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Marist· Scholarship Stacking

Stacking Outside Scholarships at Marist

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

Verified Jul 202615 days ago· COWORK

The verdict

Loan-first displacement

At Marist, 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.

marist.edu publishes the $76,865 cost-of-attendance worksheet the math is run against.

Stacking policy at Marist

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): All outside awards, scholarships, grant assistance, and employer tuition reimbursement must be reported to the Office of Student Financial Services, and may impact the student's financial aid eligibility. Marist will first apply these awards to the demonstrated need and where necessary to comply with federal law, will adjust Campus Work Study and/or educational loans. In a case where need is exceeded, any grants based on need may also have to be adjusted. Separately, the school's own award-stacking rules: No more than one merit-based award is given to each student. (per https://www.marist.edu/financial-aid/freshman/types-of-aid/scholarships)

Source: https://www.marist.edu/documents/d/guest/student-financial-services-philosophy-policy-and-important-acknowledgements-terms-and-conditions-2-4-2025

Common stacking mistakes

  • Expecting to stack the Presidential and Marist Scholarship (or multiple merit awards)

    Marist explicitly awards no more than ONE merit scholarship per student — the two academic tiers are mutually exclusive.

Stacking questions families ask

What is the cost of attendance?
First-year resident estimated COA is $76,865 (tuition $50,760; activity fee $420; health services $520; orientation $200; housing $12,430; food $7,700; books $2,425; transportation $1,120; personal $1,200; loan fees $90). Commuter-at-home is $63,385 and off-campus is $79,385.

Aid-office script (copy & send)

A binding written answer beats a verbal hallway promise. This script is keyed to Marist'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 Marist 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.marist.edu/documents/d/guest/student-financial-services-philosophy-policy-and-important-acknowledgements-terms-and-conditions-2-4-2025 and the $76,865 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 Marist compares across our verified dataset

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

    Marist is in a recognizable cluster (145 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.

  • 669 of 750 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.

    Marist is one of them. The cohort minority (81 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 Marist’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

More on Marist merit aid