Private Scholarships - Regular Kid With High Stats

thumper1
Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:17:47 +0000

My kids both went to private universities. Both had scholarships (we didn’t qualify for need based aid). One had a larger scholarship and one had a teeny one.

Both kids had about $6000 in outside scholarships for freshman year only. Colleges did not reduce merit aid. This was Santa Clara University (2006) and Boston University (2003).

Old news so you would need to check policies now…but my understanding is that it’s need based aid that is reduced, not merit aid. But even with that, the reduction in need based aid usually starts with self help like work study and loans.

@kelsmom might be able to elaborate, but in most cases, aid cannot exceed the cost of attendance. Exception would be if a student got a full free ride but was still entitled to a portion of the Pell grant.