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Could your scholarship be reduced for not taking out loans?

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:06 pm
by billables247
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Re: Could your scholarship be reduced for not taking out loans?

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:30 pm
by SFSpartan
Yes, the school will care. It's called need-based aid for a reason. If your financial situation changes to the point where you don't need the aid, your school can pull it. This won't effect the merit portion of your scholarship.

Re: Could your scholarship be reduced for not taking out loans?

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:36 pm
by Mullens
SFSpartan wrote:Yes, the school will care. It's called need-based aid for a reason. If your financial situation changes to the point where you don't need the aid, your school can pull it. This won't effect the merit portion of your scholarship.
I don't know if this is necessarily true. This just seems like baseless speculation to me, especially because some schools (which I assume is the case here) purport to give combined aid based on merit and need in a black-box process.

The question is probably school-dependent and also hinges on whether you accurately and honestly filled out your financial aid based on your situation at the time. It's probably best to contact the school and be upfront about the situation. Would be pretty TTT of a school to pull financial aid if you're being honest with the school.

ETA: I'm also a 0L but I think you have more to lose by hiding this situation rather than telling the school.

Re: Could your scholarship be reduced for not taking out loans?

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:44 pm
by Mullens
Also, is there any sort of clause on the financial aid forms or your scholarship package requiring you to update the school if your financial situation changes?

Re: Could your scholarship be reduced for not taking out loans?

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:46 pm
by ManoftheHour
What if you take out a loan and then right away pay it back with cash?

Re: Could your scholarship be reduced for not taking out loans?

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:51 pm
by wingding
billables247 wrote:This might be a dumb question, but if your scholarship is a need-based/merit-based mix, could you potentially get your scholarship reduced if you don't take out loans?

Say you got a scholarship based on your current financial situation, but then your rich uncle or whatnot gave you a check for a large sum of money, you could potentially pay purely out of pocket. If you end up not taking out loans, will schools be suspicious/care about your sudden ability to pay without loans and reassess your scholarship situation?
The school might not notice, but you better make sure you read the fine print, because the bar may consider this a serious C&F violation