<p>Absolutely, @fallenchemist. Well said. Honestly - the middle class families are the ones most hurt by the process. The Federal government now makes it possible for families to withdraw retirement savings to pay for college without penalty (although you pay normal taxes on the amount). Add to that Parent Plus loans which are approved to the full amount of EFC regardless of the parent’s employment (one college we visited even admitted that the feds don’t check to see if the parent have a job - only checks credit rating). So all of that plays into less aid for students because parent assets that weren’t considered available for use in the past are now considered assets and resources. To compensate, parents push scholarship hunts and don’t realize it takes a LOT of scholarships at $1-2,000 a pop to overtake even most financial aid in most cases.</p>
<p>So there is a rush for scholarships but no information for new parents about what happens when they are received. Hopefully some will look here. Going in with eyes wide open is an important step. A honest “sit-down” with FA staff members during campus visits might help too.</p>
<p>One aspect of getting scholarships that we haven’t mentioned is the “resume building” it creates. Hard to say if this is worth the effort or not. But when trying for those internship slots, it does seem that having a couple of outside scholarships wins to put down might sound impressive to potential employers. Sigh, another gray area that makes it all very hard to decide. Generally speaking I think I would still come down in favor of only going after fairly decent sized scholarships, unless the small ones require very little effort to submit your name for. It is kind of silly, these days anyway, to be asked to fill out a long application and write a 500 word or more essay for $1,000 or so. That just doesn’t go very far these days.</p>
<p>@fallenchemist
Taking your approach with a twist would actually be the best approach overall. Entering competitions like the Dupont Essay Challenge would give the best of both. They build your resume while simultaneously coming with monetary awards. </p>
<p>Indeed It is for sure very complicated world today - our situation: very low income family of 7, in US for 15 years, kids are DACA, very bright students. We have our first HS Senior from one of the best HS here in San Antonio - Health Careers magnet school, so the process for applying for colleges and scholarships was completely new world for us. Knowing she doesn’t have any chance for FAFSA, just TASFA focused us on private scholarships, which do not required U.S. Citizenship. We applied for over 40 scholarships, ended so far with only 2 - I keep asking myself how much brighter and involved she has to be to get more??? I have to say very disappointed that the time, effort doesn’t equal the result. I felt that the system is so well build that except few exceptions of “full ride” (exceptional academic merit or sport scholarship and choosing the right school which is generous to offer the full ride) the rest of students is in some kind of trap - at least judging on the base of our own experience: accepted at 14 colleges in and out of TX - private universities gave her generous academic scholarship, but of course don’t get any money from state (TASFA), in public colleges she was able to receive TASFA, but not academic scholarship, because the pool of accepted students is so huge. So you are short no matter where you go, no matter how many scholarships you applied for, no matter what you do or not do… do we really expect each young person end up with over 100,000 in debt upon finishing their college studies??? to pay for it their whole life when they are just in the beginning of their life? How they can ever learned to be debt free when society doesn’t give them any other option? To me it is really wrong. I met not only low, middle class parents worried how they put their kids through the college but as well higher, well paid class… … if for society it is important to have highly educated people, why it doesn’t find the way to support them? Whoever will object that that is the role of a parent – I will argue that even if you are saving since your child was born – the dollar devaluates over the years and tuition went up significantly over the years, so you will be short no matter what. I will say: lucky those few with a full ride. The rest? get used to it, because right now there is nothing else you can do about it??? It is a pity. Sorry this isn’t any practical advice to others, just nostalgic recapitulation of facts. </p>
<p>One thing that people should find out before alerting the school is find out if the check is made out to the student. I know several local scholarships just made the check out to the student for the very reason they didn’t want any of their other aid taken away. I’m sure it’ll make the difference for some families if there are several small scholarships, that they don’t have to report to the school.</p>
<p>Per the request of sparklersm, please see corrected information in the next post - FC</p>
<p>@sparklersm “You are required to report any outside scholarships to the school’s financial aid office. If you fail to report an outside scholarship, you may be required to repay the school or the government all or part of your need-based financial aid package.” </p>
<p>Our church gives a small scholarship of $250-500 to be used specifically for books. Does that reduce any need based aid from the college? Since it can’t be applied to tuition or room and board I wonder how that would be treated?</p>
<p>@mommdc I received one of those. It was for tuition/fees/books, but since my tuition/fees are covered, it can only be used for books. Since books are part of the EFC, my college applied it to that & will give me back the funds once they get the check.</p>