Chestnut Hill· Scholarship Stacking

Stacking Outside Scholarships at Chestnut Hill

How Chestnut Hill treats outside scholarships when they arrive on top of institutional merit aid.

Verified Jul 202625 days ago· COWORK

The verdict

Cost-of-attendance cap

At Chestnut Hill, an outside scholarship only triggers a cut when total aid would exceed cost of attendance. The strategy follows from that: outside scholarships are upside until the package would push past COA, at which point they start replacing institutional grants.

chc.edu lists First-Year Scholarship Matrix (Presidential / Distinction / Scholars / Achievement / Rise / Promise) as the baseline automatic award that any outside scholarship will sit on top of.

Stacking policy at Chestnut Hill

Chestnut Hill reduces institutional grant funding only when combined outside grant/scholarship aid and institutional grant funding would create a credit balance on the student's account (i.e., aid exceeding billed costs); no refund is issued in that case. This credit-balance trigger is narrower than the full cost of attendance the college separately uses to define an overaward.

Verified policy language (2026-07-02): If a student receives outside grants, scholarships or tuition assistance in addition to institutional grant funding, a combination of these resources can never result in a credit balance on the student's account. Therefore, in instances where outside grant assistance and institutional grant funding result in a credit on the student's account, the student's institutional funding will be reduced and no refund will be credited. ... An overaward of financial aid occurs when all of the financial aid received by a student exceeds the student's cost of attendance (COA). ... All financial resources that are received must be reviewed to ensure that it fits within the established budget for the student and does not exceed the cost of attendance (COA). Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: Some named awards (Alumni Legacy, Legacy of Service) are explicitly stackable, but Legacy of Service does not stack with IDHP. (per https://www.chc.edu/admissions-aid/financial-aid/applying-for-aid/financial-aid-policies/)

Source: https://www.chc.edu/admissions-aid/financial-aid/applying-for-aid/financial-aid-policies/

Common stacking mistakes

Assuming an outside (private) scholarship adds on top of all CHC aid.
CHC policy: outside grants/scholarships plus institutional grant funding 'can never result in a credit balance' — if they would, 'the student's institutional funding will be reduced and no refund will be credited.' Outside money can displace CHC aid once your account would go into credit.
Expecting total aid to exceed the cost of attendance.
The Financial Aid Policies page states federal regulations require all financial resources to fit within the student's COA; overawards are resolved by reducing aid, and any resulting balance is the student's responsibility.
Stacking the Legacy of Service ($4,000 Catholic-HS award) on top of the Honors Program award.
The page says Legacy of Service 'is a stackable scholarship with the exception of students in IDHP' — Honors students cannot add it.
Assuming a lost athletic grant will be replaced with other aid.
The page warns: 'If these requirements are not met the athletic grant may be rescinded. Should this happen, the rescinded athletic grants may not be replaced by other grants.'

Aid-office script (copy & send)

A binding written answer beats a verbal hallway promise. This script is keyed to Chestnut Hill's published displacement type. Paste it, fill in your name, and send it before you accept an outside award.

Subject: Outside-scholarship treatment question, fall applicant

Dear Chestnut Hill Financial Aid Office,

I'm a fall applicant reviewing how outside scholarships interact with my institutional aid package. I've read the public policy at https://www.chc.edu/admissions-aid/financial-aid/applying-for-aid/financial-aid-policies/.

If my package is institutional merit + Pell + a $5,000 outside scholarship and the total stays under the COA worksheet, can you confirm no institutional dollar is reduced?

If the same outside award pushes the total over COA by $X, which aid line item shrinks first: institutional grant, loan, or work-study?

A written answer (email is fine) is important because the outside-scholarship awarding bodies want confirmation before disbursing. Thank you for the time.

— [Student name], [Application ID if available]

How Chestnut Hill compares across our verified dataset

241 of 750 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Chestnut Hill is in a recognizable cluster (241 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
668 of 750 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Chestnut Hill is one of them. The cohort minority (82 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.

Sources used on this page

Every claim is checked against Chestnut Hill’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.