Scholarships

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have begun keeping a list over the past couple of years that the school counselor and other websites have provided.

What I have found is - a lot of work for little pay off.
Everyone says focus on local scholarships but a lot of the local scholarships require and essay, references for $500, $1000, $1500. That's fine if you are only applying for one or two scholarships. But if you really need them to help pay for school, focus only on those that offer a least $5K

Sure, but even a summer job is only going to get you a few thousand. So a few hours on an essay can equal a whole summer of work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have begun keeping a list over the past couple of years that the school counselor and other websites have provided.

What I have found is - a lot of work for little pay off.
Everyone says focus on local scholarships but a lot of the local scholarships require and essay, references for $500, $1000, $1500. That's fine if you are only applying for one or two scholarships. But if you really need them to help pay for school, focus only on those that offer a least $5K

Sure, but even a summer job is only going to get you a few thousand. So a few hours on an essay can equal a whole summer of work.

Fuzzy math. You have to apply to many many many which means you have to write many many many essays (even if you try to reuse them). And the chance of getting one is very small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are lists of schools that give good merit did (often second tier liberal arts schools). You will find them by searching in this forum or Google.

And many are top level private universities as well (and OOS publics). Don't think if your student got good merit = they are attending a second tier anything.

Elite schools give merit to fewer students (relatively), and to get them you have to stand out among elite students.

2nd tier schools offer large awards (aka "discounts") to most above average students. It is a whole different world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think OP may be asking about scholarships offered by non-school organizations.

Yes, some kids are successful with these, but they seem pretty random, and since OP said her kid is a junior, I think people were trying to aim her towards focusing first on school-specific financial aid, to make sure OP's kid applies to the right places. It would be hard for OP's kid to cobble together 35K in random scholarships from community organizations, but that's the sort of merit aid some places give. Better to apply to that kind of school, get the 35K in merit aid, and then apply for smaller scholarships that might or might not come through.

You can start trying to rack some of them up early. Usually a few hundred here and a thousand here. Our neighborhood association has one, our pool has one, our local rec sports association has one, our church has a few... Usually they require at least an essay and they aren't very widely publicized so if you know to enter you have a good chance of winning.

Those ones are not enough (availability and amount). Big money comes from the school itself. [/quote]


But only if the applicant offers something the school wants in trade, like a top ACT score, top SAT score or high GPA that is reportable to USN&WR. That's why you have to aim to the second and third tier schools for merit money. The top schools can fill their classes three times over with qualified applicants so have no need to offer merit money.

[Anonymous]

I did a bit of the small independent scholarship application thing when I was getting ready for college. I was a music major and those efforts ultimately earned me enough to buy myself a new instrument that at the time was about 1/3 the cost of a new car. (Did you guess I'm not a string player? ) It was worth it in that sense, and hopefully worth it to the organizations that supported me, but I would never have been able to put myself through school on those kinds of small scholarships.

[Anonymous]

There are full ride scholarships at Swarthmore, Hamilton, Duke, Vanderbilt and a number of other selective colleges. But they are VERY competitive. Your kid has to invent a new medical technique or build an airplane in your basement and then fly it around the world, etc. to get one of those, plus have perfect grades, test scores, recommendations, etc. etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think OP may be asking about scholarships offered by non-school organizations.

Yes, some kids are successful with these, but they seem pretty random, and since OP said her kid is a junior, I think people were trying to aim her towards focusing first on school-specific financial aid, to make sure OP's kid applies to the right places. It would be hard for OP's kid to cobble together 35K in random scholarships from community organizations, but that's the sort of merit aid some places give. Better to apply to that kind of school, get the 35K in merit aid, and then apply for smaller scholarships that might or might not come through.

Often these non-school scholarship are not recurring, so it knocks $2500 or $5000 off for one year, but that's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think OP may be asking about scholarships offered by non-school organizations.

Yes, some kids are successful with these, but they seem pretty random, and since OP said her kid is a junior, I think people were trying to aim her towards focusing first on school-specific financial aid, to make sure OP's kid applies to the right places. It would be hard for OP's kid to cobble together 35K in random scholarships from community organizations, but that's the sort of merit aid some places give. Better to apply to that kind of school, get the 35K in merit aid, and then apply for smaller scholarships that might or might not come through.

You can start trying to rack some of them up early. Usually a few hundred here and a thousand here. Our neighborhood association has one, our pool has one, our local rec sports association has one, our church has a few... Usually they require at least an essay and they aren't very widely publicized so if you know to enter you have a good chance of winning.

are these one-off scholarships or for all four years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think OP may be asking about scholarships offered by non-school organizations.

Yes, some kids are successful with these, but they seem pretty random, and since OP said her kid is a junior, I think people were trying to aim her towards focusing first on school-specific financial aid, to make sure OP's kid applies to the right places. It would be hard for OP's kid to cobble together 35K in random scholarships from community organizations, but that's the sort of merit aid some places give. Better to apply to that kind of school, get the 35K in merit aid, and then apply for smaller scholarships that might or might not come through.

You can start trying to rack some of them up early. Usually a few hundred here and a thousand here. Our neighborhood association has one, our pool has one, our local rec sports association has one, our church has a few... Usually they require at least an essay and they aren't very widely publicized so if you know to enter you have a good chance of winning.

are these one-off scholarships or for all four years?

They are usually one-offs. Anything that is actually renewable would say so, and most organizations would not have the mechanisms to renew year-to-year anyway. Whatever they have to give will usually be disbursed as a single check.