<p>My child just found out that she received $10,000, in scholarships. We had already applied for, (and been approved) for her student loan and our Parent Plus loan. I know I need to notify the school of the scholarships but I don't know when to do that. I don't want to chance losing either a scholarship or the financial aid. She is going to have approximately $6500., in commuting costs and I would LOVE to get some of the money back in our hands to pay for that. I know that the paperwork on the loan said it would cover transportation, but I don't have the money to pay it up front and then turn in the receipts to the school. The Financial Aid counselor said I would have to pay everything up front then ask for reimbursement.</p>
<p>Has anyone ever run into this? I am also afraid the scholarship committees will see that her schooling is paid almost in full and then deny her the scholarship. She is my first to attend school and get scholarships/financial aid at the same time so I don't know how to handle it.</p>
<p>I guess I am asking, should I wait until the financial aid funds, then notify the scholarship committees of the school's address for them to send the money? Or should I notify the scholarship committee's first for them to send the money and hope that the financial aid loans don't get taken away.</p>
<p>Thank you for your help!</p>
<p>If her aid from the school is need based they may reduce it by the amount of her scholarship. You still need to register her scholarships with the school because in most cases the check will be sent directly to the school (and not to you directly). I am not sure about the process with loans. </p>
<p>If her aid from the school is merit based they will usually not reduce it when she receives outside scholarships because they look at this as “earned” aid and not subject to reduction. </p>
<p>Hope that helps - my advice is to call the scholarship/financial aid office.</p>
<p>Look on the school website and see if they have their policy on outside scholarships. That will give you a good idea as to what to expect.<br>
If her need as defined by the college, is exceeded by her scholarships, and the school scholarship is financial aid, they will likely cut it to the maximum need figure. However, if her loan is also part of the financial aid, the outside award usually would cut that out first, but if it is a Stafford, she can keep it just losing the interest subsidy and use it to pay her EFC.</p>
<p>Congrats on the scholarship.</p>
<p>If your full need has been met then I don’t think you can avoid having some of the aid taken away. Especially where there are federal funds involved. Total financial aid (including student loans) plus scholarships plus EFC cannot exceed the school’s COA. (The PLUS loans can be used for the EFC of course, but not other aid). If the total aid and scholarships exceed the COA then you will probably have to repay any aid refunded in excess of what should have been paid out. Fortunately most schools will reduce loans before any other aid.</p>
<p>Does the school promise to actually pay commuting travel expenses? Most schools just have a travel allowance built into the COA. Nothing like $6k though.</p>
<p>I don’t know if her Financial Aid is need based? I don’t really understand that. Our EFC was ridiculous at $14,000., when we can’t pay a penny. I did a letter of Special Circumstances, and our EFC was lowered, but she still did not qualify for any grants. Everything is just loans. But we needed those loans…so…I don’t know if that is considered need? She has no other financial aid but a student loan and our parent plus.</p>
<p>Does that help clarify at all? I just know if I should hurry up and ask the scholarship committees to get the money in before the financial aid loans come through next month. I can’t have either one denied because then my daughter won’t be able to go to school at all. My husband was laid off, but rehired at a lower pay, so we don’t have any money that is extra to help her at all. </p>
<p>Is it more beneficial to submit one before the other? The financial aid counselor told me that I needed to let her know about the scholarships and then said the school decides how much we will get in loans. She said the scholarship money will lower what they award us in loan money by $10,000.</p>
<p>I just spoke to the Financial Aid counselor again and she said that the outside scholarships are my daughter’s money and will be refunded to her if they exceed the cost of the school. They problem I see is that most of the scholarships say they are for tuition, books, and that is it. Only one says it covers transportation. How can that possibly be refunded back to her? I don’t want to defraud anyone because that is just not a good example to set for my daughter. But I would like to get the maximum amount available because of the crazy commute cost she has. She cannot afford to live on campus, and will stay with a couple different friends, but has to drive over 220 miles roundtrip to school twice a week to make that all work out. She is more than willing to do that, just to have the chance to attend college, but I don’t know how to pay for it except by a refund of the scholarship money or loan money to my daughter. She is getting 3500 in a Subsidized Stafford loan and we are getting $10000 in a Parent Plus loan. The scholarships are $10000. That means she has $23500 to pay for school and tuition/books/materials are $15000. I would love to get the excess $8500 to pay the $6000 fuel cost and $2500 for parking.</p>
<p>The financial aid office seems just as confused as me and can’t seem to tell me if that is at all possible. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>My D is getting a refund. She has outside scholarships that will total more than her school bill. She is living off campus so part of her COA is her housing (which will not show up on her school bill). They will pay her school bill then send her a refund check for the amount left over. The assumption is that the money will be used toward housing, transportation, books she may buy somewhere other than the school bookstore, etc. </p>
<p>Good luck</p>
<p>Stormcloud, you need to ask the FA people what her calculated COA is. The $15K doesn’t include living allowance for off-campus or transportation and personal expenses. That could easily put the COA over $25K, which means that the $10K scholarships and $15K loans should be within her budgeted COA. If not, you could request an increase to her estimated COA based on her transportation expense.</p>
<p>Thank you so much to all of you. Your answers are very good and help me a lot.</p>
<p>If I am to understand this then, it really doesn’t matter if the scholarships come in before the loans? Or vice-versa? I was going to delay sending the scholarship organizations the address of the school so it would give the financial aid loans time to kick in. It doesn’t sound like I need to do that then?</p>
<p>Again, I really appreciate how quickly you are all willing to help me out. What wonderful people you are.</p>