<p>Because my son is going to a state university (out of state), the financial burden is lessened somewhat (vs. a private school), and he had an "automatic" merit scholarship (based on SAT/ACT scores, GPA, and rank) that reduced the tuition to in-state levels. So we have been lax in really pursuing other outside scholarships. He received a small ($1000.00) scholarship for an essay he did, but that is the only outside scholarship he's applied for.</p>
<p>He just received a letter this weekend saying that the school was attempting to raise it's stats (avg scores and percent yield), so they were offering him an ADDITIONAL $3K per year scholarship to entice him to attend (he's already sent in the deposit), and they also threw in a discount on the room and board. Great news for us, and very unexpected.</p>
<p>But the question is this for the parents on this board: Besides money through the universities themselves, has anyone else received outside scholarship money? For example, have sites like fastweb been of any use? It's a little late for this year, but have we been too lax and left money on the table that could have been available, or have people gone through a lot of work with applications with less success?</p>
<p>As my son is a 10th grader, he did receive some money (few hundred dollars) and recognition. However, all these accomplishments have allowed him to obtain leverage from his prep school in terms of a better fin aid every year. In addition he has been allowed money from other private foundation outside of fast web that has allowed him to pursue his ECs in and outside of school. My answer is it has helped him a lot. Thank God.</p>
<p>I was stunned at how many opportunities there were for merit awards and scholarships, once I started looking. My son won't or didn't qualify for many of them (based on location, major, or some other characteristic) but I now find there are several fairly prestigious ones that we didn't know anything about in time for him to apply. It's conceivable he might have been successful at one or more of them.</p>
<p>I've suggested to our school guidance office that in addition to the financial aid info night they host in the fall (which I don't attend because I know we'll never qualify for need-based aid), they should hold a separate merit award/scholarship info night. I've even volunteered to help them plan it. And by the way, there are still a number of scholarships with March 31 deadlines (!): there are two apps incomplete on our kitchen table at this very moment. There may still be time for your son, too!</p>
<p>Digmedia, most of the scholarships listed on Fastweb garner MUCH attention. The so-called national scholarships receive many applications. </p>
<p>In general terms, your best bet is to look closer to home and focus on smaller and specialized competitions. In so many words, you are much better off looking for a few $500 gifts than hoping to win one of the scholarships that gets a lot of headlines. My suggestion would be to google your search to death and introduce several criteria. Another good source is your local paper. Do not look for advertisement, but for the small annoucements in the "social" pages. There you may find well hidden scholarships from your local Rotary or Elk's club. </p>
<p>I would also suggest for you to contact the finaid department at your son's school and ask about scholarships' competitions he might enter. A great number of scholarships are given after a small competition restricted to a particular school or program. In my experience, the odds of winning are much higher, and the award more generous than anything listed on fastweb. </p>
<p>As far as "leaving" money on the table, this is not an issue to fret on. Just as in admissions, the odds for angular candidates are much better. There is simply not much money set aside for the "common" kid, regardless of his or her merits. The key is to find scholarships that reward the particular "hook" of your son, be it on a geographical basis or a technical basis. </p>
<p>Unless a scholarship is really well-hidden, you can expect to have to invest some time on the application. That said, Voronwe reported last year that her son and other family members uncovered scholarships that had remained unfunded for lack of participation.</p>
<p>Lastly, since time is money, I could recommend to suscribe -for one month- to one of the directory companies that track private giving. I worked with the online tools produce by the Foundation Center. Link is <a href="http://www.fdncenter.org%5B/url%5D">http://www.fdncenter.org</a> . You may find the directory at your library, but the online search tool is very helpful to concentrate your searches. Again, it is not free but very helpful.</p>
<p>I like to look for limited scholarhips that won't attract too big an applicant pool. For example, my older son won two scholarships through my husband's work union--one national one worth $1000 a year and a local one worth $500 a year. My younger son will also be applying for those. I also came across one on fastweb that my younger son applied for: for dependents of naval services veterans. I don't know yet if he will win, but it is worth $2500 a year for four years. Because of the criteria that limits the number of applicants, I feel my son will have a better chance than he would at the huge national scholarships.</p>
<p>My younger son has also won a couple of $400 one-time scholarships through a couny Academic All-star competition (with a shot at more, if he advances beyond finalist), and will have a good shot at a band scholarship from the high school band parents group. Every little bit helps!</p>
<p>FWIW: My son received no outside scholarships. We did search for those for which he would be qualified, based on some type of "hook", without much success (as a BWRK? --did I get that an acronym correct?) He did receive some great college awards, however (up to full tuition at several schools), so my guess is that he should have also qualified for many of the smaller scholarships. We just didn't find any (other than the big national "lotteries"), that meshed with his accomplishments, background, heritage, interests, etc.). By the time he had applied to 10 schools, he also had no desire to write more essays, or fill out more forms. That may have been a mistake.</p>
<p>At the time, we felt he had some great choices. He even turned down one or two possible scholarships offered by his HS because he had decided to attend one of those great merit-award colleges. He felt that giving the opportunity to the next person in line was the right thing to do. Then at the last minute, he changed his mind, and chose a college that although it gave him a good award, was not nearly the package some of the other colleges offered. Those small scholarships would have been helpful, but by then, it was too late.</p>
<p>Another thought, however, for those who qualify for need-based aid: One of his friends was awarded a lot of the small scholarships. Unfortunately, their college took that into account and reduced their need-based aid package as a result. Unfortunately most of those awards were only one-time, (one year) awards. They are now concerned that the college is less likely to change their need-based award the second year, even though all the small scholarships will be gone. I'm not saying this will happen, as nothing has been finalized yet for their second year. I only know that it is a concern for them.</p>
<p>My older son got some outside scholarships. The availability of outside scholarships depends upon students' interests and achievements as well as their writing ability.</p>
<p>There are, for instance, a fair amount of outside scholarships for journalism, leadership, community service, and academic achievements. To be able to get the large national scholarships for such endeavors, however, a student has to have exceptional achievements and also have the writing skills to highlight those achievements eloquently in an essay.</p>
<p>Students with excellent analytical and writing abilities can do well when applying for scholarships that are based on essays. I have judged such contests, and most submissions are mediocre -- cliched writing, filled with typos and weak analysis. Students who take the time to think about and carefully answer the scholarship question -- and revise and proofread their essay -- can do very well. To do so, however, takes a great deal of motivation as well as excellent skills.</p>
<p>My daughter got a scholarship from my fathers infantry veterans group for $1,000. She also got a savings bond for $100 from the local volunteer fire and didn't even apply, they just left that up to some independent group. Our local elementary schools offer a small one to a student who attended the elementary based on merit. Our music parents booster group gives $100 to any student in the music program that declares a music major when enrolling. Our school has an awards ceremony and everyone that got a scholarship is invited to it along with their parents. There were a lot of kids that got small scholarships, mostly from local groups. While we parents may not be aware of them, my kids GC has told me that they make announcements pretty often about scholarships and how to fill out any paperwork for them.</p>
<p>My high school (in suburban MN) had a "common application" for all local scholarships. There were probably 25-50 of them, many with several pre-requisites (academic merit, major, junior high school attended, need, etc.). I received two, one worth $2000 from a local organization and another worth $1000 from the local chapter of the Lions Club. You might want to see if your son's high school has a list of local scholarships, as they are much easier to receive than the national awards.</p>
<p>There was recently a very good article about outside scholarships in our local paper. It reiterated what we have found: the largest and most generous sources of scholarships are the schools themselves. Digmedia's experience is a good example of that. Most outside scholarships are very small and are deducted from any financial aid grants a school gives you. This is because outside scholarships cannot reduce your EFC. You can ask the school to use them to reduce your loan or work-study amount instead of cutting into grants. However, if you awards are solely merit based, then outside scholarships will only add to what you already have.</p>
<p>zeusviolin: Your school has a wonderful approach. I have never heard of a common application for local scholarships, but it makes a heck of a lot of sense. Our school does not even advertise them very well--you have to hunt.</p>
<p>Our local HS had the "common application" and one counseler said he was handing out a few at the last minute because no one applied. I made son ck them out last yr and most were related to income. He did do well with a local newspaper award and received one of 6 nationwide from company husband works for. These were so helpful easing the cash out at the beginning of school.</p>
<p>I got a 10K scholarship from a local company but I was one of six in my county that even applied. The problem is that it takes soooo much time to write all the different essays(whoever said you can use one for all is just plain WRONG), get the individualized letters of rec, transcripts, etc... especially when it's only like $500. Very few kids at my school apply for outside scholarships because they just don't have the motivation. The school is very proactive with getting the info to students but we're too busy with other stuff.</p>
<p>We found that many of the local scholarships had a need component, or (for union ones) were given to students based mostly on how long the parent had been a union member. In the end, it did not matter. Any of my daughter's scholarships would have reduced her grants at school first, so she would have had to get a very large renewable scholarship (over $8000.) to have made any difference in our contribution. We ended up very happy with the university's financial aid, which consisted of grants, academic scholarships, and no work/study or loans.</p>
<p>"The problem is that it takes soooo much time to write all the different essays(whoever said you can use one for all is just plain WRONG), "</p>
<p>LOL! You should meet my son! If anyone could get one essay to work for all colleges and scholarships, he would be the person. He did have to write a couple long essays and 2-3 short ones when applying to colleges, but he has managed to work those into 3-4 more college app essays, along with 3-4 scholarship essays. He has them all on a zip disk and starts pulling them up and cutting and pasting--figuring which version of the essay works best for this particular need. Then some editing and perhaps a tiny bit of new writing, and he is done... </p>
<p>He did write this one really nice essay back in October, and it has been the basis for most of them since... I say it's laziness; he says it's efficiency. :-)</p>