(Actually El Ed is also incredibly time consuming. Let’s try Marketing or Intl Relations? The point remains that not all are created equal.)
This is a good reason why students and parents should be searching out scholarship opportunities where ever they may be. My daughter has been on the Dean’s List almost every semester (she currently has a 3.9 GPA.) but my son…well, not so much. But he’s a great writer. We’ve looked for scholarships where he can use that skill. You’d be surprised at the smaller scholarships that don’t have GPA requirements, period–like this one that’s available from a local business here in our community. https://www.axcontrol.com/scholarship
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Never assume this! At my university, the dean’s list is an academic honor. It is nothing other than a note on the transcript. It is for students who maintain a 3.5 or above GPA. There isn’t even a physical list. It is just a note. While a 3.2 GPA is the minimum for keeping the presidential automatic scholarships at my university, keeping above a 3.5 gives you nothing. Do work hard to make a high GPA, and if you do find yourself on the dean’s list, that’s great, but don’t expect anything in return. It can help you to receive outside aid and potentially jobs and internships. Also, a 3.5 GPA is enough to graduate cum laude at my university, so if you’re looking to graduate with honors, that may be something as well.
“I have heard of small rare scholarships given to current high achieving college students.”
I have heard of this also, but at a school that is not in the US. Also the amounts have been small. When your child is at a school that was already affordable it is nice to get an additional $1,000 off one time spread over a year’s tuition. No one should count on it.
I expect that this issue will probably come up in future threads, and it is useful for many of us to be aware of some of the misperceptions that some people come in with.
Regarding the easy/hard majors: I overheard a conversation while standing in line for a event at my daughter’s graduation. A woman complained that her daughter, a math major, would have graduated summa rather than magna if she had not been forced to take those humanities courses. It’s all relative.
I am just wondering if people are aware that the ivies and Stanford meet 100 percent of need and give FREE tuition to any family making under 200k. I think this is amazing! But of course … the big IF is you first have to get in.
You should also discourage them from applying to 50 schools…what a waste of money! I get that this is a challenging process, but most kids should be able to determine a reasonable list of schools that they would consider attending. Even if it is free to apply, that is so unfair to the schools to apply to schools you have no real interest in. I made my DS21 and DD21 pay for their own applications…told them Freshman year that if I had to pay for their college they would have to pay for their own applications 
They saved money from birthdays and summer/seasonal jobs and each had about $700. That translated to 10 schools for my DD and 8 schools for my DS. You should have seen them wince every time they hit submit payment for the charge to their debit card …LOL! Welcome to the real world, kiddo — it’s called paying the bills
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Old thread. Closing.