[gms7777]

I went to WashU too, and I remember getting a letter sometime during college saying "Congratulations, you won a $5,000 named scholarship for female engineers!" And I was excited until I read on and it turned out that the 5k was just going to replace 5k of a merit scholarship I already had.

[patio11]

Yep. For bonus points: even if you won an outside scholarship, they'd reduce your merit award by 50% of the total. (e.g. If you win an essay writing competition and pick up a $5k scholarship from a private organization like your local Boy Scout troop, they'd reduce your loan by $2.5k and your merit grant by $2.5k.)

n.b. for all current and future college attendees: this policy is negotiable. My mother called the financial aid office, pitched a fit, and got a one-time exception to it about eight different times. I was embarrassed by this, but only because I was young and stupid, since ten years later I certainly care more about the ~$10k of debt that I don't have much more than my status as a quiet, go-with-the-flow cog as measured by a financial aid officer whose name I don't know and who has almost certainly forgotten those calls ever happened.

[blackguardx]

It sounds like Wash U. screws its students over. It wasn't like that at Case Western. I got merit scholarships and scholarships from the alumni association. One couldn't impact the other.

[gms7777]

Perhaps. However, I was from a middle to upper middle class family and had a ridiculous amount of financial aid and merit scholarships. For a 40k/year school, my family was paying about 5k total, and I graduated with no loan debt. So to an individual, it seems like this policy screws you over, but in general, they are extremely generous, and this policy allows them to move money to other people who need it to afford to come there. There are certainly arguments against it, but a blanket statement like "WashU screws its students over" is certainly unwarranted.