I swear there are no scholarships for me.

<p>To ava and novice and russ,</p>

<p>Guys, there's nothing to defend. It not being lazy.. it's choices. </p>

<p>Everybody's busy that wants to go college on if they aren't extremely wealthy. Nobody gets a free pass senior year, even mine. </p>

<p>You have to compete for money from others. You have to give them a reason to give it to you. That involves work 99% of the time, extra work. I'm sure everyone here is a good kid and works hard. However, you're not alone. You have to decide what is important and what's not for you. </p>

<p>Russ, I am you twice. Same mo, same type of kids. Parents do some preliminary help, but the kids still have to write the essays. Plugging in data like addressess and class schedules certainly can be by a "team" approach. However, the kid still has to write the essays NO? you're not doing that are you? </p>

<p>My D applied to 12 schools, dozens of scholarships and not once were we able to use an essay twice. One college actually required 6 separate essays. If you want to get there or go there, you have to do the work. </p>

<p>I know I sound mean, and I'm truly sorry. However, I'm not wrong either, am I?</p>

<p>Hey somebody owes me a bit of an I'm sorry. NOT once did I call anybody lazy. not one time. I acknowledged the too busy as a choice of A over B, how you get lazy out of that????? Choice does not mean or imply lazy. It means a choice is made.</p>

<p>^^Nobody has been overtly hostile. These are just simple arguments, nobody needs to apologize. </p>

<p>If you kept reading ava's posts, she says:</p>

<p>"I stated in my original post that I am applying to them. In fact, I already have applied to several. I'm a Coca Cola semifinalist for example, and if you saw that application you'd know that I certainly did have to put a lot of work into it. It's a bit on the lengthy side. I'm just not comfortable depending on national scholarships to come through as they are extremely hard to win as you're really up against the best."</p>

<p>I think she realizes that these scholarships require work. The point of this thread was to point out that scholarships can be hard to come by when you are middle class and a hard-working student and she was trying to find some other types of scholarships that can be offered that are easier to come by and complete.</p>

<p>I really see no problem with this. Everybody knows that money requires work, no matter what you have to do to get it, so let's stop criticizing someone who is only trying to find a more convenient way.</p>

<p>opie....my son writes his own essays. I spend time searching the internet for scholarships, calling local employers, calling lots of other people to find scholarships,searching thru many scholarship books and I have been very successful in that method. After I find a scholarship, then, if it requires an essay, my son does it, not me. But searching for the scholarships takes tons of work. We have probably actually applied for around 50 + scholarships so far, some national, some local, some state.</p>

<p>"Russ, I am you twice. Same mo, same type of kids. Parents do some preliminary help, but the kids still have to write the essays. Plugging in data like addressess and class schedules certainly can be by a "team" approach"</p>

<p>Just incase you missed this part. I did the same thing. I was the scout who brought information back.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Just out of curiousity - what were the scholarships that you won/got an honorable mention?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>American Foreign Service Association essay contest (top 25) and that Elder and Leemaur publishing one (top 3%). The national trip one was the AAA Travel Challenge, in which I won state (but then got creamed at nationals lol).</p>

<p>I'm really sorry to keep this arguement going, as it is somewhat pointless but...</p>

<p>"Not really because you already implied you don't want to work on them just before you complained about being at an disadvantage. What's the point? You're far too busy.</p>

<p>I mean, don't people understand that? You might have to spend 20 hours on a $1,000 scholarship (too small to bother?) doing work for it. And what does that mean?? It means you made $50 bucks an hour. Get that shoveling fries... Are you sure you should be considering a school that is going to cost 30k a year?"</p>

<p>No... you didn't implicity call me lazy. Not once. I'm sorry.</p>

<p>You are not the ONLY person who has a life. You have to make the EFFORT to look for scholarships. Instead of whining and typing your super-long posts, why don't you try to find some scholarships on fastweb, or go to your career center at your high school (or find another bulletin). </p>

<p>If you don't have time to write an essay, then that's your problem. That just shows that you really don't want it that badly. I am willing to write those essays, in fact I just did last month for a scholarship on top of all of my other activites. </p>

<p>So don't write that you can't find ANY scholarships, because that's the reason why billions of dollars go to waste. People think that there aren't any scholarships for them, so they don't make the effort, and all of the money goes untouched.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.fastweb.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.fastweb.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>why does every call for help/understanding on this board turn into a personal attack?
it seems that on cc, if you're not the a total type A, never slept in hs because you were too busy with schools, ec, work, volunteerin etc, Sats, etc. on the admissions related boards, you're not going anywhere but community college and here, it appears that if you say you have other concerns in life besides finding scholarships and so want to find the ones most suitable for your busy middle class situation, you are a waste of life who doesn't deserve money and should be made to feel guilty accordingly.</p>

<p>Ok so my post is a little rude <em>blush</em>..I apologize. It just makes me mad that people can sit there and write that they can't find a SINGLE scholarship, when there are MILLIONS of them floating on the internet.</p>

<p>wow that's such (insert expletive here)
she wasn't saying she couldn't find any scholarships, she just wanted to know of some that would be tailored for someone in her situation, as many scholarships exclude people based on some criteria and others are looking for people in a specific situation
yeah, somehow she spared maybe 5 minutes of her time and probably regrets it too. sometimes asking ohers for help is not a sign of weakness or lack of resolve. maybe if some people took an extra 30 seconds of their precious time, they wouldn't leap to conclusions and actually offer helpful advice. but i forgot, no one is deserving who won't commit their lives totally to a cause, whether it's finding scholarships, getting into college, doing well in school, or discussing financial aid. o darn- most people have to balance all of these things. maybe it's not about putting other people down because they dare spare a minute to share their concerns. just because they decry the lack of opportunities appropriate for them doesn't mean they feel that difficult time consuming national scholarships, scholarships targeted twoards low-income or minority students, etc are bad or shouldn't be offered, it just means she's looking to make the most efficient use of her time.</p>

<p>^^ Well said!!</p>

<p>Let's get to what her original question was:
"Does anyone have any suggestions on places other than fastweb to find scholarships that are actually somewhat attainable?"</p>

<p>So, obviously, she IS looking on fastweb, and she IS looking for scholarships. No harm in asking where else she should look.</p>

<p>A few hours' work for a 1 in 300 chance of getting $1000 doesn't seem very cost effective to me. When I was in high school, I won a national merit scholarship, which was $2000. At the time, it seemed awesome. But in hindsight . . . a drop in the bucket. At least they cut out most applicatants with the qualifying test, so by the time you wrote an essay, you had a decent shot . . . maybe one in five.</p>

<p>What I would suggest is that you get off the beaten path. Don't do anything illegal or dishonest, but there are a lot of opportunities to make money out there. If you try and fail, you will gain invaluable experience.</p>

<p>My thoughts on "millions of dollars in scholarships go unclaimed"....</p>

<p>They go unclaimed because of the strict requirements that only 1 in 400,000 would meet. It's strange how someone who has funds to give away to college bound people would insist that you be desended from some obscure celtic tribe, a product of a veteran of war, extremely poor or unbelieveably smart and be able to write a 10 page essay on the effects of global warming without offending anyone. </p>

<p>Good grief people....I have come to the conclusion that some organizations just want to claim that they have huge scholarships available but in reality they don't really want to give it away. </p>

<p>I think giving away the money in a lottery system would be better odds for the majority of people searching for scholarships. AND I'm sick of hearing about fastweb.....totally useless for the masses of "plain" folks.</p>

<p>"would insist that you be desended from some obscure celtic tribe, a product of a veteran of war, extremely poor or unbelieveably smart and be able to write a 10 page essay on the effects of global warming without offending anyone. "</p>

<p>Please give an example of that kind of scholarship that goes unclaimed.</p>

<p>I have seen scholarships that were designated for people going to a specific college and who also had a certain uncommon last name and resided in a specific small town. Presumably, such scholarships were established by people with that last name who lived in that small town and went to that college, so one could understand that they were hoping to support descendants who were following in their footsteps.</p>

<p>It's not as if people establish scholarships with narrow criteria in hopes of never being able to support any students. The donors simply want to use their money to support students meeting the things that the donors think are important.</p>

<p>ava78, I know what you mean. I just went through a book of 100 local scholarships. Nearly 95% were based on financial need, which we won't qualify for. Many of the others required nomination by the school and the school always nominates the same kids for these. Many others had very obscure requirements, which we don't meet, so none of the 100 worked for us. National scholarships are very tough and many of them seem to be administered by the same corporation so it seems that the same students get selected for those. In total, my children have applied for about 30 scholarships and have received $0. My suggestion to them has been apply any way, but don't spend a tremendous amount of time since the chance of pay-off is minimal. The best alternative is to apply to schools that offer merit money, where you are likely to be near the top of the applicant pool. Good luck to you - I hope you have some luck in this area.</p>

<p>"I swear there are no scholarships for me"...I sympathise with you (we're in the same boat--make too much to qualify on need, but budget reality doesn't produce as much EFC as the government suggests it should. Also too white, career choice does not lend itself to Big $$$ on the specialty scholarships(education...former teachers put $100 in the scholarship endowment, not $1000K!) We have found a 1/2 dozen small scholarships that she is eligible for, as well as a couple of larger nationals. She did the work on the large ones and is waiting. But she also finds it's hard to psychologically justify finding the time to work for the small drops-in-the-bucket. We found that breaking down expenses and identifying exactly what the small scholarship would pay for helped immensely as a realistic incentive. Example: a local $500 scholarship that required a couple of hours of work for application & essay...husband pointed out local ad for a $500 laptop (and did the math for how many hours she'd have to work at minimum wage this summer to pay for it.) With that in mind--that the scholarship was worth a new laptop--D found it easier to find time & adjust priorities.</p>

<p>"Please give me an example of that kind of scholarship that goes unclaimed"</p>

<p>I don't know which ones go unclaimed, by the looks of the requirements of many I would say a tremendous amount go unclaimed.....I just know that is what posters were saying in this thread and I've heard it said for years... 'millions of dollars is scholarships go unclaimed each year'. </p>

<p>I'm certain that you are right that donors don't want to NOT give the scholarship away and it's their preogative to set the criteria.</p>

<p>All I'm asking, and I would assume the originator of this thread is asking, is where are the scholarships for just plain people......middle income, smart but not national merit smart, with no distinctive family background? I have looked for almost a year and did apply to the few that were in my reach apparently along with several thousand others.</p>

<p>I have two thoughts on that....either they aren't marketing their scholarship well enough for people to know it's out there OR they are making it sooo hard that no one can qualify for it.</p>

<p>"husband pointed out local ad for a $500 laptop (and did the math for how many hours she'd have to work at minimum wage this summer to pay for it.) With that in mind--that the scholarship was worth a new laptop--D found it easier to find time & adjust priorities." </p>

<p>A different way to say what I did eariler. Let's see if it gets the same reaction?</p>

<p>"Please give me an example of that kind of scholarship that goes unclaimed</p>

<p>We had a local libarary scholarship that disallowed students above 3.5 to apply. Two $500 scholarships that nobody applied for. The group that created them felt there was too much out there for the best students so they created these, which went unapplied for.</p>