Can I bring outside scholarships?

The Admitted Students page says 'We also encourage you to apply for additional outside scholarships,' but no page found states how outside scholarships interact with institutional aid. Note total aid cannot exceed the Cost of Attendance. Ask the aid office whether outside awards reduce institutional scholarships or loans first.

Franklin College· Scholarship Stacking

Stacking Outside Scholarships at Franklin College

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

Verified Jun 20264 days ago· COWORK

The verdict

Cost-of-attendance cap

At Franklin College, 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.

franklincollege.edu publishes the $61,755 cost-of-attendance worksheet the math is run against.

Stacking policy at Franklin College

Franklin College states outright that if a student qualifies for multiple awards, some may not be stackable, and that award amounts may be adjusted so the college can support as many students as possible. Cost of Attendance is the maximum total aid a student can receive in a year. One exception is stated explicitly: the Ben Franklin Scholarship from Scholars Day IS added to any existing merit scholarship. For Lilly Endowment scholars, other aid is redirected to housing and food rather than stacked on tuition. Treatment of private outside scholarships is not specified (the college encourages applying for them).

Main scholarships page: 'If you qualify for multiple awards, some of these awards may not be stackable. Award amounts may be adjusted...'. Loans section: 'The COA is the maximum amount of financial aid a student can receive during that academic year.' News release: the Ben Franklin Scholarship 'is added to any existing merit scholarship previously granted.' No page found describing how private/outside scholarships specifically affect institutional aid.

Source: https://franklincollege.edu/admissions-aid/tuition-and-financial-aid/

Common stacking mistakes

Assuming every Franklin College award you qualify for will stack on top of the others.
The scholarships page states plainly: 'If you qualify for multiple awards, some of these awards may not be stackable. Award amounts may be adjusted to allow Franklin to support as many students as possible.' Get your combined total in writing. (Exception: the Ben Franklin Scholarship from Scholars Day 'is added to any existing merit scholarship previously granted.')
Expecting total aid to exceed the cost of attendance.
The financial aid page states 'The COA is the maximum amount of financial aid a student can receive during that academic year' — aid from all sources is capped at the COA for your housing status.

Stacking questions families ask

Can I bring outside scholarships?: The Admitted Students page says 'We also encourage you to apply for additional outside scholarships,' but no page found states how outside scholarships interact with institutional aid. Note total aid cannot exceed the Cost of Attendance. Ask the aid office whether outside awards reduce institutional scholarships or loans first.

Rules that bite at Franklin College

The trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook. Each is derived from Franklin College's own published policy, not generic advice.

renewalAcademic Scholarships: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewable for all four years; all Franklin College scholarships and grants are renewable for a maximum of eight semesters (fall/spring) of full-time undergraduate enrollment. Reviewed each semester; falling below the minimum GPA triggers one semester of scholarship probation, then reduction to the next level award. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
capHard $61,755 cost-of-attendance ceiling
Institutional aid at Franklin College cannot push the package past $61,755. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.

Aid-office script (copy & send)

A binding written answer beats a verbal hallway promise. This script is keyed to Franklin College'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 Franklin College 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://franklincollege.edu/admissions-aid/tuition-and-financial-aid/ and the $61,755 cost-of-attendance worksheet.

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 Franklin College compares across our verified dataset

160 of 751 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Franklin College is in a recognizable cluster (160 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
669 of 751 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Franklin College 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 Franklin College’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.