It is very common for two students to get different award amounts. It is very uncommon for a public school to give anyone a $30k scholarship unless they are a football player. I think your $6k scholarship is much more common
It is like trying to figure out why one student with a 36 ACT/4.0 didn’t get into Harvard and one with a 33/3.8 did.
Anthropology really isn’t that uncommon of a major. It’s quite popular.
Really, it depends on the dept whether they have money to give. Many do not. The ones that do generally give the money to top continuing students as a token award. For example my older son was given a one time award of around $1000 (not much) for being the top math student in the dept.
There is some other unknown reason likely for your friend getting that huge annual award. BTW…was in a combo of several scholarships bundled to equal $20k per year? Or was it one big scholarship with a name like Presidential that was for $20k per year.
The whole thing is rather bizarre because WWU isn’t known for giving much to anyone OOS.
Were his parents divorced or separated by any chance?
As for having blue eyed blonde parents doesn’t mean much. There are blond blue eyed Hispanics.
Many scholarships are giving out by schools are tied to the institutional mission that they are trying to achieve. The institutional mission is always a moving target because it changes from year to year.
One year they could be building up a particular department (STEM, Music, Art, education etc). The next year they could be gender balancing.
There could be additional funding because a professor brought huge grant into the school.
A donor could have given a endowed a large scholarship that could only be used for a particular thing (not unusual for schools to give scholarships with preferences from certain high schools, living in certain communities, etc).
There is no guarantee that you will get money as a zoology major vs a bio major 1) if there is no money to give, 2) if it does not align with the institutional mission the school is trying to achieve.
I think knowing the background helps answer your original question. You’re assuming the only difference was the majors, but it wasn’t. The parents were divorced. If it was a FAFSA only school, only the income of the parent he lived with most would have been counted. You didn’t see her tax returns or the application he submitted, so there’s really no way of knowing why he got more. However, I don’t think departmental scholarships are very large. I wouldn’t attribute the difference to that.
I don’t think applying for a particular major will make you eligible for significant aid. The large grants are usually merit or need based. Some colleges will reduce aid when you report the amount of your outside scholarships, so make sure you have financial safeties on your list.
I run the scholarship program for my college and there are many, many scholarships that are specific to certain majors, and some that are specific to a student’s hometown. The donor who sets up the scholarship determines the criteria. Students with lowers stats who major it less popular majors have less competition for these awards. Of course, if you change your major in the same academic year the money can be revoked.
Where I am…zoology and biology would be in the same department…as zoology is a subset of biology (with botany being the other half). I can’t thinkmthat either if these majors would garner more merit aid than another major.
Does your school give $30,000 scholarships for specific majors? If so, please let folks know what college this is…and what majors would draw this favorable aid.
Our largest scholarship is $5,000 per year for four years or $20,000. Scholarships can be stacked so more money is possible. I work for a College of Education at a large state university. Students majoring in Science Education, Math Education and Special Education are in high need and are often selected for awards open to all education majors. We have scholarships for both undergraduate and graduate students.
I can’t speak to scholarships in majors in other colleges at my university, but my understanding is that they have similar offerings.
I would suggest that you look on the websites of the schools you want to attend for grad school and see whet is offered. Many colleges and universities have scholarship portals where students can peruse the scholarships offered across the institution.
@NCSwimmom this student is looking for UNDERGRAD aid…not grad school aid. She is transferring from a community college to a four year school to complete her bachelors.
@thumper1 Thank you. I misread a post on the previous page.
My advice stands. If a school offers scholarships to transfer students AND they have all of their awards listed on a scholarship portal like Academic Works then the OP should be able to figure out what she might qualify for at the school/s she is applying to. She can also call the admissions office and ask what scholarships are available and how students apply for them.
And since she is transferring from a CC, she should,also be talking to,the transfer advisor there…who will know which schools have articulation agreements with the CC…and where aid for transfers is more probable…regardless of major.
At my D’s alma mater, there were guaranteed scholarships available for all majors, but the engineering department offered an additional guaranteed scholarship, so major definitely mattered. Major also mattered for departmental scholarships (most of which were for upperclassmen). Some departments had more money to give than others. And it really mattered once you got to grad school. Again, some departments had more to give than others.
@thumper1 I have been talking to my transfer advisor! I already have an almost full tuition scholarship to a university near me that has an articulation agreement. I’m not having any issues with my finances, i’m just curious!
@mom2collegekids I agree that it was bizarre. he originally got his financial aid letter that was offering a 6K scholarship, 5500 Stafford loan, and the rest was parent plus loans, identical to mine. This was around feb-march. In mid april he got another letter offering him an additional 24K in scholarships.
His parents are separated, but both make a substantial amount of money. Father owns 3 very successful business, mother comes from a large, wealthy family and owns the top art school in my area. Father is a literal millionare, mother makes around 400K a year, not counting all her assets and money she got from her family. Either way, he splits his time between both parents equally. He doesn’t live with one of them more. My parents make around 120K a year, my mom is a teacher and my dad works in IT.
I’m 100% certain he is white, i’ve known him since we were kids. We’ve even talked about it before, and he’s mormon, which isn’t known for having a large membership with other races.
Important life lesson; don’t count other people’s money.
You will never know why your friend got the package that he got and at the end of the day it does not affect how you are living. Move on
@sybbie719 I have moved on, that was just background info for my actual question.
YMMV in terms of IF a chosen major will net you more in scholarship money. This will vary by college…and by major.
Your background info adds nothing to the question at hand…because youmactually don’t KNOW why this other student got more aid. So really…let it go.
I’m going to stick by my initial response. Zoology or biology…I’m going to bet there would be NO difference in merit aid because both are from the same department within the college…biology.
I agree with thumper. Now there are a glut of STEM majors and many more young women in STEM. Every other potential pre-med major is majoring in some form of the biological sciences.
For you to get money in zoology which may fall under bio, life sciences or animal sciences at your school, you are going to have to have something really spectacular that sets you apart from other zoology including those already in attendance in the major.
was his parents divorced?
did he have any special hooks? disease, lost family member, etc…?
was he Legacy?
Maybe his parents are millionaires and have another connection to the school. Maybe the parents are influential or recognized by the school so they gave him lot of money.
I agree with @thumper.
One of the schools that my daughter was accepted to added an additional $3000 per year in merit money from her major… but if she switched majors ( and she did) the merit money would be taken away. This was not a major within the same dept like zoology/biology.
U Wyo has department scholarships that the department controls an then just tells the FA office who gets the credit. There are also a whole bunch of alum scholarships that are managed by the FA office but that have special requirements. Only to teachers who will teach high school math. Only to Wyo residents who are majoring in agriculture. Only to music teachers (which would be different from the music department or the educ dept).
Most of these scholarships are $2-3k, but I suppose there could be some that are full tuition (of course those would be in the specialties my daughter is not majoring in). What I like best is that the students who receive these scholarships must write thank you letters to the Alum or the family of the alum who sponsors the scholarship. It makes the student realize that some actual person donated the money.