by Michelle Willson, Feature/Entertainment Editor
If you have ever had a complaint about not receiving a scholarship you thought you would receive, you have probably made the walk down to Herod Hall to talk to financial aid and chances are you heard something along the lines of “you hit a scholarship cap”
What is a cap? What does it do and why are you just now hearing about it? There should never be that many questions when it comes to financial situations. Especially those of students.
There is nothing more frustrating, as a student, than having to pay more then you thought you were supposed to.
When you look where our scholarships are listed, online and in our campus viewbook, they show all the money you could receive from scholarships but none of the stipulations that come with the scholarship.
There needs to be a box of text that says, “this scholarship cannot be stacked with this scholarship.” or “there is a department cap at $2,000” and a little explanation that states a scholarship cap is the max amount a student can get from a department or area. There are department caps, tuition caps, athletic caps and more. The price ranges vary.
For example, you can get $1,000 for Choir and $1,000 for the band but there is a Fine Arts Department cap that will prevent you from getting any more department scholarship but you might be allowed to have other outside scholarships relating to other areas.
There are also scholarships that will not stack for various like the Ranger Preview and Spring Showcase.
The OU website states that their Valedictorian scholarship “does not stack with automatically awarded academic scholarships.”
On the Tuition waiver page, OSUOKC states “applicants are not allowed to stack waivers”
Most students, especially those just starting out won’t think to second guess what is written. They might see they have two dorm waivers and think they get cash value of one since their dorm is payed for.
Northwestern is not the only school that has students confused about scholarships. In 2016 Oklahoma City University’s student McAlyn Forbes wrote an article for their student publication in 2016 titled “Students confused about stackable non-stackable scholarships.” In the article, she quoted their senior director of student financial services who was able to clear up most of the confusion.
If that kind of information was publicized then it would create less work for those in the financial aid department because they wouldn’t have to answer the same questions over and over.
This would also help with retention. Students having a good idea of the amount in scholarships they are getting will allow them to be prepared to pay on time and get enrolled in the next semester of classes.