How Scholarships Affect Financial Aid

If I receive a scholarship will it affect my Financial Aid?

In some instances, when you are offered a scholarship after your financial aid has been offered an "over-award" may occur. This means that the total of your aid exceeds your cost of attendance. Federal regulations require FRCC to adjust aid to correct the over-award. In some cases, the adjustment may result in a further reduction of other aid (excluding the Pell grant) in order to award the scholarship.

Example:

Full time independent (as classified by FAFSA) student living off campus.

$24,369 Cost of Attendance

-0 Student Aid Index (SAI)

= $24,369 Financial Need

-$6,895 Pell Grant

- $4,000 Colorado Student Grant

- $3,500 Subsidized Loan

- $6,000 Unsubsidized Loan

= $3,974 Unmet Financial Need 

How Financial Aid Gets Adjusted

If a scholarship that exceeds the unmet financial need ($3,974 in the example) is issued after the financial aid has been awarded, FRCC is required by federal regulations to adjust aid, except for the Pell Grant.

Following the example above, if a $5,500 scholarship is issued, there would be an over-award of $1,526 ($3,974 unmet financial need - $5,500 scholarship = -$1,526). Therefore, financial aid would be adjusted/reduced by $1,526.

Residency Change

If your residency status changes from out-of-state to in-state, this will change your cost of attendance, therefore, reducing your financial need.