There are very few large outside scholarships for a student that has no need. It sounds like mom is a physician?
Many outside scholarships look at “need”.
I think she should look at UT-Dallas. Very good for a premed and lots of merit.
If she wants to try for a big ticket outside award, then fine…but consider it like buying a lottery ticket…do it, but don’t give it much thought except to check later for a win. In the meantime deal with reality and find workable solutions.
@dreamsforever Rice may be a small/med-sized private, but the lower division classes, particularly for premeds are not small.
That’s something many don’t understand. They think, “oh, small private, my bio and chem classes will have 20 kids in them.” Uh no. Your bio and chem classes will be in lecture halls.
M2CK,
Most any college is going to have a few larger lecture hall type classes, likely in the intro classes. But Rice is not small-medium sized, Its small, with now about 3500 undergrads (up 36% in the past 12 years) . There will be some larger classes, but comparatively few.
The student says she doesn’t want to go to a large school because she won’t know anyone. Well…she isn’t going to know anyone at a small school.
I went to a college with 25,000 undergrads. Newsflash…I never met 25,000 other students. I met those in my major, and my friends from my dorm. A much smaller number.
There are plenty of small schools this student could likely afford with merit aid…if she intends to take the free med school offer from her parents.
I still want to know why she isn’t considering Trinity in San Antonio which is much more highly regarded than the schools she is mentioning. Trinity is the top master university in its region. This means it offers mostly bachelors programs, and limited masters programs (my kid went to Santa Clara which has been second in this ranking to Trinity For many years). They have strong programs and good record for medical school admissions.
Rice is a terrific school, but if it’s not affordable, unless the family decides to pay for undergrad instead of grad school.
I would apply to private/external scholarships and there are many that are not need based. A lot of scholarship websites have them all in one spot like FastWeb, ScholarshipOwl… but you can also apply on their sites as well. Many universities have their own list of external scholarships to apply to.
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Most any college is going to have a few larger lecture hall type classes, likely in the intro classes. But Rice is not small-medium sized, Its small, with now about 3500 undergrads (up 36% in the past 12 years) . There will be some larger classes, but comparatively few.
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Right…my point was that the OP seemed to want to avoid any large classes. I wanted her to know that that won’t likely happen anywhere except I think one LAC promises all small classes.
Even the larger schools have smaller classes once out of “intro classes”.
True-- larger schools have smaller upper level classes, but few have things like the 1:1 seminar that Williams offers. And smaller is probably a relative term. For some schools small classes may be 40, whereas for others it may be 4.
You should certainly look at a number of alternatives. Outside scholarships–yes, the big ones too, schools with merit money ( Rice has some scholarships) and also those schools you know will be affordable. You’ll see it all on the table at the end of the season, then you and your parents can decide what the best choices are.
Have you even seen any schools yet?
I think what I’m asking for in this thread has been muddled, so I just want to set the record straight. I have high hopes of attending Rice University ($40,000 a year) but have a list of many other colleges that would cost me less than $10,000 or even nothing. The scholarships I’m looking for would go towards Rice, that’s why they have to be big. If I can’t find any or don’t even get in to Rice, then Rice is a no-go. It’s that simple.
I understand that there are many schools outside of my parameters that would give me a lot of money, but I really don’t want to stray from what’s important to me. I want a school that has good science programs, is suburban/urban, has a low student/teacher ratio, and is near where I have family (Houston, Baltimore, Michigan, DC, Indiana) to get rid of Room and Board costs. I have visited Notre Dame, Rice, St. Thomas, Texas A&M, Johns Hopkins, and U of Houston, and have even sat in on classes. I don’t want to have classes that are bigger than 100 if there isn’t much teacher support. I’m not a hermit and I know I have to socialize; I attended private school until last year. The idea of going without anyone bothers me a bit, but if it’s something that I have to do, then I’ll do it.
If you can’t help me find scholarships that I qualify for, and just want to question my choices regarding college and post-college plans, then please refrain from posting on here. Any other helpful advice, like scholarship info or other schools that fit my criteria listed above, is also welcome.
Some (most?) outside scholarships will be for one year only. What happens after that?
@TempeMom I personally have found a few scholarships that are a good fit for me and are renewable. I have no problem reapplying to scholarships if I’m able to do so (I know certain ones allow it and some don’t). I hope to get a job during the school years and perhaps another during the summer, which will help contribute.
Look on Fastweb and talk to your GC about what’s out there locally. The top awards, big dollars are tough to get. My one son spent a lot of time applying, had near perfect SATs, but only got one outside award, not a big one, for one year only. But he gave it a go, and maybe with a little better luck, he’d have gotten something more.
The best awards came from his schools, so do check out schools on Commondata.com in the money section to get an idea of how many, what % of kids get awards and how big they are. Then run NPCs and look at parameters for the scholarships to gauge your chances of getting them.
The big awards are like winning the lottery- fantastic if it happens, but you can’t quit your job once you’ve bought a ticket and develop a life plan based on the remote probabilities involved.
OP- that’s why posters here are trying to be helpful to you. You think we are holding back on information which could lead you to significant scholarships, and as many folks have tried (helpfully in my opinion) to point out- the biggest money comes from schools themselves. After that, there are some significant dollars from corporate and foundation sources, but the big ones usually go to kids with financial need.
If you don’t have financial need, and are not interested in hearing about colleges which would consider you merit award worthy (i.e. big dollars) than do what every other HS kid in America does- go online, search the scholarship databases, and spend a lot of time writing applications and essays for $750, non-renewable awards. If you get enough of these- sure, it can make a dent in your bill. One of my kids won a thousand dollar scholarship- it had taken him an hour to do the application, write the personal statement, get a teacher to write a recommendation, etc- so at a thousand bucks an hour, it was a great summer job.
But this was not a plan for financing college- this was a “nice to have”. The award notification came AFTER he had committed to attending his college, so the money wouldn’t have come early enough in the process to help in the decision-making about what was affordable and what was not, and the award was for one year only, so not a good four year plan.
I know kids who invested FAR more time, and ended up with $500 from the Garden Club, $500 because they had been a Girl Scout, etc. and these awards came even later- late Spring, after the decision letters had already been mailed.
So- you may not want to hear it, but folks are trying to spare you the time and effort involved in these low level/not big effort kind of awards IF you need to know you’ve won BEFORE you commit to a college in order to afford it.
Unless you’ve got a parent who gets a tuition award from work, or is a firefighter, member of a union, member of a religious group, etc. that has funds for which you are eligible- in which case great, but you don’t need a bunch of strangers on the internet to tell you that your parents get money via their benefits package- only your parents would know that.
IRL it’s nice to say thank you to folks who try and help- even if you don’t want their help. And since I don’t know your religion, where your parents work, whether you were a Girl Scout or enjoy handicrafts, or got three 5’s on AP exams, I can’t very well direct you to scholarships for which you may be qualified. There is no secret stash of dough that people here are trying to keep away from you.
@blossom I had no intention to be rude with my previous post. I am grateful that the people who have posted on here have taken the time to answer my question. I have read every post and have looked at the information they all have presented.
I have tried to point out that I understand the biggest money comes from the schools themselves (I thought that was a no brainer). Again, I have stated that I would like info about /outside/ scholarships for a reason. I’ve already looked at the scholarships that all of the schools that I’m interested in offer and at any possible money I would get from my parents financials. And also, I did provide some basic stats in my original post, like religion, GPA, test scores, and ethnicity. No one asked for additional stats (like volunteering and interests).
Any chance of National Merit? If you’re asking for a full ride or full tuition scholarship to Rice, I doubt it will happen no matter how good a student you are.
@albert69 I think slim chances with a PSAT of 213. Commended? Probably. National Hispanic Scholar? Almost certain. I’ve been looking at Rice long enough to know I will get pennies if anything from them. I know they have merit scholarships for a couple thousand but don’t know requirements.
@Dreams4ever Depends on what state you’re in for NM, but National Hispanic Scholars get the same awards as far as I know. I’m sure you’ve had UA and OU mentioned on here, but there are other colleges that offer full-ride or full-tuition plus, they’re just not as prestigious. Maybe Northeastern?
Blossom’s post is right on target. I will add that I think you should apply to the big awards… Someone is winning them, and your chances are zilch without applying. Also apply to a number of the small awards.
My son got a small award like Blossom’s son. But so few people had applied for it that year, with the numbers dwindling each year, that the program decided to end, and they gave my son all the funds they had left which nearly tripled his award. Not that it was huge even then, but it was a nice bit to get that freshman year, and put him under what he needed to pay that year after we contributed what we said we would.
The sophomore year was rough because tuition went up 4%, upper class housing was much pricier than freshmen’s, and he did not have that outside award. He had a nice award from the school as well, but it was a fixed dollar amount and the costs had risen in a year, as they did every year.
Though, yes, there are some, and they are well known–a few minutes on Fastweb and you’ll find them, those big dollar awards for 4 years, there aren’t that many and they are lottery tickets. You go for them, and hope, but can’t count on them. THe same with the competitive big merit money at the schools when you are not one of the very top applicants, even if you ARE one of the top. So make sure you have a lot of choices in terms of cost and selectivity when you make your college list.
@albert69 I live in Texas, where last year’s cutoff was 218 I think. Prestige doesn’t matter much to me, but location does. I’d like to stay in Texas, Maryland, New York, Michigan, Indiana, and DC. I have family in these states, which would help eliminate Room and Board.