<p>So... why would you ever apply to, say, a $500 scholarship essay contest if your 100% meet need school's financial aid package will decrease from outside scholarships?</p>
<p>Also, when the package decreases, does it decreases by 100%? in other words, would a $2000 outside scholarship reduce the fin aid package by the entire $2000?</p>
<p>Hm.. good question. Sometimes a college's idea of 100% need met is different than what a family actually needs.. but then if it's just going to be deducted from the fin aid package, yeah I don't know why anyone would bother</p>
<p>There are often gaps between the EFC and what the family feels they can actually contibute. If your aid package includes loans, they can help decrease those as well.</p>
<p>At most need base schools, the student is expected to contribute both a summer job amount and a term time workstudy amount. In addition, need can be met with loans as well as grants. Outside scholarships are often allowed to meet the summer and term time work obligation, and at some schools they can also replace loans.</p>
<p>First of all there are only a handful of schools that meet 100% of your demonstrated need. Just because a school meets 100% of your demonstrated need, it does not mean that that need will be met in terms of "free money"- scholarships and grants. As school could essentially offer you a parent loan for the full amount of your education and will have still met your need.</p>
<p>As Bandit stated, even at schools that meet 100% of your demonstrated need there is going to be a self help component, usually in the form of work study and loans. </p>
<p>When it comes to outside scholarships, most schools will use them to reduce the self help portion of your financial aid first. For example: If you get a $2000 outside scholarship, you can reduce your loans by $2000 (especially since most students do get the maximum stafford loan of 2650, soon to be 3500 by the time the class of 2011 enters college next fall). Or you can use the $2000, to reduce your work study commitment, you will have the $$ and not have to work or reduce the amoun of time you must work your first year.</p>
<p>Yeah, I have a generous fin aid package myself, though I did get around $2000 in outside scholarships from my high school and such and the money that I declared has reduced my self-help [loan and job], and yes, the odds of getting 100% meet need is impractical b/c schools that do give you the 100% usually include loan in that statement anyway from what I've experienced, so...</p>
<p>yeah no joke, the finaid calculator for me said that my family could pay like 2x the cost of tuition ($70,000) but in reality, my parents can pay closer to 30k. who on earth could pay 70k????
anyway, i will be applying for merit aid.</p>
<p>And if your tutition/room/board/everything else is covered by need-based aid, you can use merit money to purchase things that are "educational expenses," like a computer and such.</p>
<p>Who can pay $70K? About half the families sending students to many need-aid-only private institutions pay full list price for four years.</p>