If you win a scholarship, will La Salle lower other aid?
We checked the school’s published rule so you can decide whether an outside award is worth your time.
Verified Jul 20262 months ago
The short answer
The result depends on the kind and amount of aid.
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.
What to do
Use this rule to focus on awards that will lower what your family pays.
See the dollar example, school comparisons, and sources
Published policy type
Mixed displacement
La Salle displaces some aid categories but not others. In plain dollar terms, that means one $5,000 outside award might land against loans, work-study, or institutional grant depending on the category, so outcomes vary.
The math: a $5,000 outside scholarship at La Salle
Setup
La Salle treats different aid types differently. You receive institutional merit + need-based grant + a federal loan offer, then win a $5,000 outside scholarship.
What La Salle does
Some categories reduce first; others stack. Without writing to the aid office, you cannot predict whether the $5,000 cuts loans, work-study, or institutional aid.
Family takeaway
Mixed-displacement schools require a written aid-office answer for each award size. Don't assume the answer matches a peer school.
Schools with the same policy
These schools also use mixed displacement for outside scholarships. The same dollar math above applies at each.
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.'
Displacement 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
Trip wires derived from La Salle's own published policy. These are the things a custom playbook would flag in the first pass.
Renewal ruleMerit 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.
Outside awardsDifferent 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)
The displacement rule is only binding when it's in writing. This script asks La Salle's aid office the specific question that matters for mixed displacement.
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
32 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use mixed displacement.
La Salle is in the small minority (32 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.
La Salle 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 La Salle’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
