<p>I was awarded a lot of merit aid from several different colleges I was accepted in. But my top college gave me no aid. Now I am thinking I can’t possibly go to my “top college” because it’s to expensive, but my mom thinks that merit aid from different schools are transferable. Is this true?? On average, I received 20,000$ Of merit from my safety schools.</p>
<p>If not, what kind of merit aid is transferable?
I did not receive any FAFSA aid, but did get the pell grant and stafford loan for all colleges.</p>
<p>Merit aid from the colleges is NOT transferable from one college to another. PERIOD. If you don’t attend a college, you also don’t get that college’s merit aid to use elsewhere.</p>
<p>There are SOME outside scholarships that can be used at any college. These are awarded by organizations outside of the colleges. BUT you would have needed to apply for those a LONG time ago. Also, some do have a provision for choosing a school…and sticking with that choice.</p>
<p>Can you afford to attend one of your safety schools? If so, those would be your choices.</p>
<p>P.S. You DID receive aid per FAFSA. You got the Pell Grant. That is awarded based on your FAFSA EFC. The Pell Grant will be awarded to you regardless of where you attend college, BUT you have to submit a FAFSA to the college you attend to receive it.</p>
<p>Not if it was awarded by the school. An outside-the-school scholarship MIGHT be transferable (Elks club, Miss America, Coca-cola), but you have to ask the organization that gave it to you.</p>
<p>Absolutely not. Merit aid offered by a school is their own money they offer you to encourage you to attend their school. it is not transferable. They are not going to pay for you to attend another school.</p>
<p>FAFSA does not give aid. It is an application form for federal and other aid. The aid itself is always processed and offered by schools. The pell and Stafford are both federal aid that you received by completing FAFSA and being eligible for those programs. You will be eligible for the same pell at every school . Probably the same for Stafford, though the amount of Stafford may be affected by other aid, scholarships, and the cost of the school (max is $5500 of which up to $3500 may be subsidized depending on need).</p>
<p>Can you tell us where you’ve been admitted and the cost of each school after any scholarship, Pell Grant, SEOG, etc, but BEFORE any loan, work study, etc?</p>
<p><<<
Total Salary- 140,000$
Taxes and Parents work benefits/Insurance-56,000-62,000$
Mortgage- approx 42,000$ (I live in an average home-its actually kind of small-under 2,000sq ft, but the property values in DC area are really expensive)
Food and Utilities- 27,000$ for the whole year
Other (birthdays, phone bills, tv, etc)- 10,000$
<<<<</p>
<p>HOW did you qualify for PELL!!!</p>
<p>What was your EFC? </p>
<p>On your thread in December, you indicated your EFC was $38,000. Did that change? You would need a FAFSA EFC of under $5000 to get a Prll Grant.</p>
<p>Food, utilities, and even your mortgage payment and such are NOT deducted when one is filing the FAFSA. </p>
<p>Just an FYI to the OP, check your application forms very carefully. Have you linked your tax return to the IRS retrieval tool? If so, is there an asterisk on your student aid report? </p>
<p>ETA…you are a Virginia resident. There is NO shortage of instate public universities. You started a thread in November about this,and received a good amount of advice about looking at some of the less selective VA public universities where merit aid would be possible. Did you take any of that advice?</p>
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