<p>A while back I was offered a half tuition scholarship for being a National Hispanic Scholar. I’m really interested in BU, but I know that I probably won’t be able to attend unless I recieve financial aid ontop of the half tuition scholarship. Half of a 50K+ pricetag is still pretty steep considering I’m from Virginia which has great instate, public schools like UVA and William&Mary. Does anyone know how being offered a scholarship may impact financial aid packages? </p>
<p>Cost of attendance - EFC = Need. Usually the scholarship would help to cover need. In other words, if the cost of attendance is $50K and your EFC is $20K, then your need is $30K. If BU meets 100% of need, then you would be offered aid in the form of loans, grants and work study in the amount of $30K. If you were offered a scholarship of half tuition (tuition being about $38K) or $19K, that would be used toward your need and would not be offered on top of the $30K. Most likely BU would use the scholarship to replace work study and loans, so that your offer would be entirely grants. You would still be responsible for your EFC. The main benefit is that you won’t have loans and work study as part of your package. When a scholarship is really a big benefit is when it is larger than the amount of your expected need - i.e. for someone with a high EFC or if the scholarship is very large. Does that make sense?</p>