The scholarships you receive from outside sources will be used to reduce the work study portion of your financial aid package. For example, if you are awarded a $2,000 National Merit Scholarship, your work study expectation will be reduced by the full $2,000. Only after your work study has been completely eliminated will your scholarships begin to reduce any Columbia Grant you may have received.

It is extremely rare for a family to ask to be released from the Early Decision commitment for financial reasons. However, on occasion possibly due to a lack of understanding of need-based aid (i.e., they were expecting merit-based aid, they did not submit complete information when using a financial aid estimator, etc) families have requested to be released from their Early Decision contract.

1. YES, if your family’s financial circumstances changed after you submitted your financial aid application.

2. YES, if you have complicated circumstances, and you would like us to take a second look at how we interpreted your family’s financial situation.

3. YES, if another need-based school has provided you a different interpretation of your family’s financial circumstances.

4. NO, if your sole reason for the appeal is that you are asking us to consider merit-based offers from other schools.

There are no academic, athletic or talent-based institutional scholarships at Columbia as all of our institutional financial aid is need-based. Our students are often the recipients of merit-based scholarships from outside organizations (state grants/scholarships, local/national merit-based awards, etc.); however, no merit-based aid is offered directly from Columbia University.