yanks07

I reported a bunch of one-time scholarships to my school and they all affected my aid for this coming year. Am I required to use all of them this year, or can I space out the one-time scholarships over different years?

kelsmom

If they are all being paid this year, you have to use them this year. It is disappointing when a school reduces their grant aid by the amount of outside scholarships, but I think most have that policy. It is sometimes possible for a student to work with the outside scholarship agency to see if they'll hold off paying the scholarship until the next year, but you have already accepted & reported your scholarships to your college ... I think it's too late to even try to change things at this point. Once the college is informed & reduces your grant, it is tough to get it reinstated.

somemom

Do double check with your school-most school's assert they reduce loans first then grants. As a freshman, my Ds award was reduced when a couple of merit awards came in, until I brought it to their attention and they fixed it. Had I not printed and reviewed the initial offer, I would not have realised what happened.

kelsmom

Somemom is right ... I didn't think about that.

If you have an unsubsidized Stafford loan, though, that MIGHT not be reduced instead of the grant. The reason for this is that while subsidized Staffords are used to meet need, unsubsidized Staffords *can* be used to replace (actually, to help pay!) Expected Family Contribution, or EFC (that is, they are awarded in excess of actual need as defined by the financial aid federal laws). That's not always the case, though ... if you have a high amount of need & you have been awarded the maximum $3500 subsidized Stafford, the school might have awarded you another $2000 in unsubsidized that is still being used to meet need.

Yes, I know it's all confusing. My reason for pointing this out is to say that they might not reduce loans after all if they are unsubsidized. If that's the case, read the above for an explanation of why this happened.

hyperJulie

Hmm, I'm having a problem related to this, as well. I sent in my additional scholarship reports under the impression that my loans would be reduced (seeing as it explains extremely clearly in the material I received with my initial aid package that they first take unmet need, then grants, and only then need-based grants). When my financial aid package was revised, I checked it online and for some reason, my loans were only reduced by 500 dollars, while they took over a thousand from my need-based grant.

I called immediately, and the woman said she would send my award letter to be reviewed again, but to no avail. The reduction has remained in place. It has been somewhere in the realm of a month now, and I'm not sure what to do this time. I've already called and they didn't change it, so I really don't understand why they're doing this with my financial aid package.

I'm sorry if I hijacked the thread at all, it just seemed to be a very related problem so I figured I'd go ahead and ask here.

For the record, I have about $4,900 in loans between Perkins and sub. Stafford this coming year.

kelsmom

Okay, Julie ... let's see if I can help. I need your college's cost of attendance, everything in your aid package, and your EFC. If you'd rather not post that here, pm me. I'll let you know what (probably) happened.