<p>What's the difference between grants and scholarships? I was really confused about this so thought I would ask.</p>
<p>If you google it, you will find many hits.</p>
<p>[What</a> is the difference between a grant and a scholarship? - Yahoo! Answers](<a href=“Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos”>Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos)</p>
<p>I like this one best as it clear and succinct</p>
<p>*grant= money given for need</p>
<p>scholarship= given by group for specific reason could be need or could be highest gpa or could be group ie: children of firefighters or could be activity ie: sports or band, or could be a combination of various reasons.</p>
<p>both = free money
but you can lose grants if your $ situation changes and you can lose scholarships if you do not keep meeting requirements (participate in sports or maintain grades or keep playing in college band…etc…)*</p>
<p>There are some slight tax implication differences between scholarships and grants, but if you are using it for education, it should not matter. Also grants can be given for non educational purposes (starting a business, developing a new product etc. or new program), scholarships are generally only for educational purposes.</p>
<p>As maze indicates, the terms usually refer to need vs. non-need; some money is given as financial aid according to need (determined by family income and assets), and some money is given for non-need reasons, e.g., as an enticement because of HS academic performance (by schools trying to attract top students, sometimes called merit aid), or due to membership in a group (firefighters, band, etc.).</p>
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Grants and scholarships are treated the same taxwise. If they are used for tuition/fees/required books they are non taxable. If they are used for non qualified expenses such as room and board they are taxable.</p>
<p>Depends on the school. DD’s grant from her university was both a merit AND need based award. The continuation of the award required a GPA of a certain level. Her senior year, this same grant was continued AND increased, and we had NOT A PENNY of financial need (her brother had graduated from college). She inquired and they told her as long as her GPA was the required one her “grant” would continue much as a scholarship does.</p>
<p>So…YMMV.</p>
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<p>There are certain grants by the govt. where they need to be treated differently i.e. as capital for investment projects etc. Grants can be give for a variety of purposes
and treated differently ([Analyzing</a> the Tax Implications of Grants Received for Investment Tax Credit?Eligible Property](<a href=“http://www.aicpa.org/Publications/TaxAdviser/2010/August/Pages/clinic-story-01.aspx]Analyzing”>http://www.aicpa.org/Publications/TaxAdviser/2010/August/Pages/clinic-story-01.aspx)).</p>
<p>However, you are absolutely right that in the limited educational context that CC deals with, they are treated the same. I had in fact mentioned that in my posting and I should not have muddied the waters by mentioning that as it not relevant to college grants.</p>
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<p>In many cases the difference between grants and scholarships is semantic. Many grants are treated like scholarships etc. as you point out. In many cases it does not make a difference if it is called scholarship or grant from the students point of view, it has the same effect.</p>
<p>However grants can be for non educational purposes (community development grant, reinvestment grant), scholarships are generally educational.</p>
<p>thank you guys. I appreciate it.:)</p>
<p>For need based FA, it varies with the school. My D1s need based FA package calls the ‘free’ money portion scholarship rather than grant, just the terminology that particular school uses.</p>
<p>Grants (in the context of college funding) are need based. Scholarships are sometimes need based, sometimes not. My D received a very generous scholarship this year that was awarded to her based on academics & leadership, but she would not have been considered for it without financial need … the donor stipulated that the scholarship be awarded to someone with demonstrated need.</p>
<p>Custardapple101 What’s the difference between grants and scholarships?</p>
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<p>What’s the difference between grants and scholarships? I was really confused about this so thought I would ask. </p>
<p>Thank you for all answers.</p>