How does Pomona treat outside scholarships?

Outside awards reduce, in order: (1) the standard student contribution ($1,900 for first-years), (2) the student work award ($2,800), (3) the expected parent contribution, and (4) the Pomona College Scholarship. Most outside awards never touch the Pomona Scholarship.

Are outside scholarships actually additive at Pomona?

Yes, for typical award sizes. Because the Pomona Scholarship is reduced LAST — after the $1,900 student contribution, $2,800 work award, and parent contribution are all absorbed — outside awards under roughly $5,000-$8,000 produce real out-of-pocket savings without any institutional grant displacement.

Pomona· Scholarship Stacking

Stacking Outside Scholarships at Pomona

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

Verified May 20268 days ago· CC-1

The verdict

Loan-first displacement

At Pomona, 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.

pomona.edu publishes the $95,670 cost-of-attendance worksheet the math is run against.

Stacking policy at Pomona

Pomona's published outside-scholarship order is unusually student-favorable: outside awards first reduce the standard student contribution ($1,900 for first-years), then the student work award ($2,800), then the expected parent contribution, and only after all three of those are absorbed does Pomona reduce its own institutional scholarship.

By placing the Pomona Scholarship LAST in the displacement order — after self-help (student contribution + work award) AND the family contribution — Pomona effectively turns most outside scholarships into real net savings for families. For typical outside awards under ~$5,000-$8,000, the Pomona Scholarship is never touched.

Source: https://www.pomona.edu/financial-aid/policies

Common stacking mistakes

Skipping outside scholarship hunting at Pomona because 'they'll just be displaced.'
Pomona's outside-scholarship order is among the most generous of any need-based-only school. The Pomona Scholarship is the LAST item reduced — only after the student contribution ($1,900), student work award ($2,800), and parent contribution have all been fully replaced. Most students see real net savings.

Stacking questions families ask

How does Pomona treat outside scholarships?: Outside awards reduce, in order: (1) the standard student contribution ($1,900 for first-years), (2) the student work award ($2,800), (3) the expected parent contribution, and (4) the Pomona College Scholarship. Most outside awards never touch the Pomona Scholarship.
Are outside scholarships actually additive at Pomona?: Yes, for typical award sizes. Because the Pomona Scholarship is reduced LAST — after the $1,900 student contribution, $2,800 work award, and parent contribution are all absorbed — outside awards under roughly $5,000-$8,000 produce real out-of-pocket savings without any institutional grant displacement.

Aid-office script (copy & send)

A binding written answer beats a verbal hallway promise. This script is keyed to Pomona'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 Pomona 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.pomona.edu/financial-aid/policies and the $95,670 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 Pomona compares across our verified dataset

42 of 150 verified schools in our dataset use loan-first displacement.
Pomona is in a recognizable cluster (42 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 Pomona’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.