<p>Does it make a difference if scholarships or financial aid is awarded first?</p>
<p>Probably not. Schools will take scholarships into account when finalizing financial aid. if a scholarship causes “need” to go down, need based aid will be reduced.</p>
<p>If I were a college, I would award scholarships first, because it would eliminate the feeling of loss and injustice students and families inevitably get when a financial aid package gets cut due to the award. It’s inevitable that this happens with outside awards that do not get reported until after the school awards are given, but internally this can be avoided… That’s what I would advise colleges who in terms of procedure. </p>
<p>If you get your financial aid first, you will see exactly what you would be getting without the scholarship on a need basis. When you get your scholarship, your award is likely to be cut because most all schools have some rules about double dipping and that finanical aid is for need only, and any scholarships will affect the need, and therefore the award. Though usually, it is self help that is usually first cut, sometimes the “meat”, that is, the grants have to be reduced too, and that causes outcries of “foul”. For PR purposes, it’s better the student and parents never see the original award. It also makes the fin aid office be freer to include those self help items in there instead of removing them first as usually done when the aid package is given first.</p>