Scholarship notification timing

Paying for College Scholarships
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My S26 HS has a community scholarship application for seniors to fill out. It is one application for all community scholarships. The application has just opened this month and there will be interviews on 4/8. Awards will be 5/28 which is past colleges decision date of 5/1. The amount of scholarships that S26 gets will likely affect his decision of where to go. How does everyone navigate this?

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I go to where I can afford up front. I don’t count on other scholarships which may come, and / or may be one year only.

We got one that came late - one was $2k and one was $1k (each kid). They were sent to the schools which I believe then sent us a refund check as we had already paid.

You can always go to a school you didn’t enroll and say - just got all this money - would you reconsider ? Or you can advise up front it may come to make them aware. If they say yes, then you’d withdraw the original and lose your deposit or moneys paid thus far.

You should not double deposit - meaning commit to two and drop one (losing your deposit) depending on the scholarship size. That’s a no no.

You need to decide by May 1 so in this case I’m assuming no scholarship. Hopefully you have a school you love within the non scholarship budget.

Good luck.

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I agree with tsbna. Are these high dollar, multi-year scholarships that have a reasonable probability of winning them?

Do note that many colleges will require you to sign any external scholarship checks over to them, and some colleges may reduce your financial aid package by the scholarship amount (this is called scholarship displacement.) Look at each college’s website to see their rules/policies on external scholarships. Good luck.

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Whatever you do, do NOT double deposit at more than one school. This violates the terms of the common app and is unethical. It sounds like you need to make plans at the school that is affordable without the scholarship.

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Agree with others. Unless this is a renewable for all four years and large amount, choose a college that doesn’t take this into consideration…perhaps.

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