<p>Hello, my son is a junior in hs with a 4.0 gpa and I have started trying to find scholarships, but I am so overwhelmed and not sure where to begin.<br>
Any advice would be great!</p>
<p>There is a lot on this board on this topic already, but here’s my advice. Look for schools in which your son’s stats are well above the 75th percentile of grades and test scores. Some schools have online calculators. Just to see what I’m talking about, go to the Baylor and Southwestern University web sites. They are very clear about what stats get you what amount of money.</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>What is your son’s SAT and/or ACT score?</p>
<p>While having a 4.0 can be part of the scholarship equation, the scores of his SAT and/or ACT will largely determine his scholarship size. The reason is this…there is a large number of kids with high GPAs, but within that group, there is a smaller group that also has high test scores. That smaller group has the best chance for big scholarships.</p>
<p>Some schools do not give merit scholarships - the ivies don’t give merit scholarships and there are others that don’t as well.</p>
<p>Some schools only give competitive scholarships - where large numbers of students compete for a limited number of awards. ECs, leadership qualities, etc, get considered along with stats for these awards.</p>
<p>Some schools award automatic scholarships - where every student who has the required stats gets the scholarship. </p>
<p>If you’re looking for scholarships, always include some schools with automatic scholarships. It’s not a good idea to only apply to schools with competitive scholarships.</p>
<p>If you want to see some automatic scholarships for various stats…use this thread…</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>Also use sites like [FastWeb</a> : Scholarships, Financial Aid, Student Loans and Colleges](<a href=“http://www.fastweb.com%5DFastWeb”>http://www.fastweb.com) to look for outside scholarships. Although the best money often comes from the colleges themselves, it’s still worthwhile to ask your son to fill out the FastWeb online questionnaire and see what comes up on the screen once he does. Of course, the money itself won’t come up. 
Your son will still have to jump through some hoops (e.g,. write essays, fill out applications) to be in the running. But look at it this way: Let’s say that he spends 20 hours total applying for these scholarships and lands even just one for $2,000. It may not make a huge dent in his overall college costs, but–even so–he’s earned 100 bucks an hour (not bad for a teenager).</p>
<p>However, do note that when a student receives need-based aid from a college and then also receives outside scholarships (such as those won through FastWeb), some financial aid offices will deduct the amount of the outside scholarship from the grant they awarded. More commonly, the amount of the outside scholarship will come off of the loan (or work/study), not the grant money, but do be warned that it can be frustrating to land a nice outside scholarship only to find that those dollars get lopped off of another one.</p>
<p>We found that many scholarships go to home schooled students who have the time to write the essays required. </p>
<p>Ease up a bit. Encourage strong grades, good friends and good extra curricular activities. These will pay off, big time, in dollars for college. </p>
<p>Know that 80% of scholarships are through the colleges. You can beat yourself to death pursuing the Target or the Cola or the whatever scholarships – do as much as you can stand. But you won’t know that your kid won the Happy College Betsy Best scholarship for superior zither playing until 1) your kid applies to Happy College and 2) is accepted and 3) has listed zither playing on his accomplishment lists and 4) has strong grades, strong SAT scores and strong letters of recommendations from his teachers/coaches. </p>
<p>Seriously. Most of the money is college based. AND what you find elsewhere may actually reduce his financial aid. </p>
<p>So, look for the scholarships that tightly fit YOUR kid. If Grandpa is a machinist with Local #436 and there is a scholarship from Local #436 for grandchildren, then, by all means apply. Read material carefully. If the Local #436 says that they give priority to kids majoring in building technology, and your kid is planning to be a music major, then it may not be worth pursuing. (Of course, if the Local president says “wow, we’d love to have Junior apply” then DO SO!)</p>
<p>I assume that 4.0 gpa is unweighted, meaning that he has had all A’s during his high school career? What was the level of difficulty of his HS courses - AP, Honors, regular college prep? You will need his SAT/ACT scores to further clarify the picture, although there are test optional colleges. How was his PSAT score?</p>
<p>I strongly agree with Missypie that if merit money is a necessity, you need to target colleges where your son’s stats will put him at or near the top of the applicant pool. You can find information on gpa, SAT ranges for colleges on Princeton Review or College Board.</p>
<p>Also, does your son have any extra curriculars that may lead to scholarships through organizations? My daughter had been in 4H for many years and received 4 scholarships as a result of the participation.</p>
<p>You will need his SAT/ACT scores to further clarify the picture, although there are test optional colleges…</p>
<p>Some on CC have said that even test optional schools ask to see scores for scholarship consideration (to determine that smaller group within the high GPA group).</p>
<p>Again, the biggest money is from colleges. If merit scholarships are important/necessary for your child to go to college, then it’s important that you assemble a list of schools that are known to give enough merit that when combined with your family’s contribution will make college affordable. If your family can contribute up to - say - $15k per year, there no point in considering $50k+ colleges that will only give $10k a year awards.</p>
<p>if merit money is a necessity, you need to target colleges where your son’s stats will put him at or near the top of the applicant pool. You can find information on gpa, SAT ranges for colleges on Princeton Review or College Board.</p>
<p>True…but if the school doesn’t give merit, then that won’t work. To me, it seemed easier to determine which schools give the best merit, and then determine if my children’s stats were in the high range. </p>
<p>And again, if merit $$ is desired, it’s a good idea to include some schools that will give assured merit for your child’s stats. It’s ok to apply for some competitive scholarships. However, if merit is needed, and your child only applies to schools with competitive merit and your child isn’t awarded any of the competitive scholarships, then you’d have a problem.</p>
<p>BTW…just being in the top quartile at a school that gives merit doesn’t mean that your child will get a lot of merit. Often, it’s the kids that are in the top 5-10% or so of a particular school will get the highest merit. That makes sense because a school can’t typically afford to award big merit to 25% of their school. </p>
<p>At my kids’ university, there are 5,000 freshman. According to the school’s factbook, about 400 have full tuition merit scholarships. That’s about the top 8% at the school.</p>
<p>iluvmysons my son and i did alot of research into the type of schools he was interested in ie large, small, public, private etc that offered the programs he wanted etc. used websites, books like fiske/princeton review, “a&b’s of academic scholarships”, college websites. we looked for rolling admission schools and schools with guaranteed merit based on his stats as well as (as mentioned above) schools where his stats put him in the high end of students attending. don’t expect much merit aid if he falls in the middle of the pack or if the school tends to have high stats generally
his stats were an act of 33 and wgpa of 4.18 not a nmf and school doesnt rank
by novemeber we had 9 acceptances back. at all of the schools he got merit scholarships from 20K per year to full ride . (we are still waiting on some rd schools)
i think applying as early as you can for the rolling schools that offer merit aid based on stats is a good strategy… some of these schools have priority deadlines for merit aid and you want to be ahead of the onslaught of applications.
he applied for both instate schools and oos. most ended up being large schools but he did apply to 2 lac’s.</p>
<p>if your son is a science guy like mine and you want to know the schools or amount of scholarship he got, you can pm me if you like, have no idea what schools would be good choices for arts type programs</p>
<p>Most large scholarships are awarded directly by the school he would attend. He is most likely to get a good award at a school where he would lie in the top 25% of applicants. Standardized tests (SATs and ACTs) are also usually a component of that.</p>
<p>What I didn’t understand early on was the importance of figuring out your EFC before you even start looking for scholarships.</p>
<p>If your student is likely to be eligible for a lot of needs-based aid, you should focus your energies on getting him into the most generous needs based schools, particularly the ones that purport to meet “full-need” and are “no-loan or low loan”. </p>
<p>If your student has a high EFC and won’t be eligible for much aid, then you should focus your energies on an entirely different group of schools looking specifically for those that offer merit (also known as non-need aid). Within that group of schools you will want to aim for schools where his SAT scores are in the top 25% range or schools for which his SAT scores and grades will give him an automatic scholarship.</p>
<p>It is trickier if you fall into the middle (as I would guess the majority of families do). Say you have an expected family contribution of $25,000, but the total cost of attendence is $45,000. A merit award of $15,000 might bring that COA down to $30,000, which may or may not have any benefit to your student. If the school tends to fulfill financial aid through loans, then yes, the award could be helpful as it might lower the number of loans. If the school fulfills financial aid through grants, then it won’t make any difference at all to the bottom line. The school will simply replace the grant with the merit award. Regardless your EFC will still be $25,000. </p>
<p>I think the issue of merit aid and how it does or more likely does not affect the EFC is one of the most confusing aspects for families. And yet, it is impossible to craft an appropriate list of schools without having a good understanding of that number. And to make matters even more difficult, the private schools use their own institutional methodologies (which I like to call their black box) and a student doesn’t know up front how they will calculate the EFC. If you are lucky, the school will have an on-line calculator, but I must say, I have been dismayed to see how little information some schools will offer.</p>
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<p>This is an important point. There are some national, large money scholarships–Coca Cola, etc. but they are VERY competitive and not really in the realm of possibility for most kids applying to college. These require lots more than good grades and test scores.</p>
<p>There may be some local area scholarships that are quite wonderful–The Buck Scholarship for students who live in certain areas of Northern California is one example–all tuition, room, board, books, some travel expenses. YOu’ll have to see if your local area has something like that.</p>
<p>The other place to get scholarships are the local ones given by service groups, etc. to (mostly) seniors at the end of senior year–you know, the Elks Club, Rotary Club, etc. They usually aren’t a lot of money, but if you can win a few of them, you can pay for books for a few semesters. At our school, the bulk of the big money of these scholarships often go to “story” kids–kids who have a story of overcoming obstacles or who have done something quite remarkable in the service arena.</p>
<p>Be savvy. Know that some scholarships are already “taken” before your kid even puts a stamp on the envelope. They are closely chaired by folks that already have a winner in mind. Don’t waste your time on those. </p>
<p>Don’t waste time on long shots. If the scholarship says “for girls in engineering” there is not a chance in heck that your male in phys ed has a hope. If it is not a strong fit, look elsewhere. </p>
<p>Honestly, do look but understand that there is real money down different paths – make sure you read a How to pay for college book like the one by Khany. </p>
<p>Sometimes moms think they should plan to go back to work to pay for college and it may be (depending on your situation) it might actually be smarter to cut back on work hours NOW so that you qualify for more financial aid (to know this, you have to understand the CALENDAR by which your first year of fin aid will be based. Usually the January-December that starts in the January of your child’s junior year. (A lot earlier than people realize). </p>
<p>Don’t spend a million years on scholarship hunts without first understanding college financial aid. Then you will be able to target the scholarship that is worth the effort of the time required to apply.</p>
<p>If your student is likely to be eligible for a lot of needs-based aid, you should focus your energies on getting him into the most generous needs based schools, particularly the ones that purport to meet “full-need” and are “no-loan or low loan”.</p>
<p>Yes, but since schools that typically meet “full need” with little or not loans are typically very hard to get accepted to, even if your child has high stats, your child should ALSO apply to some schools that give assured huge merit (like full tuition, plus) as a “back up,” so that your child will still have options if none of the full-need schools work out. </p>
<p>If your student has a high EFC and won’t be eligible for much aid, then you should focus your energies on an entirely different group of schools looking specifically for those that offer merit (also known as non-need aid). Within that group of schools you will want to aim for schools where his SAT scores are in the top 25% range or schools for which his SAT scores and grades will give him an automatic scholarship.</p>
<p>True, and if your student needs a big merit scholarship (like 50% of tuition or or more), aim for schools where his SAT or ACT are in the upper end of that 25% range.</p>
<p>It is trickier if you fall into the middle (as I would guess the majority of families do). Say you have an expected family contribution of $25,000, but the total cost of attendance is $45,000. A merit award of $15,000 might bring that COA down to $30,000, which may or may not have any benefit to your student. If the school tends to fulfill financial aid through loans, then yes, the award could be helpful as it might lower the number of loans. If the school fulfills financial aid through grants, then it won’t make any difference at all to the bottom line. The school will simply replace the grant with the merit award. Regardless your EFC will still be $25,000.</p>
<p>Very true… and, if your EFC is unaffordable, then you need a different strategy. For instance if your EFC is - say $25,000 - then it’s better to apply to some schools that cost less than $25k and/or apply to some schools that will provide enough merit that once subtracted from the COA the balance is an affordable amount.</p>
<p>Don’t waste time on long shots.</p>
<p>Very true! Especially if the outside scholarships are for one year only. </p>
<p>Sometimes moms think they should plan to go back to work to pay for college and it may be (depending on your situation) it might actually be smarter to cut back on work hours NOW so that you qualify for more financial aid</p>
<p>Unless your child is going to likely be accepted to a school that meets 100% with no or very small loans, I don’t think this strategy really gains a person much. Getting a lower EFC doesn’t help much if your child’s schools typically put big loans or gaps in them.</p>
<p>Obviously there are many different situations…situations with high unaffordable EFCs, situations where students’ stats aren’t high enough for merit, situations where NCPs income will count but won’t pay, etc… A different strategy is needed for each situation.</p>
<p>I’d like to tell my experience. My daughter just received a full 4 yr scholarship to Ithaca college as a Park Scholar in the Park School of Communications. (We are thrilled). We had alot of need, we also have a daughter who is 4.0 ACT 29/ strong in journalism and passionate about community service. </p>
<p>I would advise looking on the college websites of the college or university that your child in interested in attending. There are many scholarships offered and one may fit your child. I found the Park Scholar Award about two yrs ago. When I read it, it seemed perfect for my daughter. It does take some work, additional essays, recommendations etc. These scholarships are competetive. (400 applied- 28 interviewed 14 awards given). She also applied to a scholarship at BU, which she did not get but got a very nice package. AND got into Newhouse with a 36,000 grant, so she had options. (of course she is going to Ithaca).
SHe got amazing grants because of the combination of need and her acedemics.</p>
<p>My D also applied to outside scholarships- SHe received 4,000 from the ELKS (1,000 per yr) but I think that now gets absorbed by Ithaca.
SO- Check out those College sites.</p>
<p>Best to you. I’m so happy…No bills. we feel blessed.</p>
<p>PS to above- THe Park Scholarship is solely merit and leadership based. Need is not a consideration.</p>