<p>Since Junior High school, my son has won money in various essay competitions may be around $8,000. In addition program like CTY, Math Camp or other University research places offered may be other $8000. However we have used this money for summer math/science/debate camps or music lessons? When he was totaling how much money he won, to our surprise money is more than $15,000 9we did not add these figures before). Will college forgive us that we spent all this money on educational expanses and we are looking for financial aid? After all, we used money to better educate him. Is this a bad thing to show on appliaction that he received all this money?</p>
<p>They don’t ask how you spend your money. Congrats on understanding that the education he gets today is every bit as important, if not more so, than the one he might get tomorrow.</p>
<p>So the question is we should mention all those awards on the applications without worrying about where we spend the money. Yes without all these scholarships, it would have been hard to send him to these programs. Education is a priority in our house as only this is the wealth we can offer kids.</p>
<p>Same here, and we had about the same amounts in awards. We simply listed the scholarships, without amounts, and program participation. </p>
<p>Don’t let it worry you. Many folks spend $35k a year to send their kids to private schools. And then the business goes broke, or they are bankrupted by a medical expense, or whatever. What your son received was a series of one-time windfalls, and in the total scheme of things (by the time he enters, four years at prestige u. will cost $200k), more like one-time trickles. What’s important to him (and to them) is that 1) he was selected, and 2) what he learned along the way.</p>
<p>In fact, the windfalls can theoretically have opposite impacts. My d. received a grant from her college to fund her studies and work with tsunami and flood victims in India this summer. Because she took the money and is doing the work, she will have no summer earnings. Because she has no summer earnings to report (for which they are at least partially responsible!), her financial need is going up. It is a 100%-of-need school. We’ll see…</p>