<p>I was wondering how important your vocational plans as a requirement for scholarships is?</p>
<p>For example, a lot of scholarships I am applying to have as a requirement that "you must intend to pursue a course of study in _______ (marketing, business, biology, etc."</p>
<p>Well what if I'm interested in a lot of those fields, but not sure yet? Can I still apply? I guess what I'm really asking is do they check to see if you actually end up studying that in college? Would they take the scholarship away? Would I be wasting my time applying for these types of scholarships?</p>
<p>Also...while I'm at it...how important is financial need in scholarships that consider it? For example, would I be wasting my time applying for the Gates Millenium Scholarship if my parents make $90,000 a yr?</p>
<p>Thanks for any help!</p>
<p>you would definitely be wasting your time applying for the Gates scholarship if your parents make $90,000.</p>
<p>For scholarships where financial need is a component, it is usually suggested that if you parents make more than $50,000 -- $60,000 don't bother to apply unless you have special circumstances (six siblings, parent dying of disease and no medical insurance, etc).</p>
<p>hsmomstef: Thank you for your response, can anyone help me with the first question now. Maybe your own experiences with such a situation would help. Thanks again!</p>
<p>I have served on statewide and national scholarship committees requiring that students plan to major in a certain subject. The committee looks for evidence in the students' background that indicates a genuine interest in the subject, and that indicates the ability to major in that subject. </p>
<p>For instance, a student who says s/he plans to major in engineering, but hasn't taken advanced math, hasn't taken physics and has no science or math-related ECs isn't going to be a strong candidate for an engineering scholarship.</p>
<p>Believe me, the students who are simply trying to get money by any possible means stand out as being fakers.</p>
<p>The scholarship that I was on the committees for required students to major in the subject, too, something that students usually do in their soph years. It was a 4-year scholarship.</p>
<p>Northstarmom: Thank you for all your help. So was the scholarship taken away if in their sophomore year they did not major in that area?</p>
<p>I'm not trying to fake on my applicaitions, but I'm just trying to define my scholarhsip list that I should apply to; and am debating whether or not to apply to a couple. Thank you!</p>
<p>If they didn't major in the required subject, they would lose their scholarship. The organization sponsoring the scholarship would require proof that the recipient was majoring in the required subject. The organization's purpose in sponsoring the scholarship was to attract outstanding students to their field, not just to fund a student who'd major in something unrelated to the organization.</p>
<p>Okay, thank you so much for your help!</p>