Money / Stack math
If you win this scholarship, does it actually save you money?
Most colleges reduce your institutional aid when you win an outside scholarship — so the money saves the school, not you. Some stack honestly. The difference matters a lot if you're deciding whether to spend 12 hours on an application. Calculator below.
Important: this uses our list of verified displacement policies for ~20 major colleges. For schools we don't have policy data on, ask your school's financial aid office directly: "Does our policy reduce my institutional aid if I win an outside scholarship? How much, and what gets reduced first — grants, loans, or work-study?"
What's your school's displacement policy?
If you don't know, ask the financial aid office. Or check our verified policy list for 20+ major colleges.
Your current aid + the scholarship you're considering
Use the numbers from your financial aid letter.
The result
Real savings: $0
That's 0% of the scholarship amount actually reaches your pocket.
Displace grants dollar-for-dollar: Outside scholarships REDUCE your institutional grant 1:1. Your savings ≈ $0. The money saves the school, not you.
Before
Institutional grants $40,000
Loans $5,500
Work-study $2,500
You pay $22,000
After winning $10,000
Institutional grants$30,000−$10,000
Loans$5,500
Work-study$2,500
Outside scholarship+$10,000
You pay $22,000
Reality check: Under this policy, your real savings on this scholarship are $0. The money goes to the school, not you. If you're spending application hours on it, the time-budget math doesn't work — see if your school's actual policy matches this on our verified list before deciding.
Negotiation lever: Even at displace-policy schools, you can sometimes ask the aid office to apply the outside scholarship to your LOANS first (instead of grants). It's not a guaranteed yes, but it costs nothing to ask. Their answer also tells you a lot about how flexible the school will be later.
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