Okay I’ll explain this the best I can…
My family’s EFC was $0 because of low income, leaving my expected contribution to be just $1663 of student contribution and $2800 of work study, totaling $4,463 needed.
Well I got accepted into FSY, a summer program which waives the student contribution, leaving just the work study left to be paid. I received a scholarship tonight that goes to both me and Yale for $5,000. I know I can use the additional money for a laptop, but I would just like to know what any additional scholarship money would do.
From the website, I gathered outside scholarships reduce aid like this:
- Work Study ($2,800)
- Personal and Summer Contribution ($0 because of program)
- Reduces Yale Scholarship <------- What does this part mean? Is it necessarily bad or will it hurt me in the future?
I know I might be able to use it for a laptop and/or health insurance, but what will this extra money actually do? I don’t understand what reducing the general Yale Scholarship means. Is it just lost money?
P.S. please don’t get my questions confused with the notion that I’m ungrateful. I’m extremely happy!! I just would like to know to plan ahead. Thanks!
It will not hurt you in any way. I think you’ve figure it correctly that they’ll eliminate the $2800 in work study first, and then if you don’t buy a laptop (or get to use the money for insurance or some other cost of attendance like books or travel or something else) the money will just be absorbed and Yale will give you less in aid.
Your Yale bill may be something like this: Tuition, room, board, fees $60k.
Credits toward bill: Pell grant $6000, Outside scholarship $5000, Yale grant $49000
So you wouldn’t owe anything to the school. In fact, your Yale grant might be $52000 and you’ll get $3000 toward the extra expenses like books, travel, incidentals. That’s where you want to talk them into letting you keep the $5000. Make a list of all your extra expenses, a laptop, travel and justify that you should get to keep the $5000. If they take away your $2800 in work study, you could always get a non-workstudy job to make extra moeny.
They may reduce the workstudy and loan (if any) before grant (need based scholarship from school). It may or may not touch your EFC.
It won’t hurt you, it’s OK, it’s great actually! If your scholarship will allow you to use the $ for a laptop or books, by all means make that case. Usually the Yale COA could include books and travel anyway, which your summer job and in-school work study would normally be expected to cover.
Btw, a lot of university book stores sell stuff other than books. If you can get a credit on your account specifically for the bookstore (or just ask for a refund in the amount of the book line item on the COA), you can use it for anything in the book store. Mine carries a bunch of snacks, makeup products and basic toiletries, etc. It’s a good way to use school money for stuff you’d need to buy with your own $ otherwise.
You might find that some of your scholarships turn out to be taxable. Don’t forget to hang onto some change for that. You might want to find a way to keep the work study job just so you can pay the taxes.
Is there any possibility you could the scholarship awarded over 2 years so that you can maximize the funds? $2500 this year would bring your work study down to $300, and the remaining $2500 would be really helpful next year.
^^ good idea from planner. The scholarship org should be able to tell you that.