<p>What's the point of winning smaller scholarships if a college is just going to consider them as you now having the ability to pay more EFC? Example: Winning 3 scholarships each worth $1000. The college would have simply given you $3000 in financial aid. Now you earned the $3000 yourself and the college is not giving you that amount in aid anymore. I understand scholarships are always good, it just seems to defeat the purpose when colleges simply take them into consideration after they are won. Am I looking at this the wrong way?</p>
<p>You are assuming a school will simply give you the $3000 in financial aid. Many will not. Very few schools promise to meet full need. Some promise to meet full need but include a lot of loans (which a scholarship could replace). A very few promise to meet full need without loans. At those very few a scholarship might reduce your need based aid. At the others they might replace loans or help fill a gap in aid.</p>
<p>We have high need and my daughter gets good aid. The aid includes loans. Fortunately her scholarships have kept the loans reasonable. She will graduate with about $20,000 in debt. Any additional scholarships would have reduced that debt, which would have been wonderful.</p>
<p>Also some students do not have need as far as the school is concerned. Merit scholarships will help them a lot.</p>
<p>How colleges handle outside scholarships depends on the college. Some use them to reduce the grants they would otherwise give you, but many either don’t reduce anything or use them to reduce the amount you would otherwise have to borrow.</p>
<p>Those merit scholarships are very helpful at schools that don’t meet need…otherwise you’d be gapped by that amount.</p>
<p>And, at schools that do meet need, those merit scholarships can mean less student loans.</p>
<p>You’re wrongly assuming that a school would give you all “free grants” to meet need…and most schools will not do that.</p>
<p>Also in my experience at D1’s school (100% need met, no loans) the outside scholarships are applied to the student contribution (summer earnings and school year earnings). Important to note the FA award does not break out student contributions separately from EFC - it is a lump sum (in our case) - so you have to ask how much of the lump is the “students” portion. Each school does this differently so you do have to ask. Generally outside scholarships will help.</p>
<p>not everyone is eligible for financial aid</p>
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<p>Yes, you are looking at it the wrong way. The primary person responsible for paying for a student’s education is the student’s family and the student themselves. FA is not a right, it is simply aid being given to make the education more affordable. If there was unlimited aid, then it would not matter. However the aid is limited, the pool that colleges have to spend is very finite. So every dollar they give you more than you need for the education is one dollar that they cannot give someone else who may need it more. So if your need has gone down by $3000, then the $3000 can be apportioned elsewhere. So the argument that you should keep the $3000 and the school is somehow obligated to give you the remaining aid is wrong. The school has no obligation to give you any aid at all, on the other hand you have an obligation to minimize the aid you get from others.</p>
<p>You may argue then why should you work hard to get scholarships, you may as well take the FA. In which case hopefully the scholarship would have been given to someone who needs it.</p>
<p>I know I may sound a little harsh, but every dollar is aid must come from somewhere. Sometimes it is endowments, other times it is from the tax payer. A lot of the FA comes as a result of tax payer contributions. Sometimes for example, when you get a scholarship, the school removes the work study component to adjust for the scholarship. You may not realize it but the work study is paid for by the tax payer.</p>
<p>In this era of budget deficits, unfortunately every dollar counts. Be grateful that you have got the aid you need and that you have got scholarships that you won based on your own hard work.</p>
<p>Because it doesn’t always work like that. many, most (?), colleges will take your outside scholarships and reduce your student loans and gap between FA and your EFC before they’ll start taking away institutional aid. If you already have all of your need met with no loans/self-help then you are extremely lucky and definitely not the norm. </p>
<p>For example, I generally have $7500 in Stafford loans plus about $1k in Perkins loans in my initial aid package. When my $5k outside scholarship is applied, I am down to about $3500 in Stafford loans. Not all colleges work that way, but many do and that is why outside scholarships are so important.</p>