<p>My family is in decent financial standing, not great by any means but my parents CAN afford to pay for college. I'd be thrilled just to get into my dream school, so I doubt they'd jump at the chance to give me aid. I'm white, and don't have any really significant hooks. I want aid because while my parents can send me to college, they said they wouldn't be willing to send me to grad school unless I could get a decent amount of aid. I don't want to be stuck with a giant pile of debt after grad school, so I'm trying to find aid. Does anyone have ideas as to how I could get aid? I was thinking of applying to several small scholarships and having them build up, but I don't know how plausible that is. Any little suggestion helps, thanks!</p>
<p>What are your SAT scores or ACT scores and your GPA? Knowing that will give us a little more info. If you have the stats, you might be able to garner some merit aid to offset a portion of your college costs. Those small scholarships are a help…every penny counts and I would encourage you to apply for them…but they will likely not be big ticket amounts that will be able to defer enough parent contribution to support your graduate school studies. </p>
<p>If you have strong stats, it is very possible that you can get merit money at some school…but it might not be your dream school.</p>
<p>Being “white” is not a factor in determining need-based aid. Income and assets are. If you do not qualify for need-based aid because of your income and assets, you will not get need-based aid.</p>
<p>You are asking about merit scholarships, which are based on your academic qualifications: GPA and test scores. To get merit aid the key is to apply to schools where your qualifications put you in the very top few % of all applicants, so you may need to look at schools you have not considered before.</p>
<p>Are you asking about merit-based scholarships?</p>
<p>It sounds like you might not qualify for need-based aid.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with getting a merit scholarship so as to save money for grad/med/law school. I’m a big advocate for that if it avoids loans for grad/med/law school.</p>
<p>My own kids took big merit scholarships for undergrad because we agreed to help them with med school and grad school. </p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>Outside scholarships are often small, hard to get, have a need component and are only for one year. So, if you get a small amount, it will only reduce costs your first year. </p>
<p>If you want merit scholarships, apply to the **schools **that give them.</p>
<p>My stats aren’t terrible, but are either average or below average for where I’d like to go. My SAT is gonna end up in the low to mid 1300’s, my GPA is gonna be like a 3.4 with a massive upward trend, no amazing EC’s but I have student government senior year, 3 years in chess club, a bunch of small things. For where I want to go I’m not special, so I’m looking for mostly external scholarships. Again I don’t need my entire education paid for, I’d just like to shave a chunk off, I’d consider it a huge victory if I could save 10%. Also, does debt play a role in financial aid or is it just income?</p>
<p>Debt doesn’t play a role, and even income is pretty irrelevent for non-need based, merit-only aid – which sounds like what you want.</p>
<p>Why are you expecting for your parents to pay for graduate school anyway? Most graduate students pay for their own educations with student loans (if they go to professional school or most master’s programs), or they get fellowships (in PhD programs). It’s nice if your parents can pay for graduate school, though, and one way to get them to do that is to go to a school where you are in the top 5% of applicants and get big merit money.</p>
<p>If you’re not in the top 10% at least of the applicants to your dream school it’s unlikely you’ll get merit money. And assuming that your dream school costs an average of $30K per year it’s unlikely you’ll find an outside scholarship that will pay you $3,000 per year. You might find some one-time scholarships that give you that much.</p>
<p>Is that 1300 CR + M or is that all three sections? If it’s CR + M + W, I can’t think of any place where you would be in the top 5-10% of applicants, particularly with a 3.4 GPA. You might try Howard University - you would be eligible for their Capstone scholarship (tuition, fees, and room) if your SAT is CR + M only. If it’s all three sections - you may possibly be eligible for their Legacy scholarship, which requires an SAT CR + M of at least 1170 and is tuition, fees and room. Alabama is also known for giving OOS merit money but I don’t know what your stats have to be.</p>
<p>Personal debt is not considered for the FAFSA. I’m not sure about the CSS PROFILE, though. If you have a large amount of medical debt or something of that nature it would be</p>
<p>*My stats aren’t terrible, but are either average or below average for where I’d like to go. My SAT is gonna end up in the low to mid 1300’s, my GPA is gonna be like a 3.4 with a massive upward trend, *</p>
<p>where will you be applying? Is that your weighted GPA? keep in mind that only your first semester senior year grades are going to affect your GPA, so a half year of senior grades won’t do much against 3 years. </p>
<p>What about your back-up/safety schools? Which safety schools will you be applying? Those may have merit scholarships.</p>
<p>* For where I want to go I’m not special, so I’m looking for mostly external scholarships. *</p>
<p>Your stats aren’t likely going to get you private scholarships of any decent amount. </p>
<p>I’m not saying that you won’t get anything, but a one time $500 - 1000 scholarship for only freshman year isn’t going to make a difference for paying for grad school. </p>
<p>*Again I don’t need my entire education paid for, I’d just like to shave a chunk off, I’d consider it a huge victory if I could save 10%. *</p>
<p>It will be very hard (if not impossible) for you to get $5k per year in private scholarships. </p>
<p>*Also, does debt play a role in financial aid or is it just income? *</p>
<p>No, debt doesn’t matter. Debt from high medical bills are sometimes considered by schools.</p>
<p>Are you suggesting that your family has a lot of debt? If so, are you sure that they will pay $55k per year for the college of your choice? Have they specifically said that they will pay that much each year?</p>
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<p>Then you won’t qualify for merit aid either…you might not even get accepted at those schools.</p>
<p>You should look at schools where YOUR stats are ABOVE the 75%ile for accepted students…where YOU are near the top of the applicant pool. That is where you will have the best chance of merit aid.</p>
<p>The student is from Florida and may be applying ED to NYU and also applying to UMich and UFlorida.</p>
<p>He says he wants aid from NYU (which gives horrid aid), but with “average stats” he will likely get little or nothing from NYU. The few good packages from NYU contain merit and they are given to the top 5% of applicants.</p>
<p>He won’t get anything from UMich either. If he qualifies for Bright Futures in Florida then he’ll get money for that. </p>
<p>Anyway…his family will likely be paying full-freight to NYU or UMich if he goes to either one.</p>
<p>A 3.0 and a 1330 SAT gets $10,000 a year at LSU.</p>
<p>My son was denied merit based aid at University of Pittsburgh despite 1490 combined on SATs, 20 college credits from AP exams, and a class rank of 38/558. When challenged, the Pitt financial aid office told me that academic aid is used to “balance” their student body. They tell all applicants that everyone is evaluated for financial aid. If one would want to go there, make them tell you exactly what you would get early in the process.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>That’s the difference between “assured merit” and “competitive merit”. UPitt probably uses its merit to get kids from particular states and such.</p>
<p>Schools that give assured merit give the merit to all who have the required stats. </p>
<p>*make them tell you exactly what you would get early in the process. *</p>
<p>I doubt they’d tell you early in the process because at that point they don’t know the makeup of their applicant pool.</p>
<p>Instead, never depend on competitive merit. It’s ok to apply to some schools with competitive merit, but also apply to some schools that give assured merit. That way you know you’ve got something. :)</p>