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LaGrange· Scholarship Stacking

Stacking Outside Scholarships at LaGrange

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

Verified Jul 202625 days ago· COWORK

The verdict

Loan-first displacement

At LaGrange, 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.

lagrange.edu publishes the $49,994 cost-of-attendance worksheet the math is run against.

Stacking policy at LaGrange

Outside scholarships reduce loans and/or work-study first; institutional grants are only reduced if required to prevent an over-award.

Verified policy language (2026-07-02): Awards from outside sources: When determining eligibility for need-based financial aid programs, private scholarships and grants must be considered. If the student expects to receive scholarship assistance from a source other than LaGrange College, it must be reported to the Financial Aid Office. Adjustments to the student's financial aid award may be necessary according to their financial need and program guidelines. Typically, need-based loan assistance is reduced first, if necessary. Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: LaGrange scholarships cannot be combined or stacked. The Presidential scholarships supersede all other LaGrange College scholarships and aid, and academic-scholarship recipients 'may not always qualify' for departmental funds on top. (per https://www.lagrange.edu/ADMISSIONS/cost-and-aid/scholarships.html)

Source: https://www.lagrange.edu/ADMISSIONS/cost-and-aid/aid-process.html

Common stacking mistakes

  • Assuming you can stack a merit tier with a departmental or talent award.

    The page states flatly: 'Scholarships cannot be combined or stacked,' and warns that academic-scholarship recipients 'may not always qualify for departmental funds as well.' Plan on holding ONE LaGrange scholarship.

  • Expecting a Presidential Scholarship to add to your Founders/Fellows award.

    The Presidential Learning Scholarship 'supersedes all other LaGrange College scholarships and aid' — it replaces, not augments, the merit tier and other aid.

Stacking questions families ask

How much are the merit scholarships?
Five tiers for entering first-year day students: Gateway $15,000/yr (typically 1000 SAT/19 ACT, 2.5–2.9 GPA); Hilltop $16,000 (1070/21, 3.2+); Tower $17,000 (1140/23, 3.25–3.49 recalculated); Founders $18,500 (1180/24, 3.5–3.74); Fellows $20,000 (1300/27, 3.75–4.0). Scholarships cannot be combined or stacked.

Aid-office script (copy & send)

A binding written answer beats a verbal hallway promise. This script is keyed to LaGrange'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 LaGrange 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.lagrange.edu/ADMISSIONS/cost-and-aid/aid-process.html and the $49,994 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 LaGrange compares across our verified dataset

  • 147 of 750 verified schools in our dataset use loan-first displacement.

    LaGrange is in a recognizable cluster (147 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.

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

More on LaGrange merit aid