How will a scholarship affect my financial aid?

Queenie Ruthers: but don't colleges give you financial aid as a grant? I'm talking about financial aid given as a grant, not a loan.

Mitchel Demry: Eligibility for financial aid is based on financial "need".Financial need is the difference between Cost of Attendance and the sum total of all of the money (your own and other sources) that you have available to you to pay your college expenses.Cost of Attendance includes tuition, books, school fees, room and board, and other miscellaneous education-related expenses, and your school is responsible for calculating what it would cost the average student to pay all of those expenses.If your school's Cost of Attendance is $40,000, and you receive $15,000 worth of scholarships, the school would look to see what other forms of money you have (or are expected to have) available to pay that $25,000 gap. If your EFC was non-zero, for example, financial aid will most likely anticipate that you and your parents are going to kick i! n some out-of-pocket cash.For the sake of argument - if that $15,000 scholarship was your only source of educational funds, you would still be eligible to receive a financial aid package of the full $25,000 in remaining "need". Keep in mind, however, that only a small percentage of schools are able to meet 100% of financial aid need - so the fact that you still needed $25,000 would not necessarily mean that you would receive that much money in your aid offer. It's rarely safe to anticipate that your school is going to provide enough financial aid for you to cover all of your expenses.Good luck to you - I hope that helped....Show more

Ulysses Failey: It won't effect your financial aid but you will owe $25,000. A scholarship is a gift or award. A loan, is a loan, is a loan. Ya gotta pay it back unless you're on Wall Street.

Vern Serratos: your financial aid WILL BE affected.. that is why you have to notify them when you do get a scholarship if not and you spend! the money financial aid gave you, you will have to pay the di! fference between what your tuition was and what you spent.. please dont make that mistake..