<p>What's your process for finding and selecting a scholarship to apply for?</p>
<p>I started online (Google) and search for any scholarship keyword I can think of. Most of the time it's junk, but this brings up a good amount of scholarships that might apply. I also hit up my career center / counselor and the local university.</p>
<p>how about trying websites like fastweb.com? I think they do a pretty good job of sifting through the junk for you.</p>
<p>Well-known national scholarship competitions that I had actually known or heard of winners, or seen them on the website, like Coca-Cola Scholars or the Gates Millennium program. I also used the Fatomei website: [Nationally</a> Coveted College Scholarships & Graduate Fellowships](<a href=“Site Map: Nationally Coveted College Scholarships and Graduate Fellowships”>Nationally Coveted College Scholarships and Graduate Fellowships)</p>
<p>I disagree heartily that Fastweb.com does a good job of sifting through the junk. Fastweb.com is a business and operates by shoving advertisements at you, so in between getting e-mails and messages about lots of scholarships that you’re not even eligible for, you’ll get somewhat unrelated advertisements asking you to sign up for online universities, the military, and magazine subscriptions. It isn’t bad in identifying scholarships that you ARE eligible for, though. Fastweb also sends you a lot of little scholarships for like $500-2000, which of course help but when you’re facing a $30,000 bill it’s not really a lot.</p>
<p>Honestly, I relied on my counselors a lot, and used my high school’s resource room to look for scholarships. Also, I applied to colleges with large institutional scholarships that I knew I would be competitive for - like if I knew I was ranking in the top 5-10% of applicants as far as SAT scores and GPA goes, I applied to a couple of those schools. I got several very large scholarships that way – as a matter of fact, every school I applied to except one (Emory) offered me scholarships that would cover the cost of at least their tuition, and I ended up going to a solid college that gave me a “full ride.”</p>
<p>The odds on winning national scholarships like the Coca Cola are ridiculous; I think I once heard that something like 10,000 students apply for 250 scholarships. Unless you think you have a fabulous chance of winning, don’t waste your time. </p>
<p>You have to be very focused; a scattershot approach is going to cost you alot of time which should be spent on school work and college apps, with little chance of a payoff. The more local the scholarship, and the more specific, the better your chances. Check with your GC and ask for info on local or regional scholarships geared toward your talents/interests.</p>
<p>But even better, forget the nickel-and-dime scholarships that you find on fastweb. Go where the money is, which is the schools themselves. More than 95% of all scholarship money awarded each year comes directly from the schools. Rather than pouring time and effort into essays and interviews which might get you a few hundred bucks, work on finding the schools that are known for being generous with merit money. And then do whatever it takes to make yourself attractive to them.</p>
<p>Given D’s experience, I’ll second what LasMa said.</p>
<p>I third the advice to focus on colleges that are known for providing a lot of merit aid. Look for colleges where you rank near the top of applicants and that give out generous full or near-full scholarships (or even half or 3/4 tuition if those are sufficient for your needs) and apply there. Those are the best bets rather than the outside scholarships.</p>
<p>I recommended Coca-Cola Scholars because I actually knew a few people who had one the scholarship; plus, large national scholarships are more likely to provide substantial amounts of money. Obviously, if you are an average or below-average student you likely shouldn’t apply because it would be more or less a waste of time.</p>
<p>Also, don’t discount your state’s scholarships for public universities. Georgia has the HOPE scholarship, for example, which provides 100% of the tuition and fees costs for public universities in GA, and $3,000 for private ones, for GA high school graduates with over a 3.0 GPA. That’s an exceptional value to attend a university like University of Georgia or Georgia Tech. The state of GA also has some other types of scholarship programs, such as the Tuition Equalization Grant (which is an extra $1,000 on top of HOPE to students who go to private schools), service-cancelable loans to students who intend to enter allied health fields, scholarships for future teachers, and small scholarships for valedictorians and salutatorians (every val, sal, and STAR student - the student with the highest SAT score at their high school in the top 10% - gets a $900 renewable scholarship in GA!).</p>
<p>Your state (if you are in the U.S.) likely has a website with this information centralized on it (in GA it is GA411.org); Google like mad and find that website, and then scour it to see if you are eligible for any of that money. I know that Florida has Bright Futures, which also includes programs for future teachers, first-generation college students, and disabled/deceased servicemembers.</p>