Is your kid applying for scholarships?

[Anonymous]

I think we all hear from numerous sources about having your kid get creative about seeking out scholarship opportunities- even small ones can add up and there’s no limit to how many a student can apply for. DD’s school counseling center periodically send out lists of scholarship opportunities.

An acquaintance belongs to an organization that offers scholarships to young women - she recommended my dd apply. Dd was honored and dove in. It ended up being really time consuming. There were two levels of applying - which included an in-person interview and a phone interview- just to get the green light to be allowed to apply. The app itself was lots of writing- small essays and a big one, two recs, deep dive into volunteer hours.

I joked with her that she could have spent the same amount of time babysitting and almost earned the same amount of money.

Is this normal for scholarship apps? At least now I know for for my younger two kids how to plan

[Anonymous]

So yes, in a sense. They are automatically considered for one of three scholarships at the college where they've been offered a place, once they accept that place.

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

There are three types
Time consuming ones
Lottery style ones
Very very niche ones (kid born in certain town and majoring in environmental dentistry)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we all hear from numerous sources about having your kid get creative about seeking out scholarship opportunities- even small ones can add up and there’s no limit to how many a student can apply for. DD’s school counseling center periodically send out lists of scholarship opportunities.

An acquaintance belongs to an organization that offers scholarships to young women - she recommended my dd apply. Dd was honored and dove in. It ended up being really time consuming. There were two levels of applying - which included an in-person interview and a phone interview- just to get the green light to be allowed to apply. The app itself was lots of writing- small essays and a big one, two recs, deep dive into volunteer hours.

I joked with her that she could have spent the same amount of time babysitting and almost earned the same amount of money.

Is this normal for scholarship apps? At least now I know for for my younger two kids how to plan

Yes, this is normal. A lot of the scholarships from external sources are small amounts (a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars) but take a lot of time and effort to apply for, and/or are extremely niche, so they can take a lot of digging and research to find a match. For that last part, it’s great that your schools sends out lists of possible scholarships. And certainly if someone with ties to the sponsoring organization specifically recommends your kid apply, give it a shot. But otherwise it’s a lot of work for not a lot of gain. That can still be worthwhile for families where even small amounts can make a difference, but maybe not for families where $500-$1000 isn’t going to make or break the college choice.

[Anonymous]

Everyone says the really small ones add up, but the time spent chasing each individual scholarship ultimately didn’t feel worth the effort for us. For families where $500-$1000 can make a difference between going or not, their student is probably getting tons of need-based aid anyway. We are not one of those families but not rich, and my child ended up able to make more money at an actual job compared to the hours spent on applications and interviews and award ceremonies. You also need to be aware of the time commitment on the backend of receiving these scholarships. It is totally fair and also rewarding to go to a rotary club meeting to receive the scholarship and meet everyone, but it you’ve been fortunate enough to receive a few of these it can become really stressful to squeeze all of the events into spring of senior year. Some orgs also expect you to return over breaks or to future years’ ceremonies, so it becomes a big time commitment relative to the actual award amount.

It might be more valuable and realistic to treat scholarships as networking and community building tools vs. financial instruments.