<p>Your total financial aid cannot exceed the cost of Yale’s COA, which is the official cost of attendance. The COA includes tuition, room, board, and typically an ambiguous bit for ‘personal expenses.’ It looks like Yale is pretty generous with the aid, and scholarships can and will reduce your work contribution (term and summer), amount they expect /you/ to pay out of earnings, insurance, and maybe even a computer.</p>
<p>However, if you are lucky enough to get that full scholarship, your ‘need’ is reduced-- bascially, you don’t need as much financial aid as somebody who doesn’t have the $20k in scholarships. Therefore, Yale shouldn’t give you the same amount of money as before. Remember, all of Yale’s money is not merit-based, but need-based, and if you ‘need’ less because you have more help, than you ‘need’ less, and the Yale Scholarship will be reduced to help other students. This approach is pretty common among all schools-- scholarships are meant to be used towards Tuition, Room, and Board and are typically sent directly to the school.</p>