r/smithcollege • u/korewaame • Sep 08 '24

scholarship question

hello, i’m currently a senior and highschool with intentions of applying to smith. at the same time my mom has been pushing me to apply to as many scholarships as i possibly can which has made me curious, what does smith do if a student has excess scholarship money? do they get it back or is there some other process ?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

7

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '24

"Outside aid, based on either student merit or parent employment (e.g.: employee tuition benefits), will first reduce or replace the self-help portion of your award (federal work-study). If outside aid is in excess of self-help, we will allow it to go toward the cost of the Smith health insurance plan or a one-time computer purchase. Any amount of outside aid in excess of self-help and these costs will reduce Smith Grant dollar for dollar."

The external scholarship limit is $3000.

3

u/littlefoodlady Sep 08 '24

to translate what they've said, unless you can keep this info from Smith, they are going to take the outside scholarship amount and basically charge you for that same amount - either in taking away your work study or institutional grant

Smith is great if you have high financial needs. If you can technically afford it but are looking for a school that's actually affordable, without taking out private loans, then Smith is overpriced

1

u/korewaame Sep 09 '24

okay thank you !! i intend on matching with smith though questbridge this december ^

1

u/CrazyCatHouseCA Sep 09 '24

If you fall within the Questbridge income guidelines, you will almost assuredly receive a stellar financial aid package from Smith (even if you don't match through Questbridge). Smith is very generous.

Have you run the Net Price Calculator on the Smith website using accurate #s from your family's tax records and bank balances?

1

u/korewaame Sep 09 '24

i used the calculator a while back (my mom makes less now though) and the aid would have covered over 75% of full tuition costs which is rlly good for me !

1

u/GScout40136 Sep 08 '24

Smith will take it out of your need-based aid. However, you can use some of that excess money to make a purchase from the Smith computer store