Academic Scholarship Help!!!

<p>I recently got into Stanford, and seeing the financial aid I'm going to be receiving, it's pretty obvious that I'm going to need some outside scholarships. I am an only child from a pretty wealthy family, so I don't have financial need. But my parents don't want to pay what Stanford expects for four years of college simply because it's a ton of money! Any scholarships out there that are purely academic, extracurricular, or community service oriented? Basically no based on financial need. I've applied to these few:</p>

<ol>
<li>Axa Scholarship</li>
<li>Elks Most Valuable Student Scholarship</li>
<li>Coca-Cola Scholarship</li>
</ol>

<p>If you need any information about me to help, just let me know and I'd be happy to oblige. And of course the scholarships don't have to be huge, just something that can gradually knock down my tuition would be great. Thank you soooo much!!!!!</p>

<p>Why would your parents allow you to apply ED when they weren’t prepared to pay your EFC?</p>

<p>How much of a gap are you trying to fill? I assume you are looking at money for four years?</p>

<p>I believe Stanford is restrictive early action - not ED. They are free to turn down the offer of admission, they just can’t apply to other EA or ED programs.</p>

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<p>Are you receiving any FA from S? Because if so, your outside scholarships will go first to the Student responsibility, then grants.</p>

<p>Since your family is wealthy, it sounds like you won’t be receiving much/any FA. Have you rec’d your award yet? Many Stanford acceptees haven’t yet gotten FA awards yet. </p>

<p>How much will your parents pay? How much do you need to come up with?</p>

<p>Since outside scholarships are hard to get, often for small amounts, have a need aspect, and usually only for one year, how will you pay for years 2, 3, and 4???</p>

<p>Something is not right. If your family is wealthy, and they don’t want to pay for Stanford, then it’s unlikely they’re going to want to pay for all that Stanford expects except for - say $5k per year. Sounds more likely that they want to pay a lot less than Stanford expects. You’re not going to be able to make up that diffeerence with outside scholarships for 4 years.</p>

<p>Where else did you apply? Where do your parents expect you to go?</p>

<p>Thanks for the correction.</p>

<p>One thing to remember is most pay1/4 to 1/3 of before tax income as EFC.
If you/family are wealthy, that figure is going to be above COA of colleges.
You need to find out exactly what your parents think is reasonable & find a school that will give you merit aid, since you won’t be eligible for need based.</p>

<p>Perhaps I’ve phrased this wrong. My parents are willing and able to spend what Stanford requires, but I personally don’t want to put that much financial strain on them. I know they’d prefer a cheaper price (as would everyone) so I would love to help them out with this as Stanford is my dream school to go to. And if I might add, I hope this wasn’t a cocky thread or anything. To be honest, my parents aren’t really “wealthy” at all, we’re just upper-middle class. But I’m an only child and therefore my parents don’t have any other kids in college or kids to pay for, so I think that was likely factored into my financial aid. </p>

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My parents don’t necessarily have a limit and are basically willing to pay for it all. I’d love to get it down $10,000 - $15,000ish if possible. And yes, all four years would be nice.</p>

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I am. My estimated aid is around $8,000 and they are asking for a student contribution of $3,600. So, would making more than $3,600 in scholarships be beneficial at all? I’m a little confused about where my scholarship money goes still…sorry!</p>

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Parents are willing to contribute all of it essentially, but this is more of me attempting to help them with the financial aspect. It’s a lot of money, and I’d really like to do my part with scholarships to help pay for my college tuition.</p>

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I will be applying to Rice, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, WUSTL, UChicago, Duke, Whitman, and College of Idaho (my safety with good merit). Parents don’t expect me to go anywhere to be honest. They seem to like both Rice and Stanford quite a bit, so I’d say those two, but I think they’d honestly be happy with me going anywhere.</p>

<p>I just realized that I probably shouldn’t have put “wealthy” in the first post on this thread! haha. Yeah, please don’t interpret that as like millionaires or ridiculously rich people or something! We are just a nice family, with a nice income, living in the suburbs of Boise, and nothing beyond that really.</p>

<p>What is your EFC?</p>

<p>*My parents don’t necessarily have a limit and are basically willing to pay for it all. I’d love to get it down $10,000 - $15,000ish if possible. *</p>

<p>???</p>

<p>You’d love to get what down to 10-15k? What?</p>

<p>*I am. My estimated aid is around $8,000 and they are asking for a student contribution of $3,600. So, would making more than $3,600 in scholarships be beneficial at all? I’m a little confused about where my scholarship money goes still…sorry!</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>The student contribution is really just part of the “family contribution”. some parents just pay it, some have their kids work over the sumer to pay it. Some kids take a student loan to pay it. It’s not like the school is demanding that the “student money” come from a child’s bank acct.</p>

<p>My gut tells me that “student contribution” is just a way for schools to say that "we’re not paying for your “personal expenses and travel”…we’re not paying for shampoo and airfare. " </p>

<p>You need to ask Stanford what they would do with outside scholarships…would they reduce the $8k in grants? Would they apply it to “student or parent contribution”.</p>

<p>BTW…is the $8k in aid all grants…or does it include work study?</p>

<p>Lol, some of us would do anything to get into a IV league and your parents are cribbing about how much it costs???</p>

<p>OP-
All your schools are expensive except for your safety with merit.
They can fill the freshman seats at Stanford many times over with kids/families willing to pay full freight of 200K+.</p>

<p>What is your intended major?</p>

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<p>The first thing you do is go to the primary source, the S website. Then you Search ‘outside scholarships’, you will get a link to it’s policy on outside awards:</p>

<p>[Outside</a> Awards : Stanford University](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/finaid/aid/outside/index.html]Outside”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/finaid/aid/outside/index.html)</p>

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<p>Take a look at the table following this statement for examples. 5k is the Student Responsibility (total for summer earnings and WS), outside scholarships over 5k start eating into your FA grant money. </p>

<p>So what about if you get over 8k (ie. the amount of your total FA package) in outside scholarships? I think you need to call the FA office at S to find out whether or not this could then be applied to your EFC. My guess is yes, because by that time, you essentially aren’t receiving any FA from S, it’s all been replaced by your outside scholarship, and the last line of their policy kicks in.</p>

<p>Something similar happened with my D1, she got a full ride scholarship (tuition, R&B) from the school, and also got outside scholarships. The outside scholarship money was sent to the school and they in turn cut a check to her.</p>

<p>Of course the problem is, it’s tough to get substantially over 8k in outside scholarships to make the effort worthwhile. But any part of the 5k is definitely worth shooting for IMO.</p>

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Are you a complete jerk or something? Let me first point out that Stanford isn’t even an Ivy League University. Secondly, my parents are willing to pay for Stanford! We did the online financial aid calculator before I applied and realized how much it would be. In fact, we got more financial aid than what we had expected. My parents aren’t complaining about how much its going to cost so much as I an attempting to help them out. It’s a lot of money, and I just want to do my part to get scholarships where possible. So please, don’t criticize me for getting into an upper-tier college and then trying for scholarships to lower the price! I obviously know how much people want to get into some of these top 20 colleges, and my parents and I are hardly belittling the accomplishment…in fact, they’re thrilled! We’ve not some snobby rich people who aren’t willing to pay a dime or anything! I’m just a guy who’s trying his best to ease the financial burden! Trying to get scholarships doesn’t lessen my interest for Stanford, and neither does it with my parents. I don’t understand what’s so terrible about me trying to reduce the price of a university if I’m able to!</p>

<p>@entomom. Thank you so much for your help!!! That’s very clarifying actually.</p>

<p>I’m a little confused on what this turned into. I mean, I’m just looking for some merit scholarships, yet it seems to have turned into a “why apply if you wouldn’t be able to pay” and “schools can fill up with students willing to pay full tuition” type conversation. Just looking merit scholarships people, let’s not turn this into an attack on me if possible. I understand the money involved with Stanford and I’m really not trying to gripe about it, just wondering if there’s some scholarships
I can apply to.</p>

<p>^ Don’t worry about it, you’re on the right track.</p>

<p>BTW, how come CofI, not UofI? Just asking because I was once a Vandal :D.</p>