The rule
Federal rules cap total aid at your cost of attendance. An outside scholarship counts toward that cap, so the office has to know about it. In practice it usually replaces loan or work-study dollars — a good trade — and Porter's policy is to protect institutional grant aid before touching it.
Logistics
Report the award amount and the disbursement schedule. If the sponsor pays in two installments, tell the office so it can plan each term. A check made out to the university and mailed to you should be signed over and delivered to Student Financial Services, not deposited.
In and around Porter Falls
The Porter Student Help Desk in Founders Union 118 is the single place to start when it is not obvious which office owns a question.
The practical details
Report it: Tell Financial Aid about any award from outside the university, even a small local one. Effect: It's added to your aid package and may reduce loans or work-study first — rarely your grants. Checks: Many sponsors mail the check to the university; endorse and forward any sent to you. Anything time-sensitive — an accommodation, a booking, a deadline — is worth confirming directly before you rely on it, because the specifics here can change from term to term.
If you have a question
The office behind this is Porter Student Help Desk (Founders Union, Room 118). Call (715) 555–0120 or email help@uwporterfalls.edu during the fall and spring terms, or sign in to MyPorter to send a message or book a time. If it turns out another office owns the question, they will route it rather than send you back to the start.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.