Will outside scholarships lower your Regent Online bill?
We checked the school’s published rule. Here is the answer and what to do with it.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
The school limits total aid to its published cost.
On the evening/online awards page, students eligible for multiple listed awards may receive only ONE — Regent picks whichever is the largest/most beneficial — with the Church Match Grant as the sole stated exception that can combine with any listed award. All scholarships and grants pay toward tuition only, and COA caps total aid from all sources.
What to do
Use this rule before you apply. Favor awards that lower what your family pays.
See the school rule, examples, questions, and sources
Published policy type
Cost-of-attendance cap
At Regent Online, 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.
Stacking policy at Regent Online
On the evening/online awards page, students eligible for multiple listed awards may receive only ONE — Regent picks whichever is the largest/most beneficial — with the Church Match Grant as the sole stated exception that can combine with any listed award. All scholarships and grants pay toward tuition only, and COA caps total aid from all sources.
Evening/online page: one-award rule with Church Match Grant exception; 'All scholarships and grants pay toward tuition only'; renewals automatic after spring term. COA page: 'Your Cost of Attendance ... determines the total financial aid from all sources that you are permitted to receive.' No published rule on whether outside/private scholarships displace institutional aid; Regent provides third-party scholarship info without endorsement.
Assuming you can stack Regent's evening/online awards.
The page is explicit: 'Students eligible for multiple awards listed below can receive only one,' and Regent — not the student — decides which single award applies; only the Church Match Grant can combine.
Assuming aid can exceed the cost of attendance.
The COA page states cost of attendance 'determines the total financial aid from all sources that you are permitted to receive' — outside awards plus institutional aid are capped at COA.
Stacking questions families ask
What does the 2026-27 cost of attendance look like?
Regent publishes 2026-27 indirect cost estimates by category (e.g., dependent undergrad living off campus: $17,334 total indirect including $9,216 housing and $3,392 food); tuition is charged separately by program, and no single all-in COA total is published on the COA page.
Does Regent help find outside scholarships?
Yes — the financial aid office shares third-party scholarship opportunities but 'does not endorse these scholarships' and points students to FTC scam-awareness resources. How outside awards affect institutional aid is not published; ask the aid office.
Aid-office script (copy & send)
A binding written answer beats a verbal hallway promise. This script is keyed to Regent Online'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 Regent Online 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.regent.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/forms/scholarships-for-eveningonline-students/.
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 Regent Online compares across our verified dataset
235 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.
Regent Online is in a recognizable cluster (235 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Regent Online is one of them. The cohort minority (84 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 Regent Online’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
