Okay so both the schools I am considering have met one hundred percent of my “demonstrated financial need”. I was recently told by a friend that any local scholarships I apply to are a waste of my time as the amount I earn will be subtracted from the grants that I relieved from the colleges, rather than to defray the cost of my expected family contribution. Can anyone verify this?
It depends on the school. Some schools do that, taking grant money away. However, other schools will let that scholarship money reduce your expected contributions.
Look dude scholarships are never a waste of time even if you don’t end up getting the money – the money is only the tip of the iceberg of benefits. The networking alone, even with local scholarships, can be so helpful. Definitely apply anyway.
Thanks @MrElonMusk, I will research the college policies. @CourtneyThurston - good advise, but I do believe it is unethical to take scholarship money from students who can use it if I essentially would “waste” the money by subtracting it from my college grants.
OUTSIDE SCHOLARSHIPS AND TUITION BENEFITS Policy from Hamilton College- one of my two choices
“A student must report outside awards and tuition benefits to the Financial Aid Office, which will first replace work-study and then the loan portion of a student’s financial aid package before it will reduce the Hamilton College Scholarship. Neither an outside scholarship nor a tuition benefit will reduce your expected family contribution.”
-So what I gathered from this is that should go after scholarships with the insensitive that I won’t have to do work-study (or pay the 2500 $ associated with work study) and so I don’t have to take out the 3500 $ student loan Hamilton expects me to take out. However, if I do a work-study and/or take out a student loan, the local scholarships I earn are obsolete and will be subtracted from my college grant. I have incentive to earn up to 6k in local scholarships, but any more than that is a waste of my time. Do I follow correctly?
@youngdreamer12 What?
*incentive (not insensitive) 
Your interpretation is how I understand it, too.
@BuckeyeMWDSG Okay thanks. And yeah the spell check did me dirty…
I mean, you don’t really know if you can use it until everything’s said and done and you’ve graduated. It’s amazing how much your financial aid can change over 4 years.
Also, some competitions are solely awarded on merit (Coca-Cola, Goldwater, some others); I don’t think it’s “wrong” in those cases because those scholar classes skew very wealthy to begin with.
Also – just because it’s strictly merit. It’s basically a competition to see who can put together the best stack of paper, and nothing more.
If you are only motivated by your personal incentive, this would seem to be the case. By a more inclusive ethic, you might consider that external scholarship recognition beyond a certain level could serve to support the college of your attendance by defraying the expense of their need-based grant to you.
Depending on the school, but most likely you will get a reduction in loan and/or work study too, not just in grant. Those would also be your out of pocket cost otherwise.
Most of our local scholarships ask for income or FAFSA EFC, so probably have a need component.
Only you and your family can decide if you require scholarships to pay for school.
Also, if you use external scholarships to replace work study, you can still work (just not in a work-study only position) and that money can go toward your family contribution or loans.