Not getting a scholarship

dufus3709
Thu, 22 Dec 2005 15:45:42 +0000

Unless you have a full-ride merit aid package, you are going to have to apply for need-based financial aid and then pay something. Partial merit aid will just reduce the amount of need-based aid that you can possibly receive!

Lets say that a college has a COA of $44K/year, and your EFC is found to be $15K/year. If you get the $24K scholarship, then your NEED is $44 - 24 - 15 = $5K and they will probably give you a need-based finan aid package of $0 in grants and $5K in loans. If you don’t get the scholarship, then your NEED is $44 - 15 = $29K and they will probably give you a need-based finan aid package of $20K in grants, $4K in job-help, and $5K in loans. They only shove the loans at you up to a point. (Nobody is going to loan huge amounts of money to a college student.)

Certainly pursue the merit aid. Money is good and having a bird in the hand early is better; but you are talking about being limited to only OSU if you can’t get merit aid at Case.