<p>Original poster didn’t mention total costs so I’m assuming full-pay private and getting to $50K with small scholarships that many others are competing for is a daunting task.</p>
<p>Daunting indeed! :-)</p>
<p>Those little scholarships are a lot of work. My daughter applied for about four and won zero. I was grateful that I had not insisted she apply for more.</p>
<p>By the time DD started filling out those scholarship applications, she was what I would call fried from the college application process. If you still think you want to go for it, labelness, I did do several things to help my daughter. I helped with the research and printed out the requirements. I put the requirements in a manilla folder with deadlines and other things needed written on the outside of the folder and put them in the order of the due date. I asked her to do one a week.</p>
<p>I also poached the local public and private schools’ (we have 13 high schools in our county) guidance pages that weren’t password protected and looked up their scholarships. I did buy one of those scholarship books (How I went to Harvard for almost free–or something like that), but when I saw the book’s author, he looked as though he may have had a hook if you get my drift. </p>
<p>In the end, DD was awarded full tuition and a National Merit Scholar award from DH’s company. It is definitely the path of least resistance. And if DD had chosen to go to either of the $$$ schools she liked, we would have had her look into the SMART scholarship program during her first year of college or some of the other government programs that have government service pay-back options. Good luck!</p>
<p>There are also the thank-you notes or letters to write if you are successful.</p>
<p>^^Yes, indeed. DD used her NM money to buy a new laptop this week and she has the address in her room.</p>
<p>All three of my kids have had outside scholarships, local and state based. Although D1 got the Byrd scholarship, which is federal but state administered I believe? Some they had to apply for, others just granted.</p>
<p>Anyway, they have been a big help. D1 got 7 or 8 outside scholarships for her freshman yr. (the most in her class) and 5 were for all four years.</p>
<p>I estimate (trying to remember info from 2004 to present) that outside scholarships saved us $80,000-$90,000.</p>
<p>Many of the scholarships stipulated that it could NOT result in a reduction in financial aid-in whatever form. In other words, if the school was going to require that you pay $10,000 and there was a $1000 scholarship, now you have to pay $9,000.</p>
<p>I just paid tuition yesterday for D2. I subtracted her scholarship dollars off and paid that amount.</p>
<p>There is absolutely NO reason to get a scholarship if it is not going to benefit the student and/or student’s family. The STUDENT earned it. If it is only going to benefit the college, I would suggest declining the scholarship.</p>
<p>WOW…that’s all I can say.</p>
<p>There were some kids at our local high school who were awarded substantial local scholarships. They were often “story” kids–kids who had overcome great adversity (not always financial) and/or were involved with some great and unique community service…the kind of kids you could write a long article about in the local newspaper. </p>
<p>Just being good at school work and involved in ECs isn’t enough to get a large amount of these scholarships…</p>
<p>Plus–these kids spent LOTS of time on scholarship applications. They were motivated!</p>