What is the likelihood that a state university will catch me cheating in the following financial situation?

Question

I will be a freshman at a state university next school year, and have received lots of grant money and a $1000 third-party scholarship from a law firm in my hometown. The university financial services office says I must report all of my third-party scholarships to their office, b/c the university will start reducing my grants and work-study if I have third-party scholarships.

I do not intend on reporting this $1000 third-party scholarship b/c the attorney (scholarship donar) just handed me a check. i.e. the scholarship is NOT going thru the university's financial services office.

Also, I am reporting a different $500 third-party scholarship to the financial services office b/c this scholarship donar is sending the money directly to the financial services office. (Therefore, the university would know for sure if I tried to hide this $500 scholarship from the university's knowledge bank!)

The univ says that failing to report 3rd party scholarships may result in lost grants.

Answer 1

Report the scholarship. Your work study and grants should not be reduced unless you're receiving 100% grants and they exceed your cost of attendance. Third party scholarships and grants should only decrease the amount you're borrowing through loans. Don't risk your future aid by getting caught. Schools can take away your federal aid and deny you funding in the future if you get caught.

Answer 2

Well, If I were you I wouldn't risk it... A thousand bucks for college might buy some books or help out a little but its definitely not too much in the grand scheme of things.

And considering that with the grants/other scholarships you are probably pulling in a lot more than 1000 dollars, it seems like you have a lot to lose and not too much to gain. (If they find out that you are lying, you will be in breech of contract, and they probably will pull the plug on your scholarships).

Anyway, ya, you probably would get away with it, but I don't think that they would reduce your grants or scholarships significantly over 1,000 bucks... if it was 10,000 dollars, that would be a different story, and you probably wouldn't be asking this question anyway.

Answer 3

What part of FRAUD do you not understand? And since the financial aid system is administered by the Federal government, you're potentially looking at a Federal FELONY for this.

A couple of things that you SHOULD have learned at home and in high school are the value of HONESTY and CHARACTER. Obviously those lessons didn't take. Maybe the threat of PRISON time might motivate you to play by the rules?? Maybe if you at least can ACT as if you have some honor, honesty, and character it will become sufficiently habitual that you won't need to ask questions like this -- you'll automatically know that it is a question that you don't even need to ask.  At least at that point, you will be the only person who knows that you're morally bankrupt.

Answer 4

The school does not "reduce you grants and work study"!  lol if that was the case no one would ever apply for a scholarship.  You have been misinformed or misinterpreted what was told to you.  Most of the time, the cost of attendance (not just the amount of your tuition) is high enough, you could get the full amount in grants, work study, and full tuition and STILL not get enough aid to have your grants reduced (in my 10 years I've NEVER seen someones grant reduced).  

IF (and this is a big if) anything would be reduced, they could reduce the amount of a student loan you are receiving.

PS: would kinda stink if the law firm announced in the company newsletter how graciously they HELPED a new Univ of x*x student.  It's a small world honey, the fin aid directors spouse prob works for the company and reads the newsletter, or who knows what other connection the law firm has to your school.  ( I have known fin aid directors to clip newspaper articles and photos like these.)