If you win a scholarship, will North Dakota 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 scholarship can add to the aid already offered.
UND lets you keep your institutional scholarships when you win an outside award — 'You may accept non-UND scholarships without affecting your UND scholarships' — but external awards still have to be reported and are accounted for in the federal financial-aid package. National Merit and other UND awards stack up to the full cost of attendance.
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
No displacement
North Dakota doesn't displace institutional aid at all. In plain dollar terms, that means a $5,000 outside award lowers the family bill by the full $5,000.
und.edu publishes the $24,204 cost-of-attendance worksheet the math is run against.
Treating the $24,204 'Direct Cost of Attendance' as the full price.
That figure is the ND-resident direct cost (base tuition, fees, room/meal plan, and books/supplies). It excludes indirect costs UND lists separately — transportation ($1,200) and miscellaneous/personal ($2,200) — and is based on 2025-26 rates, subject to change for 2026-27. Non-residents pay more (150% of the ND rate for contiguous/WUE states; flat $31,948 + fees for SD/MT residents).
Displacement questions families ask
Does an outside scholarship reduce my UND award?
UND states you may accept non-UND scholarships without affecting your UND scholarships, but external awards must be reported and accounted for in your financial-aid package (so total aid cannot exceed the cost of attendance). Ask the aid office how an over-award is absorbed.
Aid-office script (copy & send)
The displacement rule is only binding when it's in writing. This script asks North Dakota's aid office the specific question that matters for no displacement.
Subject: Outside-scholarship treatment question, fall applicant
Dear North Dakota 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://und.edu/one-stop/financial-aid/scholarships.html and the $24,204 cost-of-attendance worksheet.
Can you confirm that a $5,000 private outside scholarship, added after my package is built, stacks on top of institutional merit and need-based aid up to COA, without reducing any institutional grant dollars?
Is there a specific reporting form I need to file when the outside award is confirmed?
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 North Dakota compares across our verified dataset
14 of 749 verified schools in our dataset use no-displacement displacement.
North Dakota is in the small minority (14 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.
North Dakota 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.
132 of 749 verified schools publish a dedicated National Merit Finalist package.
North Dakota is one of them. NMF packages typically carry their own stacking and renewal carve-outs separate from the standard automatic merit ladder; confirm those before assuming the headline NMF value is final.
Sources used on this page
Every claim is checked against North Dakota’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
