Scholarships Due July 5th-30th

We only provide brief information about upcoming scholarships. You’re strongly encouraged to

follow the links to find out more information about eligibility and requirements. Don’t cross out a

scholarship before looking!

National Scholarship for Immigrants and Refugees - $10,000 - Due 7/5

For first-generation U.S. citizens (born outside the U.S.), refugees, or immigrants (legal

documentation is not required).

Goedekers College Scholarship - $100-500 - Due 7/8

Write a 300+ word essay on why attending college and your field of study are important to you.

C.A.R.E.S. Scholarship - $500 - Due 7/15

Student must be diagnosed with an inherited blood disorder or have an immediate family member

who is. Must also be a resident of Kentucky.

Copernicus Foundation Scholarships - Varies - Due 7/15

Must be of Polish descent from the Chicago area and scholastic achievement in the Performing Arts.

Creative Safety Supply Scholarship - $1000 - Due 7/15

Awarding a scholarship to a student in good academic standing who has used creative thinking to

succeed in his/her academic or personal life.

Adversity Scholarship - $5,000 - Due 7/15

Applicant must submit an essay or video on overcoming a life-changing adversity.

Shade Sail Design Challenge Scholarship - $1,500 - Due 7/15

For architecture, design, and/or engineering students. Must create a unique shade sail structure

using Tenshon's standard sized shade sails.

Vegetarian/ Vegan Scholarship - Up to $200 - Due 7/15

Create and submit a video relating to what you want to tell others about vegetarianism and/or

veganism.

Washington Council of the Blind Cover Letter Scholarship - $1,000-$3,000 - Due 7/20

Students with a severe visual impairment may qualify. See website for details.

NLA Foundation Scholarship - Varies - Due 7/30

Open to minority students who are pursuing undergraduate training in Computer Science, Aviation,

Nursing, or Music.

Celebrity Plastic Surgery XP Scholarship - $1,000 - Due 7/30

Scholarship for Fine Art students. Must submit a 300-500 word essay.

Flavor of the Month Scholarship - $1,500 - Due 7/30

If you were an ice cream flavor, which would you be and why?

There are many other scholarships with due dates that will be coming up fast. Don’t forget to check

out our database on Compass under the “Financial Aid” tab.

Good Luck!

Understanding Your Financial Aid Award

Your award is based on a number of factors. Assuming you’ve completed the FAFSA for this year, your EFC, number of credits, your eligibility for state and institutional aid, and your year in school, are all taken into account.

Your EFC represents how much money the federal government has determined you can contribute towards your education based on the results of the FAFSA. The cost of attendance (COA) is calculated by the school and is based on tuition, fees, books, supplies and living expenses. It is an estimated cost, and is not meant to indicate an amount due to Cornish.

Financial aid is calculated by subtracting your EFC from the COA here at Cornish. This leaves us with your financial need - this number can’t exceed your COA. Need based aid includes things like grants, work study and subsidized/unsubsidized loans.

Keep in mind that work study doesn’t apply directly to tuition. This is a need based award that is treated more like an actual part time job, where you apply, interview, and get paid on a monthly bases.

Institutional merit scholarships are awarded to new and transfer students based on their audition or portfolio review. Your department scholarship is renewable for four years if you begin at Cornish as a freshman and maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA and a 67% pace of progression annually.

If you are receiving any outside scholarships, notify us at the financial aid office and be sure that the organization you are receiving the scholarship from has the school’s information so that the check can be mailed to us and applied to your financial aid award.

In subsequent years of attendance, a Cornish student may qualify for a merit-based or endowed scholarship based on donor criteria and department requirements for demonstrated artistic and academic excellence.

If you have any questions or concerns, or if your FAFSA doesn’t reflect your current financial situation due to exceptional circumstances such as the loss of a job or the death of a parent, please contact our office at finaid@cornish.edu or 206.726.5014

Avoiding Scams

You don’t have to pay for scholarships! Be cautious of any scholarships requesting fees to apply. See here and here for common scholarship scams and how to avoid them.

You don’t have to pay to fill out the FAFSA! FAFSA is always free. If you’re having any problems while filling it out you’re more than welcome to stop by the office or get in touch with us with any questions. You can also get online help at fafsa.gov or the Federal Student Aid Information Center.

You don’t have to pay for help with your student loans! Instead, reach out to your loan servicer.

More information here: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/scams

Welcome Back! Some Quick Reminders for the Start of the Year

Hello!

We are so excited to kick off the 2017-2018 school year! At the Financial Aid office, there has been a lot of hustle and bustle to finish up everyone in a timely manner. For all of those who still have questions about their financial aid, you can find a lot of answers to your questions on Compass. We have our own tab! You can find out what your award is, any missing documents that you may have, find outside resources, and scholarships all in one stop!!!

Use this as your first defense when checking your account for completeness. There is also contact information if you do need to get a hold of us.

Cheers!

Financial Aid

FAFSA Tips: the Scholarship Question

One of our most common questions - and the most common mistake we have to have people correct - is regarding the scholarship question on the FAFSA. Now, if you have to report your scholarships as earnings on your taxes this won't apply to you, but for most students at Cornish, the scholarships you get from the school and the grants you get from the government are not reported as income. If you received scholarships from outside organizations, you'll want to check in with a tax professional about how you should handle those.

EXAMPLE No.1:
So let's say you've got a Cornish scholarship. Maybe you've got a Pell grant, possibly some of that good ol' State Need Grant if you're a Washington state resident. All of this is documented on the 1098-T form you can download from Compass or pick up in the Student Accounts office, and you're looking at your grants and scholarships as you're doing the FAFSA because you're a responsible student who has all their necessary documentation gathered, and you get to a question. This question wants to know if you've received any grants and scholarships this year.

Leave that section marked a big fat zero. 

What that question is actually asking is if you've received any grants or scholarships you're reporting as income. As an undergraduate art student at Cornish, you shouldn't be reporting the Pell, SNG, or your institutional scholarships (this includes any of you lucky so-and-so's with endowed scholarships like the Kreielsheimer or any of our other endowed funds).


EXAMPLE No. 2: 
So let's say you've got a Cornish scholarship, a Pell grant, some SNG money, and you also put in a bunch of hours last year filling out a billion scholarship applications and you wound up with a scholarship from a not-for-profit or private company for $1000. You get to that same scholarship question, and you think to yourself "Didn't that financial aid blog say something about outside scholarships?".
 Good memory! We did. If you received an outside scholarship, contact a tax professional to see if that money should be reported as income. You can contact the organization you got the money from too, and they should be able to tell you. Unfortunately, because we are not tax professionals, we cannot give you tax advice and will be unable to tell you what you should do about that $1000 scholarship as far as your taxes go. It may very well be that you don't have to report it, and in that case, the same rule applies - don't include it on the FAFSA.

We're here for you and excited to help you fill out those FAFSAs - let us know if we can give any more helpful advice by commenting here, emailing us, or dropping by the office!

Staggering your scholarships

This advice comes a day later than initially promised, but here it is. If you've been researching scholarships and you've got a lot lined up, you might be feeling pretty overwhelmed. Don't let that stop you! Here are some easy ways to organize getting things done.

First, ask yourself the following questions about all of the scholarships you want to spend time doing:
1) Which are the most complicated?
2) Which are coming up the soonest?

Organize all the scholarships by when their deadlines are, chronologically. It may help you to print them out and organize them visually, or create notecards and do the same thing - on each card, write the requirements (like an essay or letter of recommendation).

Now is when you're going to have to multitask. Start chipping away - slowly - at the bigger scholarships that are do the earliest. Get your letters of recommendation requested, start drafting essays, figure out if you can use parts of one scholarship essay for multiple scholarship essays. While you're waiting for letters to come in, or taking a break, do as many of the smaller, easier scholarships as possible regardless of when they're due. The more of those little ones you do, and the earlier you turn them in, the higher your chances will be.

Ideally, you'll want to be finished with your Big Scholarship Essays about two weeks early. This will give you time to chase down any straggling letters of recommendation, and take your essay down to the Writing Center to have it proof-read!

Any other questions? Need tips on how to ask for a letter of recommendation? Feel free to comment here, or email any of us, and we'll answer on the blog!

Scholarship tips!

Many of you are already thinking about next semester, and ways to cut costs. First, congratulations on your foresight! This is a great time of year to be thinking about that and as long as you act on those thoughts it puts you far ahead of the game. Keep it up and next fall will be a breeze. 

So you’ve got your loans, and you’ve got your institutional funds, and depending on how your FAFSA worked out you might have some federal and state aid, but there’s still a gap you’ve got to cover. The first place your brain ought to go to is more scholarships. Now, the school doesn’t have any additional funds beyond what your department might have for their yearly evaluations, but this is where outside scholarships come in. In a previous post we talked about where to start your outside scholarship search. Check out the links there and get looking!

This week we’ll talk about how to tell if what you’re looking at is real. As always, you can email any scholarship offers you’re not sure about to staff in the financial aid office and we’ll be more than happy to have a look for you, but here’s a quick primer so you guys know what we look for when we determine whether or not you should consider that scholarship an option.

1) Who’s offering the scholarship? 

There are a wide variety of groups who offer scholarships, but they tend to fall into one of two categories: Not-for-Profits/Foundations  and Individuals/Private Companies. Generally speaking, a scholarship that comes from a foundation tends to have fewer tricky terms and conditions, as they’re not trying to sell a product directly, and therefore tend to be a little safer. A scholarship that comes from a private company or individual – such as a law firm or a store – tends to have more terms and conditions that apply to whether or not they can use you and your submission for sales, with or without your permission, and as brand endorsement. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but they can be more complicated and we really suggest looking carefully at their rules before you apply.

2) What are the terms and conditions? 

Do they acquire ownership of whatever you submit? Can they use your name and photo to endorse their product? Do they plan on displaying your submission? When do they send the funds to the school? Are you required to go to any events if you win? The answers to these questions are typically not indicative of scams, but can sometimes sound fishy or entail things you may not want. Make sure you read them carefully. If any terms and conditions ever mention fees, read those sections carefully and keep in mind that these fees could be signs of a scam.

3) Are applicants required to pay anything?

Sometimes scholarships will have an application fee. This is generally for bigger events, like competitions or portfolio reviews, or in instances where they have to pay judges to read scripts, and generally in all cases that are more like competitions than scholarships. Fees like that – typically around $25 – are fine. However, you should never be required to purchase anything or pay an unreasonable sum of money. Generally speaking, any scholarship that requires a purchase or large fee to enter is not a legitimate scholarship.

4) What information do they ask for on the application? 

Scholarships tend to ask you for your name, age, and address. Sometimes they’ll ask you for your family’s financial situation if one of their conditions is financial need, but generally the scholarship will want you to send copies of your financial aid letter or a paper that the financial aid office fills out. They should never ask you for your social security number, credit card, or bank account information. Never fill these sections out and if you see a scholarship with them, please send it to us so we can warn others! Please ask us if you’re ever unsure about questions the scholarship application is asking.

Got a couple dozen scholarships you want to apply for? Overwhelmed by a variety of deadlines? No problem! Check back in Thursday for tips on how to approach the task.