases until age 24, state residency rules are established by OOS publics that do not necessarily mesh with the state’s definiton of a resident. </p>
<p>It makes sense and it seems to me to be the way it should work that outside scholarships are used for unmet need. I’ve never seen it not work that way, but I wouldn’t bet that there is a school out there that would not have their polices so worded.</p>
<p>Thank you! I just wanted to know how outside scholarships are treated by most schools, and I didn’t realize that if you have a gap they can often be used to help fill in the costs. Of course, I would never assume anything about how a particular school handles this, knowing that policies do vary.</p>