Office of Financial Aid
Outside Scholarships
Reporting Outside Scholarships
As part of the process of finalizing your eligibility for financial aid, we must gather information about types of financial aid that come from sources other than Oberlin College. If you will not be receiving any outside scholarships or awards, you must still file this notification.
The term 'Outside Scholarship/Award' refers to funds awarded to you and administered by an entity other than Oberlin College. Outside scholarships and awards include (but are not limited to):
- Scholarships awarded by your high school, religious, civic or other organization;
- Tuition benefits received from your parent's employer;
- State and federally funded scholarships and grants that will be available for your use at Oberlin
Outside Scholarship Reporting Form
Outside Scholarship Policies
In most cases, receipt of merit-based scholarships from non-Oberlin sources will not affect the amount of grant and scholarship assistance that a student receives from Oberlin College.
Scholarships based totally or in part on merit will not affect aid received from Oberlin sources, provided that the total amount of grants and scholarships does not exceed billed costs. (Billed costs include tuition, room, dining, and fees.) Examples of these types of scholarships are the Gates Millennium Scholarship, scholarships from local civic organizations, and National Merit Scholarships. These scholarships will replace self-help (student loans and student employment) offered in the original financial aid package. For example, a $1,000 outside scholarship might replace a $1,000 student loan in the financial aid package.
Need-based grants, entitlements, and benefits from federal, state, or other sources (including tuition benefits from student/parent employers) will replace Oberlin College grants and/or scholarships dollar for dollar (e.g. a $1,000 state grant will replace a $1,000 Oberlin College grant).
Financial aid from federal, state, and other sources will be adjusted in response to receipt of outside scholarships and awards in accordance with eligibility rules established by the Department of Education or other program-administering body. For instance, scholarships from outside sources may affect subsidy eligibility for Federal Stafford Loan purposes.
Students are required to report receipt of all scholarships and awards from outside sources to the Office of Financial Aid by submitting the Outside Scholarship Form.
Scholarship Search Engines
With more than $3 billion in scholarships, the FastWeb scholarship search and www.scholarships.com are the largest, most accurate and most frequently updated scholarship databases. If you supply an e-mail address, they will notify you when new awards that match your profile are added to the database.
Other large scholarship databases are available on the FinAid! website, Scholarship Experts website, and Scholarship America.