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FAQs

1) How do I redeem my network scholarships?

After a student has been awarded a network scholarship, the Discus Awards will notify both the student and his or her parent. In addition, the student's parent will receive an e-mail directly from SAGE Scholars, our scholarship administration partner for network scholarships. This e-mail will include a link in it that the parent must click on to visit the SAGE Scholars website to activate a scholarship account. Once this account has been activated, the student will be enrolled in the parent's scholarship account and the network scholarship earned by the student will be deposited into the parent's account.

However, in order to redeem the scholarship, the parent must assign the scholarship to the student enrolled in their SAGE Scholars account. All network scholarships must be assigned to the student by August 31st prior to the student's senior year of high school in order to be valid for redemption. Through the parent's scholarship account, an account statement must be submitted electronically to a school within the Discus Network at the time of the student's application to a school in the Discus Network. If the student is accepted and decides to attend a school within the Discus Network, the network scholarship amount assigned to the student at the time of his or her application represents a guaranteed minimum scholarship that student will receive from a school in the Discus Network divided equally among his or her years of attendance.

2) What deadlines do I need to be aware of?

There are four important deadlines that all SAGE Scholars account holders must be aware of:

• SAGE Scholars account must be activated by August 31st prior to student's senior year in high school
• Network scholarships (a.k.a. Tuition Rewards) must be assigned to student through SAGE Scholars account by August 31st prior to student's senior year in high school
• SAGE Scholars account statement must be submitted to any school within the Discus Network that the student applies to at the time of application to that school
• If parent assigns network scholarships to student, but student does not attend school within the Discus Network, parent has up to three years after the time of student's high school graduation to reclaim the network scholarships for another family member

3) The SAGE Scholars website has different deadlines than the Discus Awards website. Which deadlines are correct?

SAGE Scholars administers scholarships for programs outside of the Discus Awards, some of which have different rules. For example, one benefit of the Discus Awards program is that students may be enrolled in your account up to August 31st before their senior year, whereas the standard deadline for other programs is August 31st prior to students' junior year. The Discus Awards website will have all the correct deadlines you need to know in order to claim and redeem earned network scholarships.

4) What if a student receives a network scholarship, but does not attend a school within the Discus Network?

Parents should always activate their SAGE Scholars account to claim a student's network scholarship. If the student who received the scholarship does not ultimately attend a school in the Discus Network, parents may reclaim the scholarship and apply it later to a younger student they enroll in their SAGE Scholars account. Unused network scholarships may be reassigned to younger children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews.

5) Is participation in SAGE a guarantee of admission into participating colleges?

No, each school's normal admissions standards still apply.

6) Can my child still apply for financial aid?

Yes, we strongly encourage students and families to apply for financial aid to even further lower the cost of tuition. Network scholarships represent the guaranteed minimum scholarship amount at a school within the Discus Network, and any additional financial aid will only lower the amount your family will have to pay. Discus Awards maintains a list of additional scholarship programs for students to use as a resource in their scholarship search.

7) What if a student receives a merit scholarship? How will this affect the Network Scholarship?

Network scholarships represent the minimum scholarship, spread evenly over four years, a participating student will receive if and when he/she attends a participating school within the Discus Network. If your student receives another scholarship from a school in the Discus Network, then the school can choose to "blend" (include) or "stack" (add on top) the network scholarships with the other scholarship funds, grants or other discounts.

Additionally, we encourage students to continue to seek out private scholarships. Students may use our Best List of College Scholarships as a reference to find additional scholarship opportunities.

8) Are network scholarships applicable to fees, room, board, books, etc?

No, network scholarships may only be applied to the cost of tuition. In addition, it is important to note that network scholarships do not hold any cash value. In other words, while network scholarships represent a guaranteed minimum scholarship at a school within the Discus Network, network scholarships may not be exchanged for cash.

9) Can I ever "cash out" my network scholarships?

No, network scholarship will never be awarded in cash, and may not be exchanged for cash.

10) Where can I find additional information about Network Scholarships?

You can find more information about network scholarships on the SAGE Scholars website, where they are referred to as Tuition Rewards. 1 Tuition Reward is equal to $1 in network scholarships. We recommend you start on the SAGE Scholars How It Works page or browse their FAQs.