Are there any non-need scholarships at all for undergraduates?

No undergraduate institutional merit, talent, or athletic scholarships exist at Dartmouth. (Some graduate and professional programs do offer merit aid, but that is separate from undergraduate admission.) Outside scholarships from third parties are allowed and encouraged, but Dartmouth itself awards only need-based aid.

Will winning an outside scholarship cost me my Dartmouth aid?

Outside scholarships first replace your leave-term earnings, employment expectation, and any optional loan — that part helps you. Only amounts that exceed what Dartmouth can replace 'will reduce Dartmouth Scholarship dollar-for-dollar,' and they can never reduce your calculated Parent Contribution.

Dartmouth· Scholarship Stacking

Stacking Outside Scholarships at Dartmouth

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

Verified May 20268 days ago· C2-3

The verdict

Loan-first displacement

At Dartmouth, an outside scholarship reduces loan offers before touching institutional grants. The strategy follows from that: every $1 in outside scholarship is effectively $1 less in graduation debt.

admissions.dartmouth.edu publishes the $94,980 cost-of-attendance worksheet the math is run against.

Stacking policy at Dartmouth

Outside scholarships first replace a student's leave-term earnings, employment expectation, and any optional loan. Only amounts that exceed those reduce the Dartmouth Scholarship dollar-for-dollar; they never reduce the calculated Parent Contribution.

Because Dartmouth packages need with student employment and grant (no required loan), outside awards first erase the self-help/employment expectation. A modest outside scholarship therefore tends to be additive to the student's pocket. Larger outside awards that exceed the replaceable self-help portion then reduce the Dartmouth Scholarship grant dollar-for-dollar.

Source: https://admissions.dartmouth.edu/glossary-question/will-i-lose-some-financial-aid-if-i-receive-outside-awardscholarship

Common stacking mistakes

Skipping outside scholarship applications because 'Dartmouth will just take it back.'
Outside awards first replace the student's leave-term earnings, employment expectation, and any optional loan — that portion is genuinely additive to the student. Only the amount that exceeds the replaceable self-help reduces the Dartmouth Scholarship grant. Small-to-moderate outside awards usually help the student's bottom line.

Stacking questions families ask

Are there any non-need scholarships at all for undergraduates?: No undergraduate institutional merit, talent, or athletic scholarships exist at Dartmouth. (Some graduate and professional programs do offer merit aid, but that is separate from undergraduate admission.) Outside scholarships from third parties are allowed and encouraged, but Dartmouth itself awards only need-based aid.
Will winning an outside scholarship cost me my Dartmouth aid?: Outside scholarships first replace your leave-term earnings, employment expectation, and any optional loan — that part helps you. Only amounts that exceed what Dartmouth can replace 'will reduce Dartmouth Scholarship dollar-for-dollar,' and they can never reduce your calculated Parent Contribution.

Aid-office script (copy & send)

A binding written answer beats a verbal hallway promise. This script is keyed to Dartmouth'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 Dartmouth 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://admissions.dartmouth.edu/glossary-question/will-i-lose-some-financial-aid-if-i-receive-outside-awardscholarship and the $94,980 cost-of-attendance worksheet.

If I win a $5,000 outside scholarship after the package is built, can you confirm it reduces my Direct Loan offer first, before any institutional grant is touched?

If the loan offer is smaller than the outside award, what is the next aid type that gets reduced (work-study, institutional grant, other)?

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 Dartmouth compares across our verified dataset

56 of 203 verified schools in our dataset use loan-first displacement.
Dartmouth is in a recognizable cluster (56 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.

Sources used on this page

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