Financial Aid for Summer Programs

Hi everyone,
I was accepted to the YYGS (Yale Young Global Scholars Program), but the program fee is quite hefty, and my family can’t afford it on our own. I wasn’t offered much financial aid, and definitely still need help fundraising for the rest. I’ve tried making a crowdsourcing webpage, asking local businesses, friends & family, but no luck. All the scholarships I find are for students applying to post secondary programs, but since I’m still in high school I can’t find any useful scholarships.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions for how to fundraise for a summer program while you’re still in high school please let me know!!!

I don’t know what to tell you for this summer but there are summer programs with generous financial aid, for example Brown - if your family is low income. There are also inexpensive programs, like temple engineering for women, and free but very competitive ones like tasp.

Get a job this summer and apply again for next summer?

P.S.: Smith college’s ssep is also supposed to be generous with financial aid, and possibly Carnegie Mellon’s as well.

Thanks for the help, but this is my last opportunity to go to this program. Any ideas of how to fundraise? (I will be getting a job as well)

Grandparents? Aunts and Uncles?

I try and look at the price tag before I make an emotional investment.
Saves lots of heartbreak down the line.

^^This @canuckgirl

When you applied, how did you plan to pay for it if accepted?

If you can’t find a job now, then I think you are out of luck. I know it doesn’t seem fair, but I think you just may have to accept that you will not be able to go. My S was accepted to the Johns Hopkins CTY program but unable to attend any of the overnight stuff they offered, I just could not afford to pay all that money for one or two weeks of a specilized program, as incredible as they were, when I still had to pay for summer camp for S and his sister. Life really stinks sometimes.

Do they have an installment plan? I’m not sure when this program starts but if you’re getting a job you might be able to pay for it in installments over the course of the summer.

Just thought of this –

Are there any alumnae (alumnuses? alumneese?) of the program or of Yale that you know or can get access to? They might be more willing to donate to it because they see it as valuable. You’re right that scholarships are more common for college because everyone knows about college and why it’s valuable; the value of summer programs is less known.

Seems like you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. My advice would be to reapply next year along with partner scholarships. I am going to Brown this summer for free due to a merit scholarship I won; however, I knew the only way that I was going was with this money! Maybe get a job this summer with the mindset that money can be used for your next summer -or maybe it will make you realize that this program is not essential. Either way, I empathize with your predicament.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I think I need to clarify my situation, I have already accepted the program fee, and in response to @Madison85 I was expecting financial aid considering I expressed a great need for financial aid in my application. I will be using money from my college fund (which absolutely sucks) and was wondering if anyone knew of any scholarships or organizations that offer money to help me pay for this.

How much was in the College fund?

http://globalscholars.yale.edu/apply/tuition

That IS quite hefty - over $5000 for each of up to three 2-week sessions, excluding travel.

Neither of my kids did anything very academic summers.
They both were accepted to all their choices.
If you want to do something academic, I bet you could cobble something closer to home for less money.
I don’t think using money designated for college, for summer programs in high school, is a wise use of that money, unless you are getting college credit, that you know, your college will accept.

I’m sorry that it sounds like you already paid the non refundable down payment of $2,500.
That is a lot of money. It does sound like you will have to use your college fund.
Did your parents approve this?
Maybe they have a way to put it back in your college fund, if they gave the go ahead to make the deposit.

Instead of giving students a guide to getting money from family and friends, why don’t they lower the tuition?
My daughter went to India and stayed several months, then traveled through the UK during her gap year for that kind of money.
I hope it works out for you.

Most summer programs are income generators for their colleges. It was really hard for me to make a list of those that offered significant FA for my own daughter. I found only a handful. Yale was one we looked at and dropped for that reason.

Best of luck.

@emeraldkity4 My parents were ok with using this money, but I’d still like to pay back as much as I can in order to help out. Hence why I started this thread. I was wondering if anyone had any fundraising ideas or suggestions.
And yes I completely agree, the tuition is quite hefty, but hopefully the experience will be worth it.
Thanks for the feedback.

I hope it works out for you. Generally these programs are money generators for college, and not particularly impressive for admissions.

This program is very expensive. If you don’t have funds you might want to reconsider attending this program. I am not sure that attending this program will give you a boost in college admissions.