<p>My father makes too much money to be considered for financial aid. I guess it's safe to say that, by extension, I also do not qualify for need-based scholarships. That being said, my family isn't wealthy enough to be able to drop $200,000 without financial strain. I have been told to look for academic/merit based scholarships.
Where do I even start?
Are there certain websites I should be looking for?
Certain scholarships I should be applying for?
Am I late in the scholarship race? </p>
<p>Some basic stats:
4.7 weighted GPA/3.9 unweighted (rank 12 out of 650 or so)
2240 SAT only taken once (720 Critical Reading, 750 Math, 770 Writing)
790 Math II Subject Test and 760 US History Subject Test
Currently taking 5 AP Classes (AP Physics, AP Literature, AP Calculus AB, AP Statistics, and AP Government/Economics)
Planning on majoring in Business or Economics (most likely pre-finance)
I've applied to 13 colleges:
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UCSD
Stanford
Harvard
Yale
UPenn (rejected Wharton early decision)
Notre Dame (deferred Mendoza early action)
UChicago (deferred early action)
Cornell (Dyson)
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
USC (Marshall)</p>
<p>I will most likely attend Berkeley if accepted for the Haas undergraduate program since the $35,000 a year price tag is the least daunting. Or USC (I am a NMSF most likely NMF) so if accepted, I receive a guaranteed half tuition Presidential scholarship putting the cost near UC Berkeley).</p>
<p>Yes, you’re late in the process and you have a few other obstacles. :(</p>
<p>1) Most private scholarships are for freshman year only and won’t help with the other three years. If your family expects you to get scholarships to reduce all four years of college, then you won’t likely get that. You might cobble together a couple thousand for freshman year, but that won’t do much for freshman year costs and won’t do anything for the other years. </p>
<p>2) Most are for very small amounts and won’t make a dent in a pricey school’s cost.</p>
<p>3) Many require a “need” component and you won’t qualify. Scholarship committees often want to award to students who have modest or low income families to help them cover college costs. </p>
<p>If your parents are willing to pay the thirty thou for you to go to a UC, then those can be your safeties. How much have they said that they’ll pay?</p>
<p>Since you’re a likely NMF, as you know you might get the USC merit if accepted. If your parents want to pay less than the equivalent of a UC, then you should apply to a school that will give you a greater NMF scholarship.</p>
<p>You might ask your GC about any local scholarships, but again, those will likely be for small amounts and only for freshman year.</p>
<p>So basically, I can’t rely on scholarships to soften the costs of a $60000 a year school? </p>
<p>If I don’t want my parents to spend that much/come out in huge debt, I should stick to Berkeley and USC (if granted the presidential scholarship).</p>
<p>This seems like a discussion that should have been addressed a long time ago, i.e. last September. Deadlines for applications are rapidly approaching or already past at many schools, and you have applied to a list with many schools that don’t give merit scholarships. I would give some serious thought to whether there are any others out there that are still taking applications for which your NMF might get you a large merit scholarship, but you would have to act fast.</p>
<p>I’m not interested into applying to the schools that offer large scholarships for NMF applicants (except USC).
I’m interested in the merit based scholarships that you apply for (usually not affiliated with any schools/universities).
For example, the Elks Scholarship or Coca Cola Scholarship.
However, I am looking specifically for scholarships that don’t take into consideration financial status (since I cannot qualify for need based scholarships).</p>
<p>Technically true for the Regents Scholarship, but the size of the award is based on university-determined financial need. If the student is determined to have no financial need (EFC greater than or equal to COA) then the scholarship is a fixed $2,500 per year.</p>
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<p>Most of the application deadlines for those scholarships have passed. You’re too late in the game, and they are extraordinarily competitive to begin with. Counting on private scholarships to cover any significant costs is a fool’s errand.</p>
<p>You need to sit down with your parents and discuss exactly how much your schools are going to cost, how much they are willing to pay and then figure out what kind of gap you’re talking about.</p>
<p>So you want to find general scholarships (non-school specific) that are for really smart students who may have wealthy parents and might be white?</p>
<p>Most colleges need applicant to submit application before Dec 1, in order to qualify for any scholarship consideration. USC and Penn in your list are examples. There are some smaller scholarships available in USC with deadline of Feb 1. You have to check the FA office of each of the colleges in your list to find out.</p>
<p>Note about NMSF. On another thread, poster reported NMF is rejected because of 1 C in sophomore/junior year. It is getting harder to become NMF even one doesn’t have any discipline problem.</p>
<p>@simonip,
I’m quite confident that I will be a NMF. I have above average extracurriculars, haven’t been suspended (since middle school), and have only gotten 3 B’s in all of 7 semesters of high school for a GPA of 4.7 weighted and 3.92 unweighted.</p>
<p>What I’m not so confident about is getting into the school (USC) itself. I used to think I would sail into a top notch college because I wrote excellent essays (or so I thought), got excellent grades, went above and beyond with my extracurriculars (though not ivy-caliber), and got test scores in the range of the top schools. But after getting deferred to UChicago and Notre Dame (Mendoza) and getting flat out rejected to Wharton, I have become discouraged. Although I can’t credit it to my race, I can’t help but see a correlation when my non-asian, but less qualified friends are getting into good schools and I’m sitting here with 2 deferral letters and a rejection letter hahah…</p>
<p>I just hope all my hard work pays off in the end with an acceptance letter to a good school that I can actually afford to pay for.</p>
<p>USC could be iffy for you. USC is very test crazy and your M+CR is a 1470…which is very good, but not high enough to be confident about admission. </p>
<p>2240 SAT only taken once (720 Critical Reading, 750 Math, 770 Writing)</p>
<p>I think I read that USC rejects 50% of NMF applicants. Don’t know if that’s true or not. </p>
<p>You need to sit down with your parents and ask how much they’ll pay. If they say that they’ll pay full cost, then apply to a few local scholarships and relax.</p>
<p>if your parents say that they’ll only pay $30k, then it looks like a UC is likely in your future as long as you applied to one that is a safety for you. However, from your list, it looks like you only applied to the top tier UCs. :(</p>
<p>It doesn’t look like you applied to any safeties at all. :(</p>
<p>Most of the application deadlines for those scholarships have passed. You’re too late in the game, and they are extraordinarily competitive to begin with. Counting on private scholarships to cover any significant costs is a fool’s errand.</p>
<p>Exactly. </p>
<p>And, since you don’t have “need”, you wouldn’t be eligible for many/most.</p>