Outside Scholarship affect financial aid?

[tmk]

I've been awarded an outside postgrad scholarship, do you know if the financial aid office will take this amount away from what they have offered me in terms of scholarship? I know some colleges do this and I'm trying to figure out the best way to get as much money I've been offered as possible.

Thanks

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[Temple2013]

If the college is offering need-based grants, yes. Even if the new aid is a merit-based grant.

Financial aid office is slow though. For undergrad, the financial aid office found all the outside scholarships for me and they often lagged a semester before adjusting. I picked up about $15,000 over 3 years that way. I asked them about it, they just told me to keep it.

 

[Vonsmack]

It depends on the type of scholarship and how the scholarship gives you the money.

The school makes out a budget for you to cover tuition and living expenses and basically you can receive financial aid up to this set budget amount. So even if you have a full ride tuition scholarship, you can still receive scholarship money for living expenses as long as it is within your set budget. If you receive scholarships that exceed your budget, then yes the school would apply that money to your tuition (so the school would pay less). Basically they will not (cannot by law) give you more than your allotted budget.

The way around this is if the scholarship gives you money directly. This would be considered more like a "stipend" and your school can't touch it. The same goes for private loans, if the bank makes the check to you then you're gold. If they make it out to the school then it will just be applied to your budget, subtracted from your financial aid. Hope it makes sense, this is how it works at my (state) school, but you can check with your FA office to see their policies.

 

[FullThrottle]

Check out programs that will pay your tuition and give you a stipend if you go into primary care (if that's what you like). For example, the University of Kansas School of Medicine has a program that for every year of tuition/stipend they give you, you work in an undeserved area in Kansas. You have to go into a primary care specialty (FM, IM, EM, Peds). I think these are the ones eligible. Think of it... no tuition to worry about. You can practice in Kansas City, KS (for example) which is part of the KC metro area if you are a bit worried about practicing in a very rural area. Four years go by... you're making regular doctor salary, getting experience, and NO med school debt to worry about. I'm just saying... its an option. Check out their site. http://www.kumc.edu It's called the *** Loan program.

 

[TMP-SMX]

Some outside scholarships send the check directly to you. The FA office will never know. But yes it depends who is giving you the scholarship and how it is getting to you.