Any scholarships for my EC's?

Paying for College
1

As an avid reader of college confidential threads, I feel like it was about time I came to you guys, for I am completely hopeless.

I didn’t try my freshman and sophomore years during to family issues, which happens to everyone, I know, so I won’t dwell on it. I came to America from Egypt in 3rd grade, but didn’t adjust to the language until I was in middle school, I am also a first generation college student and first girl to go to college from my mother’s side if that counts for anything
And if any of you have any advice on how I can make myself a stronger applicant please feel free to let me know as well! I am really really desperate at this point.

My stats are terrible, so I’m hoping there are some scholarships for my ec’s ?? I have worked really hard throughout hs to build them up. My parents cannot assist financially in any way so I have to be paying for college on my own/ getting as many scholarships as humanly possible

Freshman:
English honors: B+
Algebra 2 Honors: B
World History honors: A-
Spanish 2:B
Personal Finance: B+
Biology honors: A-

Sophomore:
Ap Human Geography: A (a family member passed away the week of the ap test so I went in and did like 10 questions then left so I ended up scoring a 2, I obviously won’t send that score in)
Eng 10 honors: A-
Pre calc honors: B+
Chem honors: B
Spanish 3: B
Journalism: A

Junior: (my father’s hip surgery went wrong and was unable to walk/drive for months so I became the “man” of the house, leading me to drop all but one of my AP classes, so my junior year schedule isn’t as rigorous as I would’ve liked, but there’s nothing I can do about that now)
AP Eng Lang and Comp: B (took the test, I think i did well)
Calculus: A
Physics honors: A
Modern US history honors: A
Art studio honors: A
Forensics Duel Enrollment: A

Senior year: ( as of right now)
AP calc
English 12 honors:
AP Bio:
Ap US History
AP studio Art
Spanish 4
Culinary

Interning with a chemist throughout senior year

My sats scores absolutely blow… but I’m devoting my summer to studying for them
I got a 1210 (new sat)
math: 29
critical reading: 32
writing: 31

ECs:

-cofounded successful nonprofit organization for refugees (have been mentioned on Huffington post and local newspapers)
-freelance blogger for successful blog called Muslim girl (recognized by vogue, MTV, and the white house)
-Key club advisor
-meals with a mission (like a soup kitchen)
-Pilots log editor (school newspaper)
-Multicultural club outreach committee
-Model UN (president?)
-Treasurer of GSA
-national honors society
-Student council board member
-intern as a marketer for halal food festival
-youth leader at my local mosque
(have been in charge of many events such as the halal food festival, walk for water, and multiple muslim youth confrences)
-Democrat republican Club (president)

Summer programs this upcoming summer: Henry Clay for Statesmanship Congress and Girls Who Code

Awards: Princeton Prize in Race Relations (for starting my nonprofit)

Sorry for this being so long, but any help would be appreciated!

2

First of all…your stats are not horrible. There are plenty of colleges where you will be acceoted with As and Bs as part of your GPA.

What is your ACT total,composite score?

Re: your ECs…it isn’t clear to me what you exactly like doing.the list looks like a laundry list of lots and lots of ECs. Students typical do not get scholarships for having the longest list of different ECs. If anything…it would be because they excel at one particular EC.

You say your parents are unable to help you at all…is this because they have insufficient in me to do so…or is it because they have other financial obligations.

Have you looked at options in your own state?

And lastly, are you a U.S. citizen or green card holder?

3

For the longest time I have been unsure of what to major in (I still am) so I use extracurriculars as a way to gain experience in different fields.

My main EC would be starting a nonprofit organization and doing other humanitarian acts.

My parents are unable to support financially due to being low income, plus I have other siblings in school that they have to worry about.

And yes I am a U.S. citizen

4

Schools generally do not give scholarships for EC’s because they don’t ‘help’ the university’s profile.

A few schools, often religious schools, will have a “community service” sort of small scholarship that they award to a student who had significant community impact.

Competitive scholarships often use grades/stats first, and then use EC’s for down-selection.

What is your GPA

What is your ACT cumulative?

What is your home state?

5

Like @mom2collegekids said, though many students think ECs are incredibly important in scholarship awarding… they’re not. The big awards go to kids with big stats, because that’s what benefits the school’s ranking. Sad but true.

With that said, your stats aren’t horrific, so you may have options. What is your cumulative unweighted GPA and your ACT composite?

6

Some small local scholarships may care more about your ECs. For example, my credit union gives a scholarship to a business major attending a school in the state. The committee might be very interested in how you financed your charity, what documents you filed, etc. We just changed to Centurylink as a cable provider and I noticed on their website they have a scholarship contest where the prompt for the essay is about how technology affects your daily life or something like that.

Your ECs might be a small bump for most scholarships, but they are really going to want to see those grades and scores.

7

Check out the CTCL LACs:
http://ctcl.org

They are good schools that are geared towards helping late bloomers to bloom. Some of them give good FA, and might offer scholarships for students who have achieved something to demonstrate committment to diversity.

8

I don’t see that as a laundry list, but rather as a picture of a humanitarian and political activist. Pull these activities together so that a quick read highlights your leadership and community involvement. Maybe no scholarships would come out of it, but perhaps you would be accepted at a school that will meet your financial need.

9

In addition, there are only has so many lines on the Common Application for ECs. The student needs to pick the ones he or she wants to list. This list has too many for all to fit.

@mom2cats you wrote this:

Please tell us all…which colleges that meet full need for all would accept a student based on their ECs in the absence of an otherwise excellent application?

This student needs to retake the SAT and ACT and improve those scores. That is what will enhance her application.

10

I second the CTCL schools. You have a nice upward trend in your grades. It’s hard to tell, but you may have an ACT within their range and if you can score above 30 on your composite, you will be an attractive candidate. Finally, you can pull together a very nice and compelling narrative with your EC’s highlighting service and/or leadership.

Several colleges offer scholarships for services and/or leadership. Often they are not big scholarships. The bigger ones are based on test scores and GPA but the service ones may stack.

11

@noraabdel6
When you speak about scholarships, break them into two different categories, the ones that come from the colleges (for merit) which are far and away the largest pool of money. The second is “outside” scholarships, Horatio Alger would be one for you to try, as well as Jack Kent Cooke and Elks. This outside scholarship pool is small, highly competitive and opaque.

“my father’s hip surgery went wrong and was unable to walk/drive for months so I became the “man” of the house, leading me to drop all but one of my AP classes, so my junior year schedule isn’t as rigorous as I would’ve liked, but there’s nothing I can do about that now”

You should be able to turn this “man of the house” thing into a very good essay - use the hardship to show you taking on the responsibility and maturing.

The folks here are marvelous and helpful, provide them with the info they seeks and help them help you.

12

Jack Kent Cooke and Elks are both extremely stats based.

13

My D advanced in both Elks and JKC to the semi final round and has similar stats to the OP, which is why I offered that advice. Both take need into consideration, and the OP stated they have financial need, and both of these scholarships also take that into account. We did not have the level of need it sounds like OP does, or I believe my D would have advanced further, however since no one but the scholarship committees has access to their decision making process, it is really impossible to tell what makes a winning candidate.

My suggestion to the OP would be to work on quality essays that really show how you’ve overcome the difficulties in your life and to find schools with good merit aid programs, as the majority of money available comes from the colleges themselves.

14

What is the ACT composite? Strange that only some sections were listed.

Unless this student has better stats, it’s unlikely that she will get into a full need school.

Are the parents low income? Do they have any assets?

15

With all due respect, stats matter at the highest levels of those competitions. Hundreds of kids (thousands, in the case of Elks) advance as semifinalists. Only ~95 kids win JKCF. ~500 get money in Elks, and 20 get the top honors.

Elks explicitly posts their grading criteria online. If you don’t have tippy top SAT/ACT scores, you will not make it to the top, just because of how much of a points deficit that creates.

Jack Kent Cooke is slightly more holistic, but stats are still critically important to win. They also publish their middle 50s online.

16

For all asking for ACT composite, I believe what the OP posted were the section scores given for the new SAT. They are a score given for each section out of 40. Not ACT section scores

17

If those are SAT scores…this OP needs to retake, and improve that score. In addition, I would suggest trying the ACT as perhaps it will be a better test for the OP.