<p>(Hello again!)</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, I am in the same position as you also. UT is horribly stingy with money. My freshman year I got a $500 scholarship from some random UT scholarship that I am pretty sure I never applied for. Needless to say it was virtually useless. I am instate tuition, and my entire financial aid package consists of a unsubsidized Stafford loan. I applied for financial aid and UT’s scholarships. I didn’t get any scholarships since 99.9% of them are also need-based, of which my EFC claims I am not (even though I am).</p>
<p>One thing that will improve next year, is that your individual school (McCombs/Business, Engineering, Natural Sciences, etc) will possibly give you a scholarship. Some are fully merit based, and sometimes your department (e.g. accounting department in McCombs) will also give scholarships to the top % of students based on GPA and course difficulty. I’m still waiting to hear back from McCombs (I’ll know in mid august) to see if I got anything from my freshman year. At this point even that $500 would look pretty good.</p>
<p>I have been looking for external sources of money, but I haven’t come up with much. My 529 account will run dry after this year after paying the remaining tuition not covered by the loan and then the housing bill. Most scholarships either require you to demonstrate financial need, or else the odds of winning even $1000 are at least a million to one.</p>