You need to apply to scholarships for which you are a likely recipient. All three of my daughters won several local scholarships which ranged from $350 to $2000. Even if a particular scholarship seems to perfectly fit an applicant’s resume, if the application requires financial information you can be sure financial need is going to be a strong factor in determining the scholarship recipient. Thus you need to be realistic about your financial need. We found that it was easier to target local scholarships because with a little research we could find out who past recipients were and determine if my daughters were likely to have a good chance of winning the scholarships. You should follow up on any suggestion by a teacher or school administrator or anyone with inside knowledge to apply for a local scholarship. One of daughters was notified about a scholarship by a coach at school. She literally had less than 24 hours to complete the application during a busy week of competitions and school projects. She won $1000. Another daughter applied for a scholarship offered by an organization representing another race. A online search had shown that previous recipients were not always of that race. She won that scholarship. My youngest daughter won $2000 from a local scholarship where the essay question was “why are you applying for this scholarship?” The odd thing about that scholarship was that the amount was not made known until it was awarded. Good luck. Small amounts do add up, though I do agree the largest scholarships are almost always the merit scholarships from the colleges themselves.
I think it’s often worth it with local ones where competition isn’t much. The huge online ones? Maybe not.
My D also got a few thousand in local scholarships, and not only the first year (she has to reapply for one every year and the second year got a larger one than the first, the other is automatically extended each of four years provided her GPA is over 3).
We decided that they weren’t worth it for my D. But if you really need the money, do it.
My answer: ONLY if you have already maximized your energy to get the best merit aid at your target schools. If you are a junior, pack in the hours on your test prep. If you are a senior and your applications are in and your list is heavy with schools that don’t meet need–yeah, sure, find a few local scholarships.
The small local ones usually have topics that have a common theme and can be recycled to the next one. It’s really not hard to cut and paste. What is a pain is the little stuff they want like a rec letter from “an adult who is not a teacher or school faculty but is someone who has known you for years” and a photo of you, etc.
For my kids it wasn’t worth it as any additional monies they received would have been deducted from their merit aid. The merit aid is renewable for 4 years. The small outside scholarships aren’t. So it didn’t make sense to spend time to win money that would only hurt them in the long run.
If potential impact to merit aid is not an issue, then it can be worth doing some, especially local ones, where you have a chance to pick up some extra $$.
I think you need to be strategic about local scholarships - if possible, know what your college will allow you to keep without reducing their own grant aid.
My D exceeded that amount this year but was able to have one that is for four years move her award to next year when she can use it all. SHe tried to do that with another one but the rules didn’t allow it - never hurts to ask though.