HI, I’ve applied to so many scholarships, but I have not received any. I come from a family of a single parent, with a brother who had cancer and a little sister who has heart problems. My mom doesn’t have enough money to help me pay my college tuition, so I had to accept the loans the school was offering me. Does me not getting any scholarships mean, my income is too high, or is it my writing. I have a GPA of 4.0 and my family income is about $48,000 per year. I honestly don’t know what to do.
The best scholarships come directly from the colleges to,which younget accepted.
It sounds like your college choice is too cost,y? Is that correct? Do you have a way to pay your college bills?
It sounds like you are looking for need based aids or merit scholarship with a need component.
As @thumper1 said, the best scholarships in nearly all cases come from the university or college that you applied to. Finding an affordable university will depend upon a lot of factors. What you can afford, your grades and test scores, and where you applied may be the three most important factors. For single parent families, usually the non-custodial parent also needs to fill out and sign the FAFSA (assuming that the other parent is still living).
Where did you apply? Have you picked out a school but find it too costly? The cost of education is a huge factor for most students, but is more serious for some than for others. Your great grades might help, but you appear to have other offsetting issues.
How much debt total would you need to take on over four years? What is your intended major and which university are you considering?
Did you submit financial aid application forms on time?
Did you get a financial aid award at all from your college? You got the $5500 Direct Loan…anything else?
Did you get financial aid awards from any OTHER colleges that are more affordable?
How were you anticipating paying for college?
Did you apply anywhere where you would get merit aid also?
How much does your college cost? And how much more aid do you need?
If you’ve been applying for outside scholarships, many of those have a huge number of applicants so your odds of winning them are small. Your failure to win them doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with your family income or your writing. Additionally, many of those scholarships are for modest amounts and for one year only. As others have said, the best scholarships come from the schools themselves. When you say you had to accept the loans the school was offering you, are you talking about just the $5,500 federal loan or did the school offer you more? Were there Parent Plus loans in your package? Do you have enough to pay your college costs with just the $5,500 loan? The amount of federal loans you can borrow over 4 years isn’t an unreasonable amount of debt.
This is not accurate. A non-custodial parent does not complete, provide information for or sign a FAFSA.
@DadTwoGirls where did you get this information? It is NOT accurate! Only the custodial parent completes the FAFSA.
Now…if the school requires the CSS Profile…that’s a whole other story.
“if the school requires the CSS Profile…that’s a whole other story”
I probably confused the two. This entire financial aid stuff is too complex…
Um, you aren’t eligible for a scholarship until you apply.
Like why play a game if you aren’t guaranteed to win? maybe the balance could have been better, but I don’t fault anyone for trying.
If it is a school that is known for meeting full need, did you go through the financial aid appeal process? If it’s a school that has a good financial aid budget, your siblings’ medical bills should be treated as an extenuating circumstance.
What is your budget and the total amount of loans? Have you considered starting at a community college to save money?
I didn’t see where anyone discouraged the student from applying for scholarships or faulted them for trying. They asked if the failure to get them was because the income was too high or the writing was bad - chances are it was neither, it’s just that the odds aren’t great for many outside scholarships.