<p>I received a scholarship from the university that I will probably attend that pays for most, if not all, of the tuition. Will applying for scholarships from sites such as fastweb.com help me anymore? That is, will any scholarships that I may receive be used for housing/meals/textbook/etc? Or is there no reason to apply for more aid?</p>
<p>Depends on the scholarship. Some are specifically for tuition. Many can be used for any expense.</p>
<p>Additional scholarships can be used to pay housing and other expenses, up to the full amount of your COA if you are so fortunate. So, yes, it is worth continuing to seek additional aid.</p>
<p>At some colleges you can even go beyond COA with outside scholarships.</p>
<p>Thank you for the replies. I have applied for some more scholarships but I don't know how many I'll do. I feel a bit guilty when I submit them because while my family is not rich by any means, I know that there are many people that need them more than I do.</p>
<p>What exactly would going beyond COA entail?</p>
<p>I don't know what you are asking about "entail." The hypothetical concept is that you are so diligent and talented that your multiple scholarships and grants exceed the total cost of attendance (COA), so that after everything is paid there is still money left over. </p>
<p>Like when your mom gives you 5 dollars to buy a loaf of bread and forgets to ask you for the change. </p>
<p>But it is extremely rare that anyone gets so many scholarships that there is money left over. If you have any government aid coming, there is a rule that the university has to reduce the aid so that the total does not exceed COA.</p>
<p>It actually depends on what school you will be attending.</p>
<p>I was accepted to Stanford and Princeton and the like last year, and I had over $15k in outside scholarships coming in. However, the policy for most private schools is that outside scholarships will only reduce the self-help portion of your financial aid package (loans and work-study). After that, any university grants will be reduced; you'll just lose the rest of the scholarships and you'll still have to pay whatever your EFC is.</p>
<p>If you decide to attend a public school like I did, though, then most schools will apply your scholarships to all expenses (tuition, housing, etc) and anything left over will be refunded back to you. Which is how I have an extra $14k sitting in my bank account right now, because I also received a school-sponsored National Merit scholarship on top of all my outside ones =)</p>
<p>In my D's school, some students have full ride scholarships that cover tuition, room and board. So, any outside scholarships that they receive can be used for other expenses that they choose. Like dt123 said, this is rare but definitely possible.</p>
<p>x-posted with musely, my d's school is a public as well.</p>
<p>Thank you for the info. I thought that's what you meant by going beyond COA but I didn't think it was plausible. Thanks for the replies.</p>