Question about college, financial aid & scholarships.

[WendyZ]

Hello,
DD will start college this fall. We went to our FAFSA meeting last night. Now I'm wondering about a few things. Her tuition will be just under $9000. She's commuting from home, so no room & board. I expect our EFC to be at tuition or above. She has one scholarship for $1000 yr/four yrs., with a possibility of another $6000 at $1500 yr/four yrs. How would this work out if we have no finanical need? Would the scholarship $ come off the tuition and the balance is ours? How would it work out if by some fate we did fall in for some finanical need? I tried to ask this question at the meeting just so I could understand the process but the advisor just confused me more.
Is scholarships the only way to reduce your family's EFC?
When they do financial aid reports, is the figure they use just tutiton or do they tack on books, transportation costs, etc? (They have all that listed under what will it cost a year.)

DD is our first for college, so this will a very interesting summer/fall.
Thanks for any help this confused soon to be college mom.

[Seeker]

FinAid | Answering Your Questions | FAQs about Financial Aid

Unfortunately, I don't have the answers to your very specific questions.... but since nobody else seems to know the answers, I'll provide a link that may help you. There are also some toll-free numbers that you hopefully can talk with real people with accurate answers.

Financial Aid is something that should be applied for every year, even if denied because of "non-need" in one year. Ultimately circumstances and the numbers can and do change and so do the standards defining "need." So it does not hurt to apply even if you might not think you fall within "need."

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

"Would the scholarship $ come off the tuition and the balance is ours? How would it work out if by some fate we did fall in for some finanical need?"

Yes, unless the scholarship is specified for some exact purpose (such as a scholarship meant for books only, or a scholarship meant for sculpting supplies, or a scholarship meant to use for the purchase of inter-language dictionaries only), then most likely the scholarships will be paid toward the tuition. The tuition not covered by the scholarship would be yours to pay. The scholarship money will most likely be paid directly to your daughter's tuition account without ever passing through her bank account.

If you do turn out to have financial need and get, say a grant, then the scholarships and grants are applied toward tuition. If there is still any tuition left not paid by those sources, the remaining tuition would be yours to pay.

If the scholarships, plus grants (or what ever need based financial aid she gets) equal more than the tuition cost, it is usually okay for the student to use the overage to pay for books or other required materials. In some cases, if money made available through scholarships totals more than tuition, that money can be applied to general living expenses, such as food, rent, transportation. However, any scholarship money that can be applied to living expenses is also taxable, as I understand. Depending on the source of the scholarship, the school may actually issue a W-2 if they send a check to your daughter for the amount that was greater than tuition + books.

Scholarships can be different, so it might not work out exactly as I've said, but I think generally this is the case.

Congratulations to your daughter on the scholarships!

[WendyZ]

Thanks for the replys. I'll check out the link you provided today. I'm hoping by the time my son get there (in 4 yrs) I'll be an old pro at this.