I’ve never received a scholarship before but was intending to use it to pay my first tuition payment, buy my textbooks, then put the rest towards my total bill. However, I have no idea how I’m even supposed to use it. My name is on the check, but not in the made payable to place. It’s made payable to my university. Do I have to go to my financial aid office and get them to sign it before I can do anything with it?
If the check is made payable to the university, you need to give the check to the school. They will likely deposit the funds in their bank account and credit the amount to your bill. It would be very unlikely for them to endorse the check over to you and give it back to you to do whatever you want with it.
My D received a small outside scholarship and it is made out to both her and the University. She needs to sign it and the present it to the university and they will apply it to her account. It basically will show up as a credit on her itemized bill and then the remaining balance is what we need to pay. She needs to add her student ID number so they know which account to apply it to but that is what our instructions said on her scholarship.
Since its made out to the University, I would imagine you need to do something similar but ask your financial aide office on how you should handle it if you weren’t provided instructions.
How it works for my daughter is that she has to take the check to the bursars office then they apply the scholarship to her billable expenses tuition, fees and if there is money left it is refunded back to her. She set up an electronic deposit with the school to her bank account so she gets the refund quickly. Be aware that if you are getting any need based FA, it could be adjusted because of the scholarship.
Your report the scholarship to the school and they will deposit the money in your student account. It will be used to cover eligible expenses on your student account first. If there is any leftover, you may be able to request a refund to you to cover other eligible expenses. Note that the scholarship may or may not have restriction on the expenses. Anyway, most external scholarships are relatively small compare to your CoA.
If you go to your school’s website, they should have a section referencing “outside scholarships” under financial aid. The school should explain there how they will apply the scholarship and any refunds you can expect.