<p>My son was recently accepted to CMU (woohoo!) and now we are sitting down trying to figure out if we can afford to pay for a CMU education. CMU offered some aid but is still by far the most expensive school. Yesterday my son found out he received an outside scholarship. SO my question is will CMU then deduct this amount from our financial aid package or can we use this as part of our family contribution? This is what it says on the CMU web site and if I am reading correctly we can use toward our family contribution. If so, that would help a lot! </p>
<p>What about outside grants and scholarships?
A student may net the full amount of an outside scholarship and Carnegie Mellon's full financial aid package up to the costs of education.</p>
<p>I hope the response was clear- you cannot “profit” from CMU and external scholarships.</p>
<p>If your EFC is 0, your package probably includes grants, work study, loans in a combination to reach the 55,000 COA.
That said, if you are awarded an external grant…CMU will reduce something from your package since after-all you are not yet contributing a dime with an EFC = 0. It is totally their discretion…they can reduce the grants, the loans or the work study.</p>
<p>Each case is unique- remember, their underlying strategic approach to financial aid is stated very openly and clearly on their webpages. If you “walk on water” and bring something special to building their student body…they would likely first remove the loans, then the grants. However, they can evaluate it as they see fit…
You should not expect to take the money and run at the expense of other peers who don’t yet have unmet need.</p>
<p>With an EFC of 0, in theory you don’t need the money of external grants-- but the prestige is fairly nice.</p>
<p>Also, if you have an EFC = 0, most scholarships will not bother to award the money if your school already meets your need. Read their fine print as well…</p>
<p>Oh I know about not getting any extra money, I’m just applying for the Gates and wondering if they’ll just take most of the money away that they’d normally give if I get it. Long shot and all that. I just heard something about getting to keep the work study money, like, say I get gates and it pays for all then because I still qualify for work study, can I still do that for some spending money?</p>
<p>Most of my other scholarships are like “If need is met, contact the school…” so I just tell them and they’ll reduce the financial aid I suppose.</p>
<p>Actually, 0 EFC still leaves me gaps annoyingly for some schools but I don’t know my CMU package yet. So I need scholarships, also I’m trying like crazy to avoid loans.</p>
<p>Doesn’t the Gates fellowship provide you with a monthly stipend to live on?</p>
<p>Even if you aren’t offered work study, you can still most likely find work around campus. Maybe not in the most cushy jobs, like desk attending, but finding a job in a professor’s lab doing real research shouldn’t be hard.</p>
<p>Oh I’d really like doing that research. I don’t know actually. I hear in the gates forum that being a finalist means you likely get it should you qualify (gpa and pell grant). I read something about being offered work study no matter what so long as you qualify and then some mom there said that there child receives a check of what would be work study without working but it was just kinda in and out and I didn’t get to ask questions.</p>
<p>If you have outside scholarships, i think not exceeding 8k or another specific limit, it won’t deduct from your financial aid, so you’d just use the scholarships for your unmet need. In short, if the scholarship exceed the amount of unmet aid, then they would have to change your finaid package.</p>
<p>As I noted above…read the fine print in the materials you received.</p>
<p>This is the first year-- policy changed, you keep all outside scholarships until such point as you exceed the actual COA-- at which point, CMU cuts back grants received.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I am so confused. On their website, it says exactly what mom2012and2014 is saying - you can keep up to the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>When we spoke with the financial aid office, however, they told us I could only net up to $7000 before they reduce my package.</p>
<p>Then we got a letter with my re-evaluated financial aid package (which was very good, btw).It said I could net only up to $6000! And it specifically said it would take away from grants. Yikes!</p>
<p>The website says you keep it all.
THe printed tiny little booklet received with by snail mail for this year says you keep it all.</p>
<p>And I specifically phoned an ADCOM about three weeks ago after receiving the package to ask about the policy as well to confirm that is the case. Told and confirmed in a follow up email that the policy changed-- you keep it all.</p>
<p>HUB confirms for continuing students they changed the policy and you keep it all.</p>
<p>You probably spoke to an uninformed receptionist in admissions…</p>
<p>If worried- call and ask for an adcom.</p>
<p>The package can be reduced if the scholarship would exceed COA-- but that’s a different story. Obviously if they gave you $53000 of aid and you pull in a $10k or $5k – your grant will be reduced-- you don’t get to pocket the money. And if you had pocketed it, then you have IRS complications.</p>