RevDem

Hi. It's not on my financial aid reward, but I'm decently sure I qualify by the guidelines, given that I qualify for Pell Grants and I'm sure we wouldn't make it into Duke without a rigorous courseload.

I'm guessing that this grant may be added after Duke confirms this? Does anyone have experience with this grant? If the grant is given, what does the grant reduce... self-help or University grants (ew)?

bleedblue

Don't worry, all scholarships and grants (both external and from the school) first reduce any loans and work study allocations. Afterwards, Duke just sent me some a refund check when my scholarship covered more than my bursar's bill.

Don't worry.

RevDem

Thanks for the reply.

However, were you (or anyone for that matter) personally qualified for the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG), which is a quasi need-based grant that one gets if one completes a "rigorous curriculum"?

I'm asking this because Duke will not use Pell Grants to cover work-study or loans. Duke takes away an equal amount of the university scholarship to effectively make the Pell Grant useless (essentially, Duke is stealing the government's money instead of using its own). I'm just afraid of asking Duke to review my qualifications for the ACG because my university scholarship might be reduced giving me a net financial aid gain of ZERO. As much as I hate the aura of the government, I don't want Duke effectively stealing their money.

bleedblue

Yes, I was personally qualified to the ACG, trust me on that. However, I'm still not too clear on what your question is. Are you asking if they will use the ACG to cover work-study or loans?

If that's your question, I'm actually not sure about that. I remember my first year of college was the first year they announced the start of the ACG. However, with the timing of the announcement, I had already paid off my school bills. When the ACG was sent to Duke, they just sent me a refund check of the money (well, frankly, they had no other choice since I had already rejected my loans/workstudy, as I won an external scholarship that pays me the money directly).

However, I'm unsure how they factored the ACG into this year's financial aid for myself. My best advice would be just to ask your personal financial aid counselor. I found mine to be incredibly helpful and truthful.

RevDem

Thanks a lot. I finally decided to contact my financial aid counselor and she said that they treat the ACG as an outside scholarship (and not some piece of financially based aid like the Pell Grant) and thus, will reduce my loans first. You were right about not worrying.