How does FA/Scholarship work?

Paying for College
1

<p>I have few questions concerning scholarship and how it works. </p>

<p>Let’s say you get accepted in college X. Student A is in 25 percentile bracket, Student B is in 50% percentile bracket, student C is in 75 percentile bracket. </p>

<p>Does the FA will vary depending upon your ranking within that college? </p>

<p>Is there a cut off below which you may still get admission in college but won’t receive any FA? </p>

<p>If this is true then you stand a better chance of getting FA if you go to a college where you will be in the top bracket. Is this correct? </p>

<p>Let’s say college costs $50K per year and your family contribution is $10K and you are qualified for $40K FA from a college; if you are able to secure $5K in scholarship from outside, does that mean college will only pay $35K or you will be able to reduce your EFC to 5K.</p>

2

<p>Some colleges package merit aid with a need component. At many select colleges FA is purely that - FA with no merit component at all (make it in the school and you qualify for the FA available). Federal FA (Pell) is based purely on need. Anyone can get a Stafford loan if they file FAFSA.</p>

3

<p>Also, typically a college will not reduce the parent contribution with outside scholarships but if there is a student component it can normally be used to reduce that. If that is not the case usually the aid will be reduced by the amount. If we used your example the school would reduce their aid to $35K. It does vary by school so there is no sense in speculating and you should ask the school directly how outside scholarships are treated.</p>