<p>I agree. It seems like the a lot of outside money comes from local organizations at HS graduation and they are only available Freshmen year. It would be great if they could give you the option to take it all at once, or have it renewable for one or more year and give that percentage at a time.</p>
<p>I also wonder if the organizations awarding the scholarships that consider financial need in their decisions, realize that the money will not help the student in the way that they intend. My guess is that they are hoping to help with the cost of books, or to prevent the need for some debt. If they had the information on the schools policy would they give the award to a student who could actually use it instead?</p>
<p>The OP has me a bit confused. The example given is the state flags ship. There is a lot of mention of zero EFC. The first school to put on that list is Goucher.</p>
<p>Goucher uses PROFILE. So it is entirely possible to get a zero EFC, but not be eligible for 100% need met at that school. It is possible that the student has a NCP that FAFSA does not include and/or a primary hope with equity, for example. So, yes, if Goucher feels that the need for this student is, say $40K for the student, and gives a college grant for say$29K along with the full Stafford and PELL, if such a student come ups with a $10K outside scholarship, it will reduce that college grant. I don’t know if its policy will be to reduce the Stafford first, and then eat into the scholarship or if it will reduce that $29K by $10K directly. Need is defined by PROFILE by Goucher, not FAFSA, so that the zero EFC that FAFSA gives does not equate into zero contribution by Goucher. </p>
<p>What state school or any school will take away outside scholarship money INSTEAD of applying it to unmet need as defined by their own system, should be the question. I’ve yet to see this happen. The scholarship money goes to unmet need (by the school’s definition–not yours or necessarily FAFSA’s) first,then is applied to work study funds and then loans, then to grants, according to everything I have seen. I know there are schools that will take it dollar for dollar against the school grant over the government help amount, but I don’t know which schools those are, and even they will apply to unmet need first.</p>
<p>I just looked up Goucher’s policy on outside awards and it does go to unmet need first and then up to $1250 towards self help (Stafford and workstudy) before lowering money from Goucher. It’s not as generous as those schools that will let such a grant completely replace self help, but is does not leave unmet need (by their own definition) stay the same if an outside scholarship is received.</p>