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My son plans to attend an Ivy for college next year. Right now, he's applying to as many merit/need based scholarships as possible!

But...I heard recently that scholarships are virtually useless because for the amount the child wins, the school takes away from his financial aid & grants?? Any comments/validation on this?

If schools are going to decrease their aid for him according to the amount of scholarship money he wins, then is he just wasting his time, or is there a way to truly help the costly situation??

Thanks in advance.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 10:33 am: Edit

I'm interested in the answers to this one. I _think_ it varies with the school but I'm not sure.

WP, it's also possible that what they'll cut may be some combination of both grant and loan so that while you still have the same amount of financial aid, the loan amount is lowered.

Out of more than casual curiosity, how are you searching out scholarships? I've looked a some
source materials which I find next to useless because while they have lots of listings, I find the information for each one to be insufficient.

By fillmore on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 01:06 pm: Edit

Most Ivies (maybe all) will first reduce the loan and work portions of their financial aid package if you win outside scholarships. Therefore, unless your package from the college was 100% grant (unlikely), the outside scholarship is by no means worthless.

By Dadster on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 09:53 pm: Edit

Some colleges reduce their aid by some fraction of the scholarship amount, and reduce the family's contribution by the rest. I think these colleges realize that students won't be motivated to look for and apply for scholarships if these awards end up benefiting only the college.

In short, it's worth trying for these, but once you nail down the college check with their aid office to determine how outside awards are handled.

By Autodidact (Autodidact) on Saturday, March 08, 2003 - 10:16 am: Edit

Some local students have been successful in having scholarship checks written so that when they are forwarded to the institution there is a stipulation that they can only be used to offset the students/family's expected contribution. The position is that the charity,foundation, etc. is wanting to support the student not the institution, in their endeavors. I don't know all of the particulars, but the idea seems right.

By Dadster (Dadster) on Saturday, March 08, 2003 - 11:16 am: Edit

That's a great idea, Autodidact. I wonder if anyone has direct experience with that, and how the university reacted?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, March 08, 2003 - 01:50 pm: Edit

Good idea there. I'm filing that one away.

By Aparent (Aparent) on Saturday, March 08, 2003 - 07:21 pm: Edit

Autodidact, I LOVE that idea and wish I had known about it last year. My son was awarded a tiny, tiny bit of financial aid by his Ivy League school, just enough to give us the feeling they realized we are not in the bracket that donates buildings. Then he began winning various scholarships. It started out fairly enough. They subtracted from his summer job expectation, then from his year round job expectation. But once his awards bypassed those amounts, they took away THE WHOLE THING! All those essays written...for what? The honor and resume-building, I suppose.

But Worried Parent, you are right to worry. Because when they say they will "meet your need" they probably mean something very different from what you might imagine, and so when you do all that work getting the extra scholarships they will claim you've exceeded your need...when you are thinking it has just about become tolerable. Sigh.

By L_Wonder (L_Wonder) on Monday, March 17, 2003 - 09:30 pm: Edit

I got hit like that while I was in school. My school (cornell) took half of the scholarship amount and deducted it from loans, and applied half as a credit to my account. So I actually only got half of the money. When applying for scholarships, check if the check is written to the student or two the school.

By Bigdaddy (Bigdaddy) on Saturday, March 22, 2003 - 01:25 pm: Edit

But you did get full value of your scholarships. Half went toward your costs and half lowered the amount of money you had to borrow. Right?

I would agree if half of the outside scholarships reduced your fin aid grants.

By Autodidact (Autodidact) on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 01:22 pm: Edit

Bump!

By Autodidact (Autodidact) on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 02:13 pm: Edit

Hi, I've had several requests for more information and am pursuing all available leads. Most success is experienced if you can persuade the scholarship committee to write the check to the student, which eliminates the middle guy and ensures that the student (and/or family EFC) gets the benefit and use of the monies. As you can imagine this will be more difficult in larger schools, or for state or national awards. I recommend you try the following approaches which have worked locally: Explain the situation to the individual or organization granting and request that the check be made out to the student or alternatively to the parent, assuring them that it will be used for tuition, books, room or board--try to match the amounts to a corresponding expense. This is one time when being from a small, intimate environment where everyone knows everyone else (and their business) actually works to your advantage. Here are some of the more creative ideas we've come up with:
1. Offer to submit the invoice or receipt for books, etc. and then receive reimbursement from the giver.
2. Have the money paid directly to the student's dining hall account--you might want to eat there a couple of times first to ensure the fare is edible! This could have a secondary payback, because the kid has no need to order pizza when he has money in his account--and it will assure they can eat long after they've blown their budget on the same.
3. Suggest that you'd be willing to accept the award following the first semester or even after the year's completion, after ability and responsibility have been proven, allowing the donor to continue reaping interest (slight though it is) as an exchange for the full use and benefit at the agreed upon time. Their faith and confidence in your child will have been affirmed, and if it is a renewable source, they will likely grant the following years award simultaneously. Make certain DS or DD knows that effort brings reward, and lack thereof is tantamount to throwing away money. A review of their year's endeavors is welcomed by many of the groups who are interested in knowing how their money was spent, and are genuinely interested in the continuing well being of the student. Offering to help round up "a few good people" to support their pet project once a year doesn't hurt and occasionally results in an additional, unsolicited donation to the college student or their cause. Good works!
4. Target the admission fees--which as we all know are not inconsequential-- or the activity fees, student health, or sorority or fraternity fees.
5. Make sure if the money goes to the school--some bylaws require it--that the accompanying letter says: "These funds in the amount of $______ are for the use and benefit of the student, (specify name), and not to be absorbed by, nor is it to be tendered in lieu of nor in replacement of, any previously awarded scholarship or waiver of same which the student has received or been offered in any pre-existing financial aid agreement with the college, university, or business entity. Any attempts to draw funds on this check or voucher in conflict with this stated purpose or counter to these prohibitions will render this financial instrument null and void and untenderable by the institution to whom it is issued, and any attempt to do so will be viewed as an attempt to defraud or embezzle." I'll continue searching and best of luck to all who attempt to hold on to what their children work so hard to earn. I hope this helps generations of students with shallow or empty pockets to spread the message to institutions with deep ones, that every little bit counts and makes a difference. Any lawyers in the forum who have an opinion as to enforceability, please reply. Thanks!

By Marylandmom (Marylandmom) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 01:58 pm: Edit

Looking at an in-state school, does anyone know what happens if the amount of merit-based scholarships a student has accumulated exceeds the cost of tuition and fees, room and board, and books and supplies?

By Emeraldkity4 (Emeraldkity4) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 02:07 pm: Edit

YOur aid cannot exceed cost of attendance, so I imagine some of that aid would have to be turned down

By Marylandmom (Marylandmom) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 02:46 pm: Edit

After posting my question, I just went round and round with a young woman in the financial aid department at the U of MD. She insists that if merit based scholarships exceed the student's bill, a refund is given to the student.

I hope she's right, but I don't think it's that simple. For example, some scholarships specify that they are to go towards tuition, some say they can be used toward tuition and fees, room and board, and books and supplies.

As far as I know, none that my daughter has been offered indicate that they may be used for "living expenses", which actually is a category usually listed in estimating the cost of a year in college.

By L_Wonder (L_Wonder) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 02:48 pm: Edit

sometimes, the the financial aid seriously underbudgets the cost of attendence, especially with architecture and fine art students. I usually spent at least 3 times as much on supplies as they gave me aid for and every semester they made me turn in receipts for every purchase I made in order to justify an increase in aid. And books? Lots of people easily spend over 400 dollars on one semester. I do believe that they should reduce aid a little if people get an excessive amount of outside grants, but I think that the financial aid people they need to be more realistic about college expenses.

By Hautbois (Hautbois) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 02:55 pm: Edit

My understanding is that the university simply won't give our daugher the full amount of the scholarship if she has other scholarships that will cover more than all college costs (she doesn't). They don't pull the entire scholarship away though, but merely take any overpayment back. I'm not sure exactly how this is done, but they do have her checking account information in order to deposit the scholarship $, so perhaps they can also withdraw it? Or perhaps they just deduct it from the next quarter's scholarship money. Guess we'll have to find this out!

Now if someone didn't report all of his or her scholarship $$ I suppose a person could make a little money on the side, as long as the scholarships go to the student and not the school. This, for me, would be unethical so I couldn't go there. (Easy for me to say, since our d doesn't have that temptation available to her, right?!) I do know we were asked to report all other scholarship money to the financial aid department (for us the only other scholarship, so far, is the CA Scholarshare $$, and that's only $3,000 so there's a long way to go to cover the whole amount.).

By L_Wonder (L_Wonder) on Friday, April 25, 2003 - 05:23 pm: Edit

The school will probably just credit money to her account and issue a refund check.
Most people don't report their outside scholarships if they don't have to, and in some instances, the scholarship committee will warn you against doing so.
I don't think that there are tons of students going around trying to make extra cash, but it just makes since to try to keep as much as you can because you don't know what might come up in the future. You may find that during your child's sophomore year the financial aid office isn't being as generous, you will be wishing that you held on to that money.