Many enterprising students seek funding from scholarships that are offered outside Denison, while other students may benefit from a parent’s employer-sponsored tuition benefit plan. These types of outside funding could impact a student’s financial aid package.

Outside Funding Policies

Denison meets 100% of the demonstrated financial need for all of our students. As such, federal regulations require that we take into account these outside funding sources when we are developing financial aid packages to ensure that we are in accordance with the federal and state regulations:

  • a student cannot receive scholarships and other need-based financial aid in excess of their financial need.
  • the combined amount of a student’s aid (if the student receives any institutional, federal, or state aid) cannot exceed their cost of attendance.

Because of these federal and state regulations, outside funding could reduce any Denison grant aid dollar for dollar.

Additionally, it is Denison’s policy to distribute outside funds between fall and spring semesters, unless otherwise explicitly noted in the scholarship award.

For more information, please read Denison’s policy on outside funding.

Outside Funding: Next Steps

If you have received outside funding, please take the following steps in order to ensure accurate delivery of funding:

  • Students must report to the Office of Financial Aid any and all outside scholarships and other funding resources, including tuition benefits through a parent’s employer, that they have been awarded or know they will be awarded, regardless of whether the funds have been received. Notification should be emailed with attachments to finaid@denison.edu.
  • Checks should be mailed to:     
    Denison University     
    Office of Financial Aid     
    100 West College Street     
    Granville, OH 43023
  • Denison University will recalculate a student’s eligibility for need-based aid upon receipt of the scholarship notification. Once a payment from an external scholarship is applied, your financial aid package may be revised to include the amount of the scholarship and you will be notified via email.

Obtaining Outside Scholarships

We strongly encourage all students to pursue privately funded scholarships. The time frame to apply is normally from October to April of the previous year to be considered for the current year scholarships. Each year Denison students add hundreds of thousands of dollars in outside scholarships to their funding, and in doing so, reduce their out-of-pocket costs and potential debt. Local businesses, civic organizations, libraries, banks, and other groups are excellent resources to investigate for scholarship opportunities. Students also should speak with their high school guidance counselors for opportunities. Denison does not post individual external scholarship opportunities but suggests these free scholarship search engines. The inclusion or exclusion of a particular website should not be interpreted as an endorsement or lack thereof by Denison. You are responsible for doing your own research and making your own evaluations of any available scholarship opportunities.