As a parent of 3 kids, the first of which is starting college in the Fall, I am of course interested in scholarships.
I have a list of questions, and would be interested in feedback to any and all you might have.
As a “good” student, but not a great one, who also comes from a family with a high EFC, how worthwhile is applying for outside scholarships? When I read through long lists of scholarships, many refer to being need-based. While we absolutely have need, the FAFSA didn’t think so. Also, many refer to giving their awards to top students. This makes me feel as though our time would be wasted writing long essays for each.
How do you motivate your kids to apply for them? When they are already buried in AP/Honors homework and possibly a part-time job, how do you convince your kids to spend hours writing essays and digging through scholarships? It would seem that you have to make your decision on a college in April or so, meaning you can’t count on any money from scholarships that you may win after April. They would have to be seen as gravy.
Do your kids apply for these all year round? How long do they spend on each essay? Some require a lot more than an essay as well.
Do you target lots of small ones? a few larger ones?
I’d be curious to hear stories of how many scholarships you may have won, and what your stats are. For example, I feel as though someone with a 1500 SAT and a 4.1 GPA and high honors can probably make a killing on these, where as a 3.5 GPA student with 1250 numbers may find themselves falling short often in the “achievement” area.
When I applied to college three years ago, I applied to a lot of outside scholarships. I found most of them on Fastweb, but I won none of them. I had friends who applied to POSSE and similar programs and they got in, though.
I would suggest you not count on outside scholarships too much, but I know some CCers suggest looking into smaller and local scholarships if you have to. Relying on outside scholarships isn’t good for a number of reasons–you might not hear back from some of them until after you’ve made a decision, for one. Some of them are nonrenewable, and this is especially an issue if you need the money to pay for your tuition one year because then you have to figure out how to make up that money for next year.
Also, at some colleges, outside scholarships don’t change your FA package much. For instance, if your EFC is $10k and you have $40k in scholarship money, the college will likely substitute any outside scholarship money for the money they awarded you. In this scenario, you’d need to get $41k or more in outside scholarships to actually see a reduction in the amount you’d have to pay. Most colleges have their policies in regards to outside scholarships on their websites.
In our experience, the best scholarships come from the university itself. Also, the cost can vary enormously from one university to the next. We in our case have seen almost no correlation between the cost of a university and the academic strength of a university.
As such, at least in our experience the best way to save money on college / university is to have an open mind with regard to which schools you (or your child) will attend, and look for a good academic match at a school that is affordable.
In-state schools are usually a good place to start.
The Net Price Calculator (NPC) for each school can be very helpful. If you are divorced, or own a small business, farm, or rental property they can be way off (and usually the NPC will be too optimistic in these cases). If none of these apply to you, then the NPCs have been, at least in our experience, very accurate. “Accurate” is of course not at all the same thing as “optimistic”.
I think your best chances are with the local scholarships; the GC should have a list. We had kids win a $500 award from the Bar Association for making a ‘safety’ video and they made a really stupid (unbelievably stupid) video about shining lasers into airplanes. I think they were the only entrants, and I suspect they knew the kids who had won the year before because I’d never heard of it until Senior Awards night. There were other awards from the DAR, from a local photographer, for an art contest. There were a lot for the children of military members. One of my daughter’s friends won several, and while $2000 wasn’t enough to change her life, she liked winning them and was doing things she’d do anyway (wrote an essay, drew a poster)
Recently I read about a state award for someone who has failed at something. It is something like the ‘Second chance’ or “At least I tried”. Student who had tried something (math, science, art, theater) but had failed give a presentation and explain the project and why he failed. It is for $10,000, so not a little thing.
There are also awards for special talents like the Evans Scholars for golf caddies or the scholarships for Eagle Scouts. You obviously have to work toward those for years.
I think this is for a younger child. Some local awards do look for need while others are just for a specific things (essay, art work, military child). Some local ones like the Pepsi distributors do look at need.
The Fastweb type scholarships are not worth the effort. The best scholarships will come directly from the college (admissions and department scholarships). Apply to all that your student qualifies for. Sometimes these do require separate applications, but they are worth the effort. Also apply for local scholarships. Ask whether your employer offers a scholarship. If you have any friends that are in fraternities or sororities, ask them the same question. Find out whether any organizations to which you are a member offers scholarships. If your student is going to major in something that has a governing organization, find out whether they offer scholarships. I’d skip all but these.
Our experience is the same as other posters, the best scholarships came from the schools themselves. DD had a friend who applied to probably 20 outside scholarships. She spent a ton of time and energy, and I think won about $1500. Her college didn’t stack scholarships so they reduced her scholarship by that amount.
Look at schools where your child’s stats put them above the 75th percentile for scores and GPA. That’s where they are most likely to see good merit money.
I also agree that starting with your school’s GC who should have a list of local scholarships.
Our largish, low SES school district publishes scholarships. I spent a long time researching those for my D16 who i think is incredibly talented and smart.
A friend and I compared notes after our kids graduated and both of us were disappointed with the amount of $ in local scholarships - and her daughters are super SMART! so many were income related, or intended-major related; very very few were open to our kids, and those few had hundreds of applicants. Truly, the biggest scholarships that aren’t school related (in our midwest area) are local, need-based. There are some really good ones!
So, in my wisdom (ha!) i got my D16 involved with a girls’ scholarship that ended up being a Pageant – and I tried spending down savings with a bunch of house projects to get our EFC low enough to qualify for needs based. Didn’t work; didn’t get there and ended up with no savings. Pageant was fun though.
Now, in my continued wisdom, I am on the scholarship committee of our local middle school. Neither my friend’s kids nor mine received small scholarships from there; & we were big PTO volunteers; the winners were kids who were not super-remarkable with the highest stats. I’ve seen the rubric now; its interesting! Stats are truly just a part of it; and there was very little differentiation for a high stats kids (like 4.0/33+ ACT) and a nice stats kid (like 3.6/27). It’s pretty self serving to be honest - my S20 will have a little boost for that $500 scholarship next year now that i know the rubric.
My S15 received NO scholarships except from his college for merit. But interestingly, he has received 4-5 once he started school and killed it through his department. Those were easy money compared to all the work in HS.
this whole concept is sort of a joke in our family now; my youngest in MS just shakes her head. She’s going for merit.
It is likely too late for your current senior but I agree with others that focusing on local scholarships is best, but limited. Both my D’s applies to local rotary, elks, etc and received some, around $1500. Very helpful but did not change their college decision and fortunately their college still allowed the scholarship rather than having it replace other funds. I would look at colleges where they are at the higher end of the stats for the college so they have a chance at merit scholarships. Also, once your child is in college, do not hesitate to ask FA each year for more aid, even mid year. Once they know who is coming and who is not, they sometimes have extra funds to give out. And many private schools often have funds that students become eligible for once they have proven themselves with their good GPA. My D had a friend who had no aid going in but ended up with almost full tuition over the years bc she kept asking and was given departmental and other college grant funds bc she was a good student and was persistent. Once you are there, they do want to see you succeed.
I wouldn’t think a student could get outside scholarships unless the student is low income or very high achieving (even better if they’re both)- and I wouldn’t even count on them then. For most kids the best scholarships will come directly from the colleges. The idea is to target schools that offer merit aid and where the student is in at least the top 25% of applicants (even higher if they’ll need one of the bigger awards). Need based only schools will usually be out for kids who fall in that middle of being too rich for aid and too poor to actually afford to pay full price (or near it). There could be smaller outside scholarships locally that are less competitive, but it’s my understanding that those are typically only for freshman year.
I know my DD2 would have done well with a pageant/scholarship program, but needed to focus on ACT testing - good decision, as she got automatic Presidential Scholarship and Engineering Scholarships at Univ of AL.
DD1 in her junior year of college was encouraged to apply for a nursing scholarship that was $2K, and she won it. She was President of a student religious group, and evidently the source of the scholarship was interested in a nursing student also doing something faith based.
IMHO look at where student is considered highly desirable (as post #7 said) and where there is a match with some automatic scholarships or very likely scholarships based on stats.
The very best merit scholarships come directly from the colleges to which up student is admitted. Plus these are usually renewable for four years with a GPA requirement.
Outside scholarships, especially the local ones, tend to be smaller amounts and are for one year only.
Our kids did apply for local awards but only ones that didn’t have a need component. They each got several thousand dollars freshman year only. We are in the “every penny counts” category, and appreciated these awards.
If your student is currently a HS senior, perhaps local awards will be available to them.
Do keep in mind that if your kiddo gets any need based aid, it might be reduced by the outside scholarships received…because your need will be reduced. Check the policies at your colleges.
Mine won one rather large scholarship from an energy company ($3,000) and two local scholarships ($500 each). Neither was renewable.
As everyone else is saying, she chose schools where we estimated she would be in line for a nice renewable merit scholarship awarded directly from the school. We also knew from a little digging around that our two main state schools (UT and Texas A&M) would likely offer no merit for her and we were right.
Sorry, to be clear, I did not mean merit awarded by the college. All of the schools she is considering have offered renewable merit (or are in-state). I was referring to 3rd party outside. Although, there do seem to be a lot of 3rd party that are affiliated with a school, more for some schools than others.
Also, we are not in line for any need based aid. Our EFC is 63K … having said that we’re going to have to pinch and scrounge to come up with 24K per year out of pocket, and the rest will have to be loans. Not sure how they think we can possibly have 63K in extra cash flow.
I think we all understand. What we are telling you is…your daughter might get some local or smaller scholarships THIS year…but they won’t be renewable for subsequent years.
Do you have a plan to be able to pay for all four years of her college costs?
You received some very solid advice about college choices and costs on this other thread of yours.
The full EFC is not meant to be paid for completely with “extra cash flow” (meaning current income). It is expected that some of the EFC will come from college savings, some will come from loans, and some will come from currently available income.
@HankCT
It’s clear from your posts that you are feeling a lot of stress and concern as you and your family tackle this issue of cost, affordability and college choice. I definitely feel for you as many of us have had to (or are currently) dealing with the same issue.
3rd party scholarships won’t be the answer to the affordability question. I’m being blunt because you and your daughter have a small window of opportunity to understand and accept the situation you are in. Give your daughter the budget that will work for your family (and try your best to let your EFC go as a “omg, how could anyone think we can pay that” issue). It is what it is and it’s not changing. Any time and energy you spend on it is a waste.
Work with the budget you have to find schools that fit the budget. It isn’t going to be perfect because your family have a lot of ‘asks’ in your daughter’s college list. Accept the non-perfect and find the best possible options.
If your daughter can handle this, tell her how stressful you find dealing with the debt you currently have and how that is the reason why you are making her stick to the budget you can afford. You don’t want to give her stress by having her have debt that will be hard to repay, you don’t want to cause more stress for the family by taking on too much additional debt and you don’t want to have to tell her sophomore, junior or senior year in college that you can’t continue to pay for her to attend a school you really couldn’t afford in the first place.
Yes, this is hard. If your daughter could make great decisions, she wouldn’t need parents to help her right now. You have the opportunity to be open and honest with her and help her understand there are many options for her at amazing colleges. But there are also hard constraints and she and you need to work within those for the best results possible.
