Every year, some students neglect to inform Penn of the outside scholarships they receive.
Since any third-party scholarship over $500 automatically deducts money from the student's grant money, the fear of reduced financial aid prompts many students to keep their scholarships a secret.
But under one of President Amy Gutmann's new financial aid initiatives -- which is set to be implemented this fall -- more students may be inclined to report the money.
Under current Penn policy, the first $500 of a scholarship and 50 percent of the remaining money -- for example, $750 of a $1,000 scholarship -- can be applied toward students' self-help portion of their aid package.
The self-help portion includes the student's contribution from summer savings, loans and work-study.
The rest of the outside scholarship money -- or the last $250 in the given example -- is deducted from a student's Penn-funded grant.
However, come September, the full amount of the scholarship will be applied toward self-help, and the Penn-funded grant will only be cut down if the scholarship amount exceeds the entire self-help portion of the package.
One College freshman, who chose to remain anonymous, only reported one of four outside scholarships she received before coming to Penn. Her undeclared money exceeds $6,000.
"I spent hundreds of hours filling out scholarship information to try and help my parents. The University should appreciate your efforts, and you shouldn't have to hide it," she said.
As the money was paid directly to her, and not to Penn, the student said that "it was easy to avoid" reporting the money.
"Any logical person wouldn't [report these scholarships]," she said. "There's really no benefit to it."
Even Director of Student Financial Aid Bill Schilling said that "you could get more money if you cheated and didn't report it."
However, he added that even though a student's Penn-funded grant may be reduced, reporting a scholarship "wouldn't hurt [the student] at all."
Schilling also said that there may be a misconception about scholarship money and that some students might wrongly believe that 100 percent of an outside scholarship counts against Penn-funded aid.
A Wharton sophomore who has been financially self-supportive for the past few years said that her undeclared scholarships total $14,000.
But if she had declared this money and her grant had been reduced, she said she "probably wouldn't be at Penn."
"That extra money [that the University deducts] could really help students out as far as ... having money for travel and books and everything," the sophomore said.
Schilling said he believes the number of students holding unreported third-party scholarships is relatively low, due to the way the money is usually dispensed.
"I think the number of scholarships paid directly to the student is fairly small," Schilling said.
Gutmann agreed.
"As far as I know, most outside scholarships are administered through the University," she said.
Baird Johnson, vice president of product and marketing for Fastweb -- a Web site that distributes scholarship information -- speculated that only a small percentage of scholarships are paid directly to the students, especially when awarded by larger, established foundations.
Scholarships from groups such as Kiwanis International and the United Negro College Fund make checks payable to institutions, rather than to students, and therefore there is no way for students to hide this money.
However, one College senior -- with $7,000 in unreported scholarships -- said that certain groups request that their scholarships be made out to the student.
"They don't want you reporting it because they know what will happen," she said.
Johnson echoed the student's sentiments.
"Some [organizations] deliberately pay [the money] to the students because they don't want ... other money to be displaced," he said.
During the student's sophomore year, Penn discovered one of her unreported scholarships and reduced the number of work-study hours she was allocated.
"The scholarship isn't really a scholarship if you do it this way," she said.
The senior said that Gutmann's new initiative "is a move in the right direction. Penn was kind of in the Dark Ages for" having scholarship money replace, and not supplement, Penn-funded aid.
The College freshman also supports the initiative and said that she will report any scholarship money she receives from now on.
However, she said, as far as "what I've already done, that's under the table."
Schilling, however, does not believe the initiative will make students more likely to declare their money.
"I just don't think it's going to make a huge difference because I don't think that there are that many [students] that aren't reporting," he said.
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