I am a graduating senior attending University in the fall, and I have won several private scholarships to help me pay for it. I was not eligible for any grants or scholarships from my school, so I found some myself and earned $2500. However, I noticed that on my school’s financial aid page it asks you to report any additional scholarships you may receive. Why is this? And is it required? I’m asking because I would rather contribute that money to expenses like a new computer or textbooks, rather than tuition or anything directly through the university.
Everyone must report them because the school may award need based aid or its own scholarships and the amount of those awards may go down based on outside scholarships; if you get more outside money, your need is less. In your case, it won’t make any difference. You can still use your $$ for whatever you want. Just do it, and don’t worry about it.
You didn’t “earn” a scholarship. You were awarded a scholarship. The check will likely be made out to your university so if you want to take advantage of the award, you’ll need to present it to the bursar’s office so it gets deposited into your student account.
I sit on a local scholarship committee. The days where we mailed a check, mailed out to the student, are over. The money isn’t intended for the use of random member of student’s family. The money isn’t intended to pay the student brother’s credit card bill, or back taxes, or to pay for a vacation.
The money is for college so we make the check out to the college. I suspect you’ll find your awards are handled the same way.
My kids got scholarship checks mailed to them, just 2 years ago. Quite a few kids got scholarships at awards night and there were checks presented at the ceremony. I think it can happen either directly to the student or to the university.
I think what @blossom really meant is that more rarely are checks made out to the student’s name without needing to go to the school. My kids have gotten checks mailed to them, but they would not have been able to cash them. The checks had to be processed thru the burser’s office.
That said, this student’s concerns are odd. She didn’t receive any aid from the school, so it’s not as if her aid is being reduced by these awards.
@IvyGirl27 Who is paying your school’s costs? That person can still pay the full amount and then you’ll be refunded your scholarship money to purchase a computer or whatever.
If you get need based aid a scholarship might reduce that need. For example we didn’t qualify for federal grants but a subsidized loan, the scholarship reduced that loan.
You said you did not receive scholarships or grants.
If your school requires you to report outside scholarships then you need to report them. Some entities send the check directly to the school, some send them to the student payable to the university.
The end result is the same, since you didn’t get institutional grants, your scholarship will not reduce any grants.
You still get the $2500
The university will probably bill you for first semester in July. Instead of the full amount due they will reduce the amount you have to pay by the scholarship, some schools divide the scholarship up between the two semesters.
So you should have at least $1250 available to spend on a computer in the “pre-Labor-Day” sales.
If the parents are paying $30,000 for the year, $15,000 for the semester, the scholarship will reduce that to $13,750 per semester that the parents have to pay. They can give her that extra $1250 per semester.
You still end up with $2500 more than you had before.
Also it’s better if your scholarship pays for expenses such as tuition, books because then it is not taxable.
Thank you for all of your feedback! But for the vast majority of my scholarships ($2000 worth), the check was or will be made out to me. The last $500 I don’t find out until this Saturday. My parents have a savings fund for tuition, and it will cost $3000 because of a program in my state that gives you money per credit hour (Bright Futures if you are familiar). Because the tuition itself isn’t a huge financial burden, I’d rather pay for longer term investments like the computer, and not directly through the school because they have a reputation of overcharging for items like that. So if it is addressed to you specifically, is it still required?
Yes, but it won’t make any difference because you aren’t getting any aid from the school. The school will bill you for 100% of the school’s direct costs. You/your parents will pay the bill. You don’t have to use the scholarship money that was given to you to pay the bill, but what difference does it make? None.
Then your parents can withdraw $2500 less from the college savings account this year and help you pay for the computer.
Your scholarship can pay for most of the tuition.
If the check is made out to you it can still be paid to the bursar at your school. Sounds like the school is nearby?
Just go there in person, endorse the check and put your student number on it (or whatever they require you to do) and have them apply it to your student account.
Then you only have to pay like $250 per semester to the school because they will deduct the scholarship from your charges.
Are the private scholarships renewable or only a one-time award?
Many colleges and universities base the amount of scholarship money they allocate to students on the extent of the need. If you have outside scholarships (that were not figured in at the time you applied for aid), your need is lower than it was before. Other students already knew that their parents had a certain amount of money or they that they would be getting external funding of some sort and that was already factored in when the financial aid offers were made. But if that changes, you need to report those changes.
This is a great discussion. @blossom is correct that a fair number of people, if given a check, would use the money for other purposes, but there is another perspective. My oldest got a small local scholarship. She was handed a check. I was surprised, but the head of the scholarship committee told me his organization didn’t want to send the money to the school because of the shell game played with aid, which could leave the student no better off. He wanted his org’s money used as the student saw fit–maybe to buy a computer, get books right away on the secondary market (which is, let’s face it, cheaper than the bookstore), or fix a car so the student could get to/from school every day (scholarship was only for students attending the local colleges). He flat out told us whether we reported it or not was not his business. With small, non-renewable amounts, I do get what he’s saying. And yes, we did report it.
You are to report them. The schools don’t have different rules for those receiving need based aid or loans (subsidized) through the schools from those who are full pay. One rule for everyone, report all scholarships and grants to the school. Bright Futures is actually an outside scholarship too (and I disagree with Blossom, it is earned by the student) but the Bright Futures agency takes care of reporting it to the school and the funds are disbursed through the schools so you don’t have to report it separately. Bright Futures is NOT required to be used for tuition even though it is tied to the number of credits you take. If you do not use it for tuition (if you have other scholarships, prepaid tuition) you will receive a rebate from the school, but it won’t be until several weeks after the semester starts.
You should also keep track of your reported scholarships. Your school may or may not include the amount reported on the 1098T tax form you’ll receive next year. It could make a difference for the taxes owned on scholarships over the QEE amounts or the AOTC your parents can take, especially if they also have a Florida Prepaid they are using for room and board or other tuition costs… Just make sure you account for them if they aren’t included. I reported ours but they weren’t included on the 1098T (BF was included, but not the private scholarship when the check was given directly to my daughter).
Two in- the OP did not make it clear in the initial post that he/she was referring to Bright Futures and the implication was that the scholarships were several local awards. Those aren’t “earned”- they are awarded at the discretion of a committee or a donor or the designated representatives of a foundation.
My scholarship committee has had kids respond in outrage when they are told they are being awarded one of the smaller dollar amounts- “But I EARNED the Presidential award” (or whatever). No- you didn’t EARN it. Your stats, essay, etc. qualified you to be considered. And you WERE considered- and are being awarded X dollars, not 2X dollars, since that award is going to someone else.
Nomenclature or attitude? And yes- we’ve had families where parents or a sibling have essentially used a kids award for all sorts of unsavory purposes. Money is fungible but our donors aren’t financing a day at the casino- they are helping a needy kid get to college.
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You don’t have to buy your computer at the school. They will refund the money to you to use as needed AFTER your parents pay the full due costs (before scholarships).
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This is a great discussion. @blossom is correct that a fair number of people, if given a check, would use the money for other purposes
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Yes, All you have to do is watch some “Judge Judy” episodes and you’ll likely see a case where scholarship checks or even “FA refunds” were “lent” to a friend or family member for some stupid reason (one case, the stepdad used the money for fancy car rims…JJ had about a fit on the bench).