If you win a scholarship, will ULM lower other aid?
We checked the school’s published rule so you can decide whether an outside award is worth your time.
Verified Jun 20263 months ago
The short answer
The scholarship may reduce loans before school aid.
ULM publishes its displacement order directly on the freshman scholarships page: if total aid plus scholarships exceeds the federally mandated COA, aid is reduced in this order — federal loan aid first, then institutional and other aid per institutional practice, then State Scholarships and Grants (including TOPS). ULM Foundation scholarships explicitly stack ON TOP of academic scholarships. Students may hold only ONE freshman academic scholarship.
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
Loan-first displacement
ULM displaces loans first, then work-study. In plain dollar terms, that means a $5,000 outside award shrinks the federal loan offer by $5,000 before any grant is touched.
You've received ULM's institutional merit aid plus the federal loan offer in your award letter. You win a $5,000 outside scholarship.
What ULM does
ULM reduces your loan offer first, then work-study, before touching institutional grants. The $5,000 swap is effectively cash to the family: fewer loans now, less debt at graduation.
Family takeaway
Loan-first displacement is the most family-friendly treatment. Outside scholarships translate dollar-for-dollar into reduced borrowing.
Schools with the same policy
These schools also use loan-first displacement for outside scholarships. The same dollar math above applies at each.
Enrolling in an online degree program and expecting merit money.
'First time freshmen who enroll in an online degree program are NOT eligible for academic scholarships' — and students who switch from on-campus to an online program after their first semester have their scholarship REDUCED BY 50%.
Letting total aid exceed the COA cap unawares.
Aid exceeding the federally mandated COA is reduced in published order: federal loans first, then institutional/other aid, then state scholarships and grants (including TOPS).
Displacement questions families ask
Do other awards stack with the academic scholarship?
ULM Foundation scholarships are explicitly 'added on top' of academic scholarships, and out-of-state students can add the Out-of-State Warhawk fee waiver. But you may hold only ONE freshman academic scholarship, and total aid is capped at the COA (loans reduced first).
Rules that bite at ULM
Trip wires derived from ULM's own published policy. These are the things a custom playbook would flag in the first pass.
Awarded for eight semesters or until Bachelor's graduation, whichever comes first, provided retention criteria are met: earn 24 credit hours each academic year (Aug-Jul), enroll in 12+ hours by the 15th class day each Fall/Spring, maintain full-time continuous enrollment, and maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA at the end of Spring. Once cancelled, appeal decisions by the Scholarship Committee are final. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
Aid-office script (copy & send)
The displacement rule is only binding when it's in writing. This script asks ULM's aid office the specific question that matters for loan-first displacement.
Subject: Outside-scholarship treatment question, fall applicant
Dear ULM 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.ulm.edu/scholarships/freshmen.html.
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 ULM compares across our verified dataset
145 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use loan-first displacement.
ULM 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.
665 of 749 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
ULM 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 ULM’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
