Fighting for Financial Aid
Hard work doesn't always pay off for aid students
By Emily Brandon, University of Rochester

Two days after dropping off my scholarship check at financial aid, I decided to check my account balance. Instead of reading $2,000, my account balance read $1,250. When I went back to find out what happened, someone impatiently explained to me that the first $500 dollars of my scholarship was applied directly to my tuition. The next $1,500 of my scholarship was split. Half of it was applied to my tuition and the other half was applied to a grant that I had already received from the college. To make things worse, originally I had received $2,000 of federal work-study. This means that the money I made from working would not be counted against me when determining my financial aid package for the next school year. However, because my $2,000 scholarship put me over the bracket for qualifying for that much work-study, my work-study was reduced to $889.00.

However, this continues to be a typical practice for most universities, according to Scott Heeley, a former director of admissions at Pennsylvania State University, Ohio State University, and Alfred Universities. He says that students should be given a choice as to what kind of aid should be taken away. “For them to take away grant money and not loans is not in the best interest of students,” Heeley says.

“Students that spend the time to get the scholarships are treated no differently from those who don't bother to get them,” says Mike Sirianni, an undergraduate at Ithaca College. He says his school is taking advantage of the work students do to pay for college. This past semester Sirianni won $1250 in scholarships from outside the college. $500 of this money was automatically used for a student loan, and the other $750 was applied to a grant that he had already received from the college. “It is really too bad,” Sirianni says, “because I went out there, did the extra work, and brought income into the school from an outside source. Why shouldn't I be able to use that money?”

Ithaca’s policy is to first use outside scholarships to meet any unmet need, which is the difference between the cost of attending Ithaca and the expected family contribution. If students exceed their unmet need the next $1,000 will replace a need-based loan. The remaining outside aid is split in half. Half of the money will be used to further replace need-based loans and the other half will be used to replace need-based grants and scholarships. Director of Financial Aid Larry R. Chambers says that this is a fair policy. “It recognizes that students should be encouraged to seek support from outside resources but also allows the institution to direct its limited resources to those who need them most,” Chambers says.

Although many schools have similar policies, parents often feel the system is counter-productive. “This practice does not help a student reduce debt and makes one think twice about seeking additional aid,” says Ruth Natanson. Her son Matt attended the University of Rochester and won a $2,000 annual scholarship from outside the university. Five hundred dollars was unaffected but $750 was applied to the Rochester National Grant that he had already been awarded by the university. “After four years of paying one of the country's highest tuitions, we cannot agree with this university policy. They should be helping students to stay in school and leave without having to begin their careers in great debt,” Natanson says.

Nevertheless, there is a reason that this practice occurs. The amount of money won by a student cannot exceed the cost of attendance or the amount of need federally determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid formula, according to Dallas Martin, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). If the amount of money that students win exceeds their need, then the school will have to take away some other form of aid, be it grants, loans, or federal work-study. However, Martin still encourages students to apply for outside awards. “Anytime a student can find outside awards it’s advantageous,” Martin says. “That frees up funds that will go to other students.” Richard Flaherty, president of College Parents of America, believes that redistributing funds when students win additional awards takes into consideration the needs of other students and provides a public good and a responsibility to the taxpayer.

 “This is not a policy that is beneficial to students and one that Dollars for Scholars is working to change,” says Deb Fichtner, Dollars for Scholars national director of international operations. When unmet need no longer exists, Dollars for Scholars scholarships of up to $1,000 are used to adjust the self-help portion of a student's financial aid package. If the college does not follow their policy, some Dollars for Scholars chapters will not award scholarships to students attending these institutions. Fichtner sees no point in applying for additional scholarships if the aid that students were already offered will simply be reduced by the amount of the new scholarship that they've won. “It seems pointless to do this and only benefits the institution,” Fichtner says.

Although meeting the common good is a nice concept, students often feel their hard work for merit and need-based scholarships isn’t paying off. When only $139 of a $2,000 scholarship is getting into the hands of the student, something is wrong with the system.

Emily Brandon is currently a sophomore at the University of Rochester perusing a degree in Brain and Cognitive Science. She plans to eventually have a career in either scientific journalism or medical research. Contact Emily Brandon at eb010j@mail.rochester.edu.

Contact Heeley at (315) 525-3587, Sirianni at mikefolds5@juno.com, Chambers at lchambers@ithaca.edu, Natanson at natanson@earthlink.net, Leithner at ALeithner@finaid.rochester.edu, Martin at (202) 785-0453, Flaherty at (202) 661-2170, or Fichtner at dfichtner@csfa.org.

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