I currently attend a university in Texas, and live at home (with parents). I received both Pell and Texas grant assistance, along with a school grant; the sum is the school’s cost of attendance, so I technically have a full ride.
However, I also received two private scholarships, one labeled as a yearly stipend, and the other delivered each semester. I was told by the financial aid office that the only way to receive the stipend would be if I either rented or leased (which I don’t), or purchased a computer. The other scholarship they said would be “waitlisted.”
From my understanding, it is possible for the school to reduce my aid based on my awards, although the Pell grant cannot be reduced because it is based on EFC and not financial need. I want to know that if the school were to reduce my aid (which I hope not), what would happen to the money if, ontop of the Pell Grant, I was still “over-awarded”?
My only questions are: how can I get my money, and what is the recommended course of action? Is what the school is doing right?
I can’t help but feel a bit guilty over the whole situation, but I still think it is unfair that I put in all the work both in qualifying for and applying for the scholarship, only to find out it was all for nothing.
Your need based aid (Pell excluded because it’s an entitlement) cannot exceed your cost of attendance at the school, that’s just not allowed. And it sounds like this is what the school is telling you, right?
It sounds like the school is willing to add the cost of a computer to your cost of attendance.
Or the rental of an off campus place to live.
If your cost of attendance remains not adjusted…you probably can’t get additional need based aid.
Go to the financial aid office and see how the funds were applied and for what. My daughter had several scholarships that could only be used for tuition, or for billed costs. Others could be used for anything (like a Pell grant) so it is important for those that could only be used for, for example, tuition to be applied first. We had one person at the FA office who was very good and made sure everything that could be refunded to us was. In your case, you want the school grants and outside scholarships to be applied first, and then the Texas grant and finally the Pell grant. And go ahead and buy the computer if that’s all they’ll allow, or books.
Your school should also give you a COA and include some allowance for living at home. It is not going to be as much as if you lived in a dorm or apartment, but it isn’t totally free to live at home as you have utilities, food, and other costs that someone (probably your parent) is paying.
A school will have 3 published COAs: One for living on, one for living off (not with family), and a third for living off with family. If the total of your existing aid (Pell + Texas Grant + School grant) covers the COA for your situation, you cannot get any more money from the scholarships. Honestly, I’m kind of surprised the school didn’t apply one of the private scholarships and then reduce that amount of the school grant. Either way, however, you probably aren’t going to see a refund. Buy the computer.
@ordinarylives , I was thinking the same thing … surprised the school didn’t decrease its own grant. But it’s possible that there are some tuition-restricted scholarships/grants in the mix that keep that from being an option.
I was on the selection committee of a foundation’s scholarship program… there were restrictions on how the money was used. It could ONLY be sent directly to the bursar of a college (we’d seen too many instances of a kid’s scholarship being used for parent’s rent or a GF’s cellphone bill); there were various other stipulations on how and in what order the money could be used.
OP-- take your college at their word. Buy a computer (and books too if that’s allowed) and don’t assume that they did anything wrong or nefarious. There could be fine print on the use of various awards that you don’t know about.
While there doesn’t have to be anything wrong or nefarious, he should be permitted to look over his own account and ask questions. I’ve run several scholarships programs and we make it very clear what expenses could be covered by our awards. There shouldn’t be any fine print that the recipient doesn’t know about.
Every student should be able to look over their own account and ask questions. And every student who has questions should ask them - it’s part of being an adult. It helps students to post here & get feedback so they are prepared with questions to ask their aid offices. They should definitely follow up to do that.