I am currently a freshman at the University of Houston. I go there on a full ride scholarship (tier one scholarship) valued at 26k per year roughly. Recently I received an external scholarship for 7500 a semester starting next semester and I know that financial aid can be capped. Does this apply to external scholarships and if so does anyone know roughly how much I would get to keep? Thanks.
All external scholarships must be reported, using this form: https://www.uh.edu/financial/undergraduate/faq/private-donor-scholarship-check-guidelines-01-18-18.pdf. According to the financial aid website:
“ Any scholarship counts as a financial resource and must be considered when constructing a financial aid offer. Total aid cannot exceed a your cost of attendance (COA). The COA is an estimate of what it costs the typical student to attend the University of Houston. The COA includes tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation and personal expenses. University of Houston financial aid awards are subject to change depending on your entire award package, including outside scholarships, and your COA.”
Adjustments will depend on the terms of the scholarship received at UHouston and the terms of the outside scholarship. Congratulations are in order, because you have an amazing scholarship from the school. I encourage you to contact financial aid to find out what is going to happen to your aid. Only they can tell you for sure.
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The University of Houston Tier One Scholarship includes tuition and fees for four years, plus on-campus housing and meal plan for the first two years (so “full ride” first two years, “full tuition” the next two years).
The cost of attendance page lists an additional $1,434 for books and supplies, but does not list a number for transportation and personal expenses. Assuming the worst case where the latter is $0 for the financial aid cost of attendance, that would mean that an outside scholarship added to your Tier One Scholarship would effectively be limited to $1,434 per year in your first two years. After that (when your Tier One Scholarship no longer pays for room and board), the limit is much higher (about $6k per year if you commute from your parents’ home, about $11.7k per year if you live on or off campus on your own, based on the listed cost of room and board plus the $1,434 books and supplies).
If there is transportation and personal expenses in the financial aid cost of attendance that is not listed on that page, then the limit on your outside scholarship would increase by that amount.
If the outside scholarship is for one or two years only, then it may be best to defer receiving it until your Tier One Scholarship no longer covers room and board, if that is possible with the scholarship provider.