Coffee Talk: Funding Displacement and Scholarship Awarding Process
SydneyMurrell
Posts: 17 ✭✭✭
Thank you to everyone who joined us today to talk all things scholarships and the awards process! Below are some other resources on scholarship displacement that you can take a look at!
Use this space to continue the discussion!
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Understanding Scholarship Displacement:
https://www.studentsfirstconsulting.org/resources/scholarship-displacement-a-resource-for-students
Empowering Students with Choice & Flexibility:
https://www.studentsfirstconsulting.org/resources/scholarship-displacement-empowering-students
Federal over award law. I have to find the place where it says the school can use professional judgement to work around this. It was buried deep.
https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/fsa-handbook/2023-2024/vol4/ch3-overawards-and-overpayments
Here is a link to a school's over award policy that is very well explained and is common:
https://huntsvillebiblecollege.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Financial-Aid-Overawards.pdf
One of the tactics used by the two schools I am personally involved with worked to increase the COA so that when the SAI was subtracted, there was a lot left over to keep the student eligible to use the scholarship. The school can also lower the SAI. In one of my girls situations, the school took off the work study (no big deal, she was just paid for her job in another way) and then were going to take off the loan. That's great, it definitely still helps her if the loan is removed and replaced with a scholarship, but that doesn't help with the cash needed for the bill. That could lead to going to a private loan, with worse terms than the federal loan.
Last week, the option of paying students instead of schools as a way around award displacement was brought up. I'm tagging some clients that pay students, even if it's only for specific programs/situations:
Candice Krell @CandaceKrell , Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation
Malissa Ayala @MalissaAyala , Community Foundation of St. Joseph County (book stipend)
Krista Williams @KristaWilliams , Centre Foundation
The scholarship admins are not on Compass, but the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation has a high-volume scholarship program that only pays students.