So my parents make less than 60k so I will be receiving the $0 family efc from my parents; however, I know I will either have to do work study or a summer job program for my own expected contribution. If I get a scholarship (in my specific case a $1,000 one paid directly to college), can I use it towards my work study or summer work? If my total cost is already covered, will they send it back and it will be lost forever?
Thanks in advance! Sorry if this sounds dumb.
Many of the Ivies do allow students to keep the first $5k or so of outside scholarships to use for incidentals, a computer, travel, etc. before they reduce the need based grants. You need to ask Yale.
For Yale, http://finaid.yale.edu/costs-affordability/types-aid/scholarships-and-grants indicates that outside scholarships will first be used to reduce the student work earnings expectation, before reducing Yale financial aid grants.
@twoinanddone I can only speak for Harvard, Columbia and Brown, but outside awards are applied first to CWS, not to incidentals.
There was a Harvard student on here last year who said he got to ‘keep’ the first $6000 (whether the award was paid to him or to the school) to buy a computer and use toward his student contribution to the total bill, which are usually the incidentals, and after that the school would start reducing other FA, probably work study first since there are no loans in the package. The school bills $62k, the FA package is ~$70k with the student contribution figured in, so that first $5-6k in outside scholarships satisfies the student contribution and ends up in the student’s pocket.
The awards I’ve seen have the incidentals included in COA, but the grants awarded by the school actually cover billed costs and the schools expect the students to cover everything else with their contributions. The OP doesn’t want the grant that covers billed costs reduced.
@ucbalumnus has the right info. For Yale specifically,
-Merit scholarships first reduce Student Employment. (can be up to $2850)
-If outside aid exceeds the Student Employment amount, remaining funds may reduce the Student Summer Income Contribution. (up to $1600 for first years)
-Amounts that exceed the total Student Effort reduce Yale Scholarship. - so only once you bring in more $ than the first two will Yale reduce grant aid.