Need realistic advice on applying for college scholarships
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Anonymous
| Has anyone ever gotten a scholarship through the Fastweb or other scholarship sites? It's totally unclear what the chances are for success when applying for any of these scholarships. Is it worthwhile or are tens of thousands of students applying for these? I want to direct DS toward scholarships that he has at least a tiny chance of winning. I'm also open to any advice from those who have experience applying for and getting scholarships. TIA! |
Anonymous
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It's been some time, but I had the most success applying for ones that were offered through various local organizations - I got Rotary Club, Elks Club, Exchange Club and other much smaller amounts from very specialized organizations. My dad belonged to the Elks Club, but not to any of the others and I also won a scholarship at the national level from them. Random national scholarships were generally a crapshoot and I got $1,000 from one of them, there were thousands of applications for all of them, even 12 years ago.
All told I cobbled together $20k to help with my first year of college with the largest scholarship being $6k. (Only know these amounts because I just cleaned out the last of my crap from my parents' house last week and I found the envelope with all the letters from the various awards and scholarships I recieved.) |
Anonymous
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Agree that he should be applying to small local ones, however, he should apply to literally every scholarship (even the big ones like the Coca-Cola scholarship and the Wal-mart one, etc) like it's a part-time job. Use online lists/resources to find ones he is eligible for (make him do it!).
Applying to essentially every scholarship I was eligible for, I got 100% of my first year paid for, about 75% of the other three years paid for, and 100% of my study abroad paid for. (Granted, I had a 4.0, 1550 SAT, and tons of activities, so YMMV!) If your son has anything to set him apart, try to find scholarships that tie into that -- ethnicity, background, hobbies, skills, service, etc. |