<p>It's better to get scholarships than financial aid right? Cause scholarships can give you full tuition, and FA can't, am i correct?</p>
<p>No, it is too simplistic a statement. It completely depends on your financial situation and the policies of the schools you are attending. There are multiple variations of how scholarships or financial aid or a combination of the 2 can work out. It is probably very hard to cover the full costs of a school (by full costs I mean full COA - tuition/fees/room & board/books/travel etc) with just scholarships - there are not many scholarships many out there that will do that and they are extremely competitive.</p>
<p>Some of the very competitive schools don’t give any merit scholarships at all but will cover the full COA without loans for very low income students. </p>
<p>Other schools also promise to meet full need (with or without loans) but also award scholarships.</p>
<p>Other schools do not promise to meet full need but do award financial aid and also scholarships. My daughter goes to one of these. Between need based aid and merit based aid her full COA is paid for. It would not be all paid for with just need based aid (the school only offers federal aid which would not be enough to cover the costs) or with just the merit aid (even the highest scholarship the school offers does not cover full COA). But with a combination of the 2 it is paid for.</p>
<p>Scholarships are grants that do not have to be paid back. They can range in value from token amounts like a one-time $500 scholarship to “full ride” (covering not only tuition but room & board, books, etc. for all 4 years). The latter are rare and extremely hard to get. </p>
<p>Scholarships can be part of a financial aid package offered by the school. But financial aid can also include loans (which do have to be paid back) and work-study.</p>
<p>As swimcatsmom pointed out, there is a difference between need-based and merit-based aid. Many of the top schools offer no merit aid. Each school sets its own financial aid policies and determines its priorities in handing out the money. Not all schools will meet your “full need” and in fact, most don’t.</p>