<p>Hey, all!</p>
<p>I don't qualify for any need-based scholarships, but my stats are near perfect (matriculating at Yale next fall).</p>
<p>Are there any major merit scholarships (Coca-Cola, etc.) that are still accepting applications?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Yale meets full need and has one of the most generous FA systems. Why would you need some merit scholarships?</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad, did you misread the question, maybe? The OP has said he doesn’t qualify for need-based aid. </p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean his family wouldn’t appreciate help paying the hefty, if worthwhile, price tag for a Yale education. And, really, who could blame them? There are a lot of families that can pay the price, but would feel less pinched if they didn’t have to do it alone.</p>
<p>Qazqaz, I’m sorry I have no useful information for you.</p>
<p>OP, as Sikorsky intuited I missed the don’t qualify for need-based FA. Most non-school provided scholarships are only good for a year so they won’t make much of a dent. If it will be that much of a problem I hope you have other options.</p>
<p>It sounds like your parents make some money but they’re not willing to part with any of it for college? If that’s the case consider declaring yourself independant from your parents. The Yale financial aid dept will tell you how to do it. But the main thing is that your parents stop claiming you as a dependant on their tax returns. Also you might have to sit out a year. But waiting a year for Yale is better than no Yale. GL.</p>
<p>No, you can’t just declare yourself independent and whether anyone claims you on taxes is irrelevant for finaid. There are strict guidelines schools and the government set for independent status and they are tough to meet if you aren’t 24 or don’t have dependents yourself.</p>
<p>Well, the OP could just go and have a kid to improve their need-based aid situation. 
(kidding, kidding – we parents out here all know that is NOT a good financial strategy!). We have gotten quite a few interesting scholarship leads off FastWeb. But I do suspect you are past the application date for many scholarships as well. Sorry, I have no specific suggestions. You might ask your high school guidance counselor (ours keeps a list of scholarships students from our school have gotten in the past, so it is a good source of small, local scholarships).</p>
<p>Sosomenza, that’s just not correct. If it were that easy to be declare oneself independent of one’s parents, way more people would do it.</p>
<p>In order to be considered independent from one’s parents for purposes of tuition and financial aid, one must meet at least one of four conditions:</p>
<ol>
<li> be at least 24 years old; or</li>
<li> be, or have been, married, or</li>
<li> serve, or have served, in the armed forces, or</li>
<li> have been legally emancipated by a court while one was a minor.</li>
</ol>
<p>One (or one’s spouse) must also pay more than 50% of one’s own living expenses, and one must not be able to be claimed as a dependent on any other person’s income tax return. (Not being claimed is not enough. If your parents could claim you but don’t, you can’t qualify as an independent student.) So having “your parents stop claiming you as a dependant [sic] on their tax returns” is far from “the main thing.”</p>
<p>I also want to say, as the parent of a college student, that saying “It sounds like your parents make some money but they’re not willing to part with any of it for college” is jumping to a hideous conclusion. The original poster never said that his parents are unwilling to pay any, or even all, of the costs of a Yale education. As I said to Erin’s Dad, there are many families that have enough money in income-plus-savings to pay full price for private college, but would nevertheless have to sacrifice a lot to do so. I certainly don’t fault any such family for looking for ways to defray the cost of Yale. Your comment suggests that you see this matter as completely black-or-white. That would be remarkably unsophisticated of you. I’ll assume you just spoke without thinking, and would express a fuller appreciation of the matter if you had another chance.</p>
<p>(Oops! I forgot that one could have dependents of one’s own. Fortunately, intparent picked up that ball that I dropped.)</p>
<p>(cross-posted with annoyingdad and intparent, above)</p>