American University (DC)

How does this school displace outside scholarships?

Answer:

"Impact of Your Scholarships
All outside scholarships or other resources must be reported to the financial aid office. When our receives a copy of your offer letter, we will evaluate your offer and your current financial aid offer letter using the following criteria to see if any adjustments are needed.

Total tuition-based awards cannot exceed tuition.
The American University (AU) Institutional Grant and AU merit scholarships can only be applied to tuition charges. Outside offers such as ROTC, some scholarships and employer tuition benefits can also be used only for tuition.

If you are receiving more than one type of offer that is designated as tuition only, then the combined total of your offers can not exceed your tuition charges for the semester or year in which it is offered.

If your total does exceed tuition, then you are considered to be overawarded and your institutional offers will be reduced to make room for the outside offers.

Total need based PLUS gift aid cannot exceed need.
Total gift aid includes all grants, scholarships, ROTC or employer tuition benefits from all sources. Need-based aid includes Federal grants, Federal Work Study, Federal Subsidized Direct Loan and the Federal Perkins Loan. The combined total of all of these offers cannot exceed your need as determined by the FAFSA.

If your total does exceed your need, then you are considered to be overawarded and your federal and institutional offers will be reduced to make room for the outside offers. Whenever possible, our office will reduce loan and work study offers before reducing grant and scholarship offers.

Total financial aid cannot exceed total cost of attendance.
Total offers include all gift aid, all need-based aid, as well as all unsubsidized loans, PLUS loans and alternative loans.

If the total of all your aid exceeds your total cost of attendance, then you are considered to be overawarded, and your offers will be reduced to make room for the outside offers. Whenever possible, our office will reduce loan and work study offers before reducing grant and scholarship offers. "