<p>So I have received a 5000 dollar scholarship check. What do I do? </p>
<p>My school’s fin aid policy is to reduce loans first, then work study, and then the school’s own aid gift. NOT how much cash one pays each month. </p>
<p>Do I need report the 5000 dollars? Will my school be able to tell via taxes if I did not tell them?</p>
<p>I want to pay down my loans, but I do not want to lose work study. (my loans account for 3000 dollars per year).</p>
<p>I also want to purchase a laptop for school in the Fall. I am an incoming freshman. </p>
<p>How do I get the most out of this cash scholarship without making my school mad?</p>
<p>Your school has a policy reporting outside scholarships, I’m sure. You may have to report the amount for taxes, depending on whether it exceeds what is permissable to leave off of taxes. Tuition, books and supplies, I believe—you better look this up are the only things that can be covered without having to report the amount for taxes. Also it depends on how much you have in reportable income.</p>
<p>Not reporting it is dishonest. There are folks who have it reduce their grants and still they are supposed to report it. In your case, it can reduce your loans and work study. You can get a job outside of work study. Does this $5k reduce your need to zero? Does it leave any of your COA unpaid by your package? If so, why do you think you should keep this windfall? The financial aid was given to you because of need. If the scholarship were in the picture at the time your need was calculated, you would have gotten $5K less. Financial aid offices take a dim view of those who cheat on this process and if federal aid is involved, the consequences can be severe. Report the amount and work it out with the fin aid folks if a computer, and certain supplies and other COA items can be worked into the picture.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you call the financial aid office. The policy of applying the outside scholarship is pretty clear but you may be able to credit more of it (if the amount exceeds your loans and work study). If you are buying a computer as a freshman they may be able to add this expense to the COA thereby increasing your need. Also is the travel expense accurate for your situation? If you live far away they may be able to increase the travel expnses too. In my case D1 had $9,500 in outside scholarships at a no loan school. I spoke with financial aid and they were able to add a computer to the COA and increase the travel mount (we live 2500+ miles away). This way we got credited about half of the money and the school received about half the money. I felt this was fair since their FA is so generous. D1 was able to obtain 2 non-work study jobs on campus. Just call and ask - they may even have some suggestions on how to allocate the scholarship to benefit you the most.</p>
<p>Just work with them on a COA adjustment and report it…for all the reasons given above and so you can sleep at night without worrying about it coming back to haunt you! It’s definitely not worth the stress just to keep a little ws funding when many freshmen find they can’t get a ws job anyway and take an on-campus regular job.</p>
<p>congrats on the scholarship! BTW - even if you lose the WS job you can go out and find a regular job if you’d like to still make those bucks … the job might not be quite as convenient but I’d guess a ton of undergrads at your school are working 8-15 hours a week in either a WS or regular job.</p>