<p>All the scholarships I see these days are based on community service and contributions to your area and how you have helped others. I've done comuunity service but nothing spectacular. I am good academically though, are there any scholarships that have to do with academics instead of community involvement? Im not talking about competitions that give out money like siemens westinghouse and intel, I'm talking about scholarships you can apply to, like coca cola and others. Any academic scholarships out there?</p>
<p>i'd like to know the same thing</p>
<p>do you have to write essays for all of them?</p>
<p>My son was also a very academic student with some community service, but not the amount needed for most of those scholarships. Believe me, we searched but didn't really find much. There are a few essay contests, but these are national contests with thousands of applicants, so your chances aren't too encouraging. </p>
<p>If you have perfect (or near perfect) SAT or ACT scores you could be considered for the Presidential Scholars program. You don't initially apply for this; they contact the highest scorers in each state, then you have to fill out the application. </p>
<p>My suggestion is to just do a google search for scholarships. This is time-consuming, but might turn up something. Your school or public library should have a scholarship book you can look through. Also, private school websites often have good scholarship information. Your best bet will probably be merit scholarships offered by colleges.
Good luck</p>
<p>Many colleges award merit scholarships based on academic achievement. For these awards, you don't even need to fill out an additional application. Your consideration for these awards is made based on the information in your admissions application. Check on the web sites for schools. Many have these types of awards....not the Ivies...they don't give merit aid.</p>
<p>It sounds like what you want is portable (can be used at any college) merit scholarhsips. There's a book by Ben Kaplan on "How to Go to College for Almost Free" that is devoted to this.</p>
<p>Texas, we read Kaplan's book too, and it seemed like a lot of the scholarships he mentions are heavy on community service too, or are for financial need students. I do think it's a good book, especially the tips on writing the essays and applications. </p>
<p>Needhelp, the other thing you should look into are scholarships given by local groups. Ask your counselor and look on the websites of any private schools in your area. Unfortunately there weren't many of these in our area, but you might get lucky.</p>
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<p>"we read Kaplan's book too, and it seemed like a lot of the scholarships he mentions are heavy on community service too, or are for financial need students."</p>
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<p>Yes, a lot of them do include service and need as criteria. But certainly not all of them, and they do all include academic merit as a criteria.</p>
<p>Any list of scholarships is going to be mostly scholarships that any particular kid won't qualify for - whether the scholarship wants community service, financial need, perfect SAT scores, gender, URM status, great essay-writing, great science research, ethnic background, parental affiliations, or status as a "red-headed, left handed descendant of Joe Blow." That's why computerized searches like Fastweb were developed. Books are useful for general advice on how to approach the search. If you get 1-2 scholarships out of one that you didn't know about, that's pretty good.</p>
<p>I also found it useful to look at websites of specific schools in our area to see if they had pages devoted to scholarships that their students might be interested in. Several local and regional private schools had them. That can be a good way to find local ones. I also got ideas from a list posted by a magnet school in another state that specializes in the same area my son is good at.</p>
<p>Has anyone out there received a merit scholarship if you don't qualify for financial aid? We aren't even bothering to fill out the FAFSA (for one thing we don't want to pay back loans) but I wonder if not doing so hampers any scholarship money.</p>
<p>Since merit money cones through the office of financial aid , I would consider filling out the FAFSA. Also check with the financial aid policies at the schools which your child is applying to because some require the FAFSA for any typr of financial aid</p>
<p>as I understand it, the FAFSA also lets you get low-interest government loans which are independent of need. That might be useful even for families who are not going to qualify for gift-type aid.</p>
<p>One school (I don't remember which one) required FAFSA even for scholarship money that was based solely on merit. It would depend on what your particular schools require. </p>
<p>Tookie, my son received several very generous merit offers and we didn't qualify for any financial aid (except work study at the most expensive school). We did fill out FAFSA and CSS just in case, and we should get some fin aid when #2 hits college.</p>
<p>over30, the Presidential Scholars program...do you have any more information or know where we can find more info?</p>
<p>Here's the link: <a href="http://www.presidentialscholars.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.presidentialscholars.org/</a></p>
<p>I think I made a mistake. Apparently there is no money associated with this award. But this is a legitimate, very prestigious award. I do know that to be considered for the academic portion you have to mark the box on the SAT or ACT that lets them send your scores out. That's how the presidential scholars people know who to contact. </p>
<p>There are 2 students (girl/boy) from each state, plus 15 at-large students, plus 20 students who are accomplished in the arts.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Has anyone out there received a merit scholarship if you don't qualify for financial aid?>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>Our family did not qualify for any need based aid. DS receives $10,000 per year of merit aid (not need based). The FAFSA must be completed each year and he must maintain a certain GPA to continue receiving the aid. His university requires the FAFSA for dispersal of all aid, even merit aid. This is done to determine if students DO qualify for need based aid which is government subsidized. If students qualify for things like Pell Grants, these would be awarded first and the university monies (merit) would be awarded second. At his school...no FAFSA....no aid.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what you would do if you stated you were not applying for aid and have already sent in the applications? I don't believe we would qualify for aid, and told my s to check the no box. I do believe my s will qualify for merit aid but was unaware that not doing the FAFSA would be a problem. Any advice?</p>
<p>coca cola scholars is really good, they give u lots of money, but its hard as anything to get.. 0.3% of total applicants make it to the final competition in Atlanta. But I must say, that weekend was well worth the competitoin</p>
<p>Call the financial aid office. I called ours and told them we don't qualify but that we would gladly welcome merit aid and they said ok. Maybe each school does it differently but you need to call. They wanted me to email them as they needed something in writing that we aren't applying for aid.</p>
<p>Tookie: You really should fill out the FAFSA. Some schools require it even for merit aid, and it is also important in case, God forbid, there is a disaster such as a death of a parent, job loss, etc.</p>
<p>OK, it's just that when you're self-employed (DBA) you don't have the time by Feb. 1 to figure out your income because by Jan 30, you've only sent out your 1099's and it takes days and weeks to get all the W2's in from hundreds of customers. It normally takes us until at least April 10 to get all the records together. IT's a pain just doing income tax return, much less filling out another one. One of the schools said our EFC was $75,000. Was that over one year or 4?</p>