scholarship search

[Anonymous]

we are in the beginning of the college process but I wanted to familiarize myself with what is out there in terms of scholarship funds. What are the best resources to explore? My son is a varsity tennis player, plays sax, and does theater. He also does Model UN and Robotics. Is there money available to him based on these interests? His grades are ok. He takes a mix of AP, honors and level 2 classes. GPA is 3.6 weighted. I have no idea where to even start looking. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Search on google for scholarships. There are a few apps like scholarships.com which are great — they ask for enough information that they bring up the most relevant ones for your son.

[Anonymous]

Websites, not apps.

Most require essays.

[Anonymous]

OP - I would start with college confidential. You will get the best input there. Also check out the scholarship books on Amazon. IMHE much of the game for you will be need-based financial aid (which means filing the FAFSA). Most college webpages have financial calculators. Merit aid for middle and upper middle-class students has been drying up. Your son's GPA is not strong in today's current crazy expectations so I don't see a special merit scholarship unless you can find a LAC that needs a sax player. You are best off starting with looking at colleges and universities that your family can afford without a scholarship. Do you have good in-state schools? Check out those calculators. Read everything you can about scholarships on College Confidential. After our DCs got accepted we tried for many of the independent scholarships (paper intensive - lots of applications requrements) and not one of them came through which is what you will read on college confidential and in the scholarship books. So start from the premise that you are funding it all and allow for the fact that it may take your child 5 or 6 years to finish. Don't tour schools you can't afford. We applied to a few Ivies where DC had legacy status but held off on the tours due to the expense (The ivies get 40K applications a year so don't care if you've toured or not). Realize that some of these schools are now $75K a year and climbing. If you don't have savings stashed away, bear in mind that you are paying that in after-tax dollars so you have to make more than that to come up with the tuition dollars. We wound up paying full-frieght for all three children but in-state. FAFSA gave us nothing even though we really needed financial assitance (donut hole family taking care of elderly parents). But if you file FAFSA you can still get the $5500 or loan student loan. The rest we had to pay for. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

op here, thanks. I found a few websites so I assume then its just digging for anything that is relevant? Sorry if this is a dumb question but, do colleges give scholarships based on activities or only independent sources?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - I would start with college confidential. You will get the best input there. Also check out the scholarship books on Amazon. IMHE much of the game for you will be need-based financial aid (which means filing the FAFSA). Most college webpages have financial calculators. Merit aid for middle and upper middle-class students has been drying up. Your son's GPA is not strong in today's current crazy expectations so I don't see a special merit scholarship unless you can find a LAC that needs a sax player. You are best off starting with looking at colleges and universities that your family can afford without a scholarship. Do you have good in-state schools? Check out those calculators. Read everything you can about scholarships on College Confidential. After our DCs got accepted we tried for many of the independent scholarships (paper intensive - lots of applications requrements) and not one of them came through which is what you will read on college confidential and in the scholarship books. So start from the premise that you are funding it all and allow for the fact that it may take your child 5 or 6 years to finish. Don't tour schools you can't afford. We applied to a few Ivies where DC had legacy status but held off on the tours due to the expense (The ivies get 40K applications a year so don't care if you've toured or not). Realize that some of these schools are now $75K a year and climbing. If you don't have savings stashed away, bear in mind that you are paying that in after-tax dollars so you have to make more than that to come up with the tuition dollars. We wound up paying full-frieght for all three children but in-state. FAFSA gave us nothing even though we really needed financial assitance (donut hole family taking care of elderly parents). But if you file FAFSA you can still get the $5500 or loan student loan. The rest we had to pay for. Good luck!

thank you! We moved to the Boston area and we have amazing schools but EVERYONE wants to go school here so it is crazy competitive for in state kids. My son is a great kid but has to work really hard for the grades that he has. He is a hard worker so I am not too concerned about his future but I am shocked at how insane this whole process is. Do you think we need a "college coach"? It sounds like a load of crap but he swears all his friends are getting one. And the ACT/SAT tutors? Insanity, and we have two more after him!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:op here, thanks. I found a few websites so I assume then its just digging for anything that is relevant? Sorry if this is a dumb question but, do colleges give scholarships based on activities or only independent sources?

They may give a scholarship for an exceptional talent if they have a need for that talent. There are academic scholarships (extremely high grades and test scores) and there are other scholarships related to first generation college students, students of different family backgrounds (Native American, immigrant) etc. You will have to read on the websites of individual colleges to find out what they offer and to whom.

I doubt they will offer scholarships to an average grade kid with some nice ECs. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - I would start with college confidential. You will get the best input there. Also check out the scholarship books on Amazon. IMHE much of the game for you will be need-based financial aid (which means filing the FAFSA). Most college webpages have financial calculators. Merit aid for middle and upper middle-class students has been drying up. Your son's GPA is not strong in today's current crazy expectations so I don't see a special merit scholarship unless you can find a LAC that needs a sax player. You are best off starting with looking at colleges and universities that your family can afford without a scholarship. Do you have good in-state schools? Check out those calculators. Read everything you can about scholarships on College Confidential. After our DCs got accepted we tried for many of the independent scholarships (paper intensive - lots of applications requrements) and not one of them came through which is what you will read on college confidential and in the scholarship books. So start from the premise that you are funding it all and allow for the fact that it may take your child 5 or 6 years to finish. Don't tour schools you can't afford. We applied to a few Ivies where DC had legacy status but held off on the tours due to the expense (The ivies get 40K applications a year so don't care if you've toured or not). Realize that some of these schools are now $75K a year and climbing. If you don't have savings stashed away, bear in mind that you are paying that in after-tax dollars so you have to make more than that to come up with the tuition dollars. We wound up paying full-frieght for all three children but in-state. FAFSA gave us nothing even though we really needed financial assitance (donut hole family taking care of elderly parents). But if you file FAFSA you can still get the $5500 or loan student loan. The rest we had to pay for. Good luck!

thank you! We moved to the Boston area and we have amazing schools but EVERYONE wants to go school here so it is crazy competitive for in state kids. My son is a great kid but has to work really hard for the grades that he has. He is a hard worker so I am not too concerned about his future but I am shocked at how insane this whole process is. Do you think we need a "college coach"? It sounds like a load of crap but he swears all his friends are getting one. And the ACT/SAT tutors? Insanity, and we have two more after him!

You're welcome. The college admissions world has indeed gone crazy and you live in a particularly intense and competitive area. Are you private or public high school? Do you have a good private school counselor? We were in public. If I had to do it all over again I would hire a college coach. I didn't think we needed one but the process can be gut-wrenching for the family. it does sound like a load of crap and it is very difficult to find someone who actually knows what they are doing. Lots of silly people have found their way into the field. I would suggest you post for a college counselor in Boston here but you will get a lot of naysayers saying you don't need it. The problem is that your son does not have a great GPA (sorry) and it sounds like you don't have any test scores yet. You should be working with a counselor who would give your child sample SAT and ACT tests to find out which one he excels on (my kids both did well on the ACT, not so well on SAT - later we learned that we should have figured that out earlier in the process and chosen one over the other). Anyhow, yes we did have private tutoring for the ACT but my kids are quirky SN types. If your child has any SNs you do get extra time on the tests but you have to start the application process for that early and be prepared to appeal the "no" decision. Your school counselor should have a Naviance set up that will show you exactly what kind of GPA and test score that previous students in that particular school needed in order to get into certain colleges. He or she should then work with you to come up with a list of 12 to 15 colleges to apply to. It used to be ten (in my day it was three and I got into all three but the world has changed) but with a low GPA you should probably do quite a few. The counselor will help with the common app essays and side essays. If you don't have faith in your school's counselor then I suggest you find a great private counselor immediately but check them out thoroughly. Go to College Confidential, as I said and spend some time on there - the posters are students and parents and most are courteous and helpful. Once you've narrowed down your list, you can then go on CC and see what kind of records students had who were rejected (some are just astonishing). That, too, will give you a flavor of the institution. Try to apply very early on to one safety rolling admission school just to get one acceptance under your belt - that will make the rest of the year easier on your child and family. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - I would start with college confidential. You will get the best input there. Also check out the scholarship books on Amazon. IMHE much of the game for you will be need-based financial aid (which means filing the FAFSA). Most college webpages have financial calculators. Merit aid for middle and upper middle-class students has been drying up. Your son's GPA is not strong in today's current crazy expectations so I don't see a special merit scholarship unless you can find a LAC that needs a sax player. You are best off starting with looking at colleges and universities that your family can afford without a scholarship. Do you have good in-state schools? Check out those calculators. Read everything you can about scholarships on College Confidential. After our DCs got accepted we tried for many of the independent scholarships (paper intensive - lots of applications requrements) and not one of them came through which is what you will read on college confidential and in the scholarship books. So start from the premise that you are funding it all and allow for the fact that it may take your child 5 or 6 years to finish. Don't tour schools you can't afford. We applied to a few Ivies where DC had legacy status but held off on the tours due to the expense (The ivies get 40K applications a year so don't care if you've toured or not). Realize that some of these schools are now $75K a year and climbing. If you don't have savings stashed away, bear in mind that you are paying that in after-tax dollars so you have to make more than that to come up with the tuition dollars. We wound up paying full-frieght for all three children but in-state. FAFSA gave us nothing even though we really needed financial assitance (donut hole family taking care of elderly parents). But if you file FAFSA you can still get the $5500 or loan student loan. The rest we had to pay for. Good luck!

thank you! We moved to the Boston area and we have amazing schools but EVERYONE wants to go school here so it is crazy competitive for in state kids. My son is a great kid but has to work really hard for the grades that he has. He is a hard worker so I am not too concerned about his future but I am shocked at how insane this whole process is. Do you think we need a "college coach"? It sounds like a load of crap but he swears all his friends are getting one. And the ACT/SAT tutors? Insanity, and we have two more after him!

You're welcome. The college admissions world has indeed gone crazy and you live in a particularly intense and competitive area. Are you private or public high school? Do you have a good private school counselor? We were in public. If I had to do it all over again I would hire a college coach. I didn't think we needed one but the process can be gut-wrenching for the family. it does sound like a load of crap and it is very difficult to find someone who actually knows what they are doing. Lots of silly people have found their way into the field. I would suggest you post for a college counselor in Boston here but you will get a lot of naysayers saying you don't need it. The problem is that your son does not have a great GPA (sorry) and it sounds like you don't have any test scores yet. You should be working with a counselor who would give your child sample SAT and ACT tests to find out which one he excels on (my kids both did well on the ACT, not so well on SAT - later we learned that we should have figured that out earlier in the process and chosen one over the other). Anyhow, yes we did have private tutoring for the ACT but my kids are quirky SN types. If your child has any SNs you do get extra time on the tests but you have to start the application process for that early and be prepared to appeal the "no" decision. Your school counselor should have a Naviance set up that will show you exactly what kind of GPA and test score that previous students in that particular school needed in order to get into certain colleges. He or she should then work with you to come up with a list of 12 to 15 colleges to apply to. It used to be ten (in my day it was three and I got into all three but the world has changed) but with a low GPA you should probably do quite a few. The counselor will help with the common app essays and side essays. If you don't have faith in your school's counselor then I suggest you find a great private counselor immediately but check them out thoroughly. Go to College Confidential, as I said and spend some time on there - the posters are students and parents and most are courteous and helpful. Once you've narrowed down your list, you can then go on CC and see what kind of records students had who were rejected (some are just astonishing). That, too, will give you a flavor of the institution. Try to apply very early on to one safety rolling admission school just to get one acceptance under your belt - that will make the rest of the year easier on your child and family. Good luck!

wow! thank you for your thoughtful response. We are in public school-a very competitive district. His counselor seems ok but we have not had to interact with him much. He will take tests at the end of this year once he completes algebra 2. No need to apologize, we know his gpa is not the greatest, but he is doing his best so that is all we can ask of him. He is such a well rounded, happy kid that I know he will be fine in the end but sounds like we might need some assistance getting him there. Thanks again, be well!

[Anonymous]

Most scholarships are awarded by the colleges and universities themselves.

http://www.thecollegesolution.com/seven-things-to-know-about-scholarships/

[Anonymous]

We r in the Boston area also. The college coach - just makes sure u submit all the materials needed on time. If u are well organized, u can enter all the info in a spreadsheet. This is what I did to help my kids - enter all the essay questions for all the schools they wanted to apply to. This way you can see the similar questions to narrow down the number of essays.

Look overseas also - Canadian schools and even British schools. U can finish in 3 years over there.

Look at out of state like Alabama who gives $$$ to north east kids.

[Anonymous]

OP - I think it makes a difference whether you are looking for scholarships with financial need or without. I recommended scholarships.com -- but only because I don't meet the financial need threshold from FAFSA. Sorry, absolutely the very first thing to do is submit the FAFSA where you will get your majority of need-based aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most scholarships are awarded by the colleges and universities themselves.

http://www.thecollegesolution.com/seven-things-to-know-about-scholarships/

The above is a good article. I also like this tool from Kiplinger's.

https://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts

In-State schools are probably your cheapest option. However, one of my kids got $26k from a liberal arts school ranked around #50 (merit aid - we didn't qualify for financial aid). Another kid got $17 k from Tulane a few years ago. In both cases my kids' test scores were significantly above the average for those schools. Nearly all of the liberal arts schools below number 40 will discount their tuition, especially in the Midwest and PA where they are hurting for students. There is a lot money out there if you are not looking at the top schools.

[Anonymous]

Most, if not all, merit scholarships are stats driven unless your kid is a recruited. Realistically, with 3.6 weighted GPA, it is very unlikely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most, if not all, merit scholarships are stats driven unless your kid is a recruited. Realistically, with 3.6 weighted GPA, it is very unlikely.

Actually, for a boy especially, a weighted 3.6 GPA will get merit aid at second and third tier schools.

OP, look at Colleges That Change Lives schools.