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La Salle· Scholarship Stacking

Stacking Outside Scholarships at La Salle

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

Verified Jun 20264 days ago· COWORK

The verdict

Mixed displacement

At La Salle, an outside scholarship is treated category-by-category, where some aid stacks and some displaces. The strategy follows from that: the answer depends on which aid category the outside award lands against, so get the order in writing.

Stacking policy at La Salle

Outside grants and scholarships are applied to University charges FIRST, before La Salle's own aid. If total grants and scholarships exceed direct costs (tuition, room, board, fees), La Salle reserves the right to reduce institutional need-based or merit-based funding. Most severe: a student who wins an outside scholarship of half-tuition or greater becomes ineligible for La Salle merit-based scholarships altogether. Total aid (including PLUS and alternative loans) cannot exceed cost of attendance. Exception: a need-based-aid recipient who later receives a private scholarship loses no other aid as long as total aid does not exceed need.

Academic catalog lists five overaward types: (1) grants+scholarships exceeding direct costs trigger reduction of institutional funding, with outside awards applied first to charges (athletic aid excepted per NCAA rules); (2) federal-need overawards reduced in order Federal Work Study, SEOG, La Salle Grant, Direct Loan; (3) a half-tuition-or-greater scholarship makes the student ineligible for La Salle merit-based scholarships; (4) total aid capped at financial aid cost of attendance; (5) Federal Work Study over-earnings can reduce other need-based aid. Also: institutional scholarships cannot be used during a study-abroad semester, and aid may be reduced for changes in enrollment/housing status or outside funding.

Source: https://catalog.lasalle.edu/general-info/financial-considerations/

Common stacking mistakes

  • Assuming an outside scholarship simply adds to your La Salle merit award.

    The catalog's overaward policy says a student awarded a half-tuition or greater scholarship 'becomes ineligible for those La Salle University merit-based scholarships,' and all outside grants/scholarships are applied first to University charges — La Salle can reduce institutional need- or merit-based funding when grants and scholarships exceed direct costs.

  • Assuming donor scholarships from the Common Scholarship Application stack cleanly and renew automatically.

    The hub page says applications 'must be submitted each year as awards are not automatically renewed' and 'Some awards may result in an adjustment to the current institutional aid package.'

Stacking questions families ask

What happens to my La Salle merit scholarship if I win a big outside scholarship?
If you are awarded a half-tuition or greater scholarship, the catalog says you become ineligible for La Salle merit-based scholarships. Smaller outside awards are applied first to University charges, and institutional aid can be reduced if total grants/scholarships exceed direct costs.

Rules that bite at La Salle

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

  • renewalMerit Scholarships (freshmen): renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out

    The scholarship is renewable for four years provided the student maintains satisfactory academic progress and full-time day status for the academic year (per academic catalog). A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

  • displacementDifferent aid types are displaced differently

    La Salle treats loans, work-study, and institutional grant under different rules. The same $5,000 outside award can land against any of them depending on category.

Aid-office script (copy & send)

A binding written answer beats a verbal hallway promise. This script is keyed to La Salle'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 La Salle 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://catalog.lasalle.edu/general-info/financial-considerations/.

Which institutional aid types are protected from outside-award displacement, and which can be reduced?

Is the displacement order published anywhere internally, even if not on the public site? Families need this to compare schools.

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 La Salle compares across our verified dataset

  • 86 of 751 verified schools in our dataset use mixed displacement.

    La Salle is in the modest minority (86 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.

    La Salle 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 La Salle’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

More on La Salle merit aid