When schools award scholarships, they have to deal with restricted funds. People donate money for scholarships, but they put restrictions on the funds. While some require that the recipients have financial need (as determined by FAFSA), others “prefer” that recipients have financial need. In both cases, the FAFSA is needed in order to determine to whom scholarships will be awarded. Scholarships might be awarded to those without need when all is said & done, but the committee might have a category for which they assign points based on financial need when doing the candidate evaluations.
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