I swear there are no scholarships for me.

Paying for College
41

<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 honestly haven't seen evidence that millions of dollars in scholarships are going unclaimed. I have seen unscrupulous appearing companies offering to find such scholarships for naive people willing to pay hefty fees for research that they easily could do on their own.</p>

<p>There aren't a lot of private scholarships for people like that because most people and corporations who fund scholarships are looking to either help out hard working low income people or to establish ties with extremely smart, talented students so as to encourage them to enter certain fields like the hard sciences, which are in need of more Americans (due to new immigrant restrictions) in that field.</p>

<p>The best scholarships for the people whom you describe are through the colleges themselves. Typically, to get hefty merit aid, a student has to be in the top of the pool of the colleges offering such aid. The college would offer the student merit aid to keep the student from going to a better college. Consequently, a student who could get in EA at Harvard would have a better than average chance of getting Duke's excellent merit aid. A good student who just manages to get into Duke, however, isn't going to be among the few Duke students getting merit aid from that college.</p>

<p>It's important to realize that there are probably tens of thousands of students of the type that you describe, and there's no way that there would be enough private merit aid available to allow each student to get $20,000 or so in private merit aid so as to be able to go to the college of their choice that doesn't offer merit aid.</p>

<p>Students with the kind of background that you describe can, however, get excellent merit aid if they are willing to submit careful applications to merit aid-offering colleges where they'd be in the top of the pool.</p>

42

<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>I didn't call you lazy in any way shape or form dearheart. I said you've made a CHOICE and by that choice you're too busy. Maybe it's the best choice for your goals maybe not, but is that still calling you lazy? Nope. </p>

<p>What you've chosen to do currently makes it hard to do scholarships. Fine. You can either complain bitterly about not having time for silly scholarships while you continue your current path OR possibly adjust your path to allow more time for silly scholarhsips. It's an issue of choice, not of effort. </p>

<p>I do question your choices, because they prevent you from doing the work to apply for scholarships. My point about hours was simply to compare the time and effort to apply for a scholarship vs. actual job hours. If you create a baseline comparison you might be able to see if your choices are the best payoff for you. </p>

<p>You aren't lazy dearheart, you just may not have organized your activities to meet your goals. </p>

<p>Fire away.</p>

43

<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>

<p>Obviously, however, those scholarships didn't go unclaimed because the criteria were too narrow. There are plenty of college-bound students who have averages below 3.5.</p>

<p>The scholarships went unclaimed because the many students who qualified didn't bother to apply. That's probably because they hadn't heard of the scholarship or simply assumed that the competition would be so great that they'd have no chance of getting the scholarship.</p>

<p>A similar thing happened at a college where I used to work. There was a $1,000 scholarship that any student in our department could apply for by simply writing a letter saying why they needed the scholarship. Many students in the dept. were low income, incidentally.</p>

<p>The information was posted on the dean's office door, and also was announced in classes. </p>

<p>Still, we had to beg students to apply for it. Usually, only one student applied, and that student would get the scholarship.</p>

<p>I also know someone who anonymously offered a $1,000 scholarship to any needy student on the student newspaper staff. There were at least 50 students on the staff, many of whom were needy. The scholarship was announced at the paper and posted there. All that was needed for the application was a letter asking for the scholarship and saying why the student needed the money.</p>

<p>Only 2 students bothered to apply. The scholarship was split between those two.</p>

<p>It is far easier to get most local scholarships than most people realize. Relatively few people apply. Most seem to throw their applications together as if it's a lottery, not a competition. I've been on local, regional and national scholarship committees including in big cities, so have seen many applications.</p>

<p>A student who takes a reasonable amount of time to do a careful application (meaning no typos, turned in on time) is far ahead of the pack.</p>

44

<p>There was a story on the news a few weeks ago about a bagpipe scholarship that had only recently been applied for after having been offered for about 20 years. I was also told of a scholarship for students of a certain race and religion, who were orphaned at birth, who are studying a certain ancient language at a certain California university. </p>

<p>Both were for full tuition, easily over $120,000k for four years but neither one had very many qualified candidates - lol.</p>

45

<p>"There aren't a lot of private scholarships for people like that because most people and corporations who fund scholarships are looking to either help out hard working low income people or to establish ties with extremely smart, talented students so as to encourage them to enter certain fields like the hard sciences, which are in need of more Americans (due to new immigrant restrictions) in that field."</p>

<p>One thing to also consider are most scholarships are a form of advertising. It's a way to double dollars for companies. Target, coke and others have some giantic scholarships, and then when you read about the winner, it's a heart string puller. So in alot of cases, if you haven't had to overcome alot of drama, you aren't going to win, because your story isn't going to get people to buy their product. </p>

<p>Most people find locals the best source as their is a smaller pool and alot of service organizations sponsor them with a different agenda than product marketing.</p>

46

<p>About jobs in HS. </p>

<p>Unless they're only a few hours a week (4 or 5) I'm against them. </p>

<p>Why? because they take away study time. Your job in HS should be to maximize your grades. I've seen so many kids get caught up in the gotta haves..( a car, a purse, a pair of jeans, etc..) so they gotta work to pay for this "stuff". </p>

<p>Well, everybody still wants a social life, so what is reduced to work for that minimum wage? Usually it's study time. How many have taken exams where you go away telling yourself "If I only had a few more hours to study this stuff"? </p>

<p>As the poster pointed out unless you have a sad story or excellent grades there's not much out there. While nobody wishes for the sad story, the excellent grades are attainable, given the proper priority in a person's life.</p>

<p>I'll probably get flack for this idea too. It doesn't make it untrue.</p>

47

<p>Well the reality is a lot of students have to work if they want ANY new clothes (even ones that certify as "out of necessity"), or a car to travel to college with, or a computer to take to college, or to pay for other moving expenses related to college. Many parents are dead-set on getting their children independent by age 18, either out of financial need or because that's how they know to teach discipline. In those cases, a kid is going to need the work experience a lot more than the grades.</p>

<p>Anyway, work experience is an important part of education and prepares people for the responsibility of college. Work experience in college is a "must-have," because when you get that first salary its going to have almost nothing to do with your GPA.</p>

48

<p>I know one, too...and it IS very restrictive on eligibility. A high school friend's great uncle (a single,childless man) set up a trust fund about 50 years ago for a "(family name) Scholarship." The only 2 requirements were to prove you were a niece or nephew of his, or succeeding generations, and attend the State U. The scholarship(s) would pay out up to full amount of trust income every year, evenly splitting among qualified applicants. There are now are several hundred offspring eligible. However, the trust now amounts to "Unclaimed millions" because those relatives have rarely applied. I'm sure he thought he was doing a wonderful thing--limiting who qualifies & where so that there would always be educational funds for siblings' offspring, but that's not what the reality turned out to be. My friend says virtually all of the relatives now live out of state & have no interest in coming here, including her own kids. There ARE some seriously limited-eligibility scholarships with some big piles of money that go unawarded.</p>

49

<p>"About jobs in HS. </p>

<p>Unless they're only a few hours a week (4 or 5) I'm against them. </p>

<p>Why? because they take away study time. Your job in HS should be to maximize your grades. I've seen so many kids get caught up in the gotta haves..( a car, a purse, a pair of jeans, etc..) so they gotta work to pay for this "stuff". </p>

<p>Working a job can take the same amount of time as time-consuming ECs, and can be (depending on the student's finances and goals) just as or even more important than having other types of ECs. Colleges also rate having worked a job very high, even higher than many ECs that require little ongoing commitment or responsibility. Even a low status job like working fast food requires more responsibility than do many regular ECs.</p>

<p>I also agree with the person who said that many students have to work while in h.s. in order to go to college. </p>

<p>I also know highly motivated students who work up to 20 hours a week during the school year while having good grades and even doing school or church-based ECs. I was one. My senior year in h.s., I worked 20 hours a week as a cashier, saving the $ for college. That summer, I worked 60 hours a week, using the money, too, to pay for clothes, textbooks and other college expenses. I never had an allowance in college, but used my money to pay for expenses during the school year including for trips home.</p>

50

<p>It can be done...most of the kids I went to school with worked (to pay high school tuition, no less...Catholic high school, working class neighborhood, nobody could afford full tuition costs without kids contributing.) But I also know of current students doing it, including a very successful one. She's #2 in her class with a cumulative 98.83 GPA, scored a 32 on the ACT and is looking at a near full-ride merit scholarship to our large State U. She is active in her church, volunteers in several organizations, actively participates in several EC's (including qualifying for State competition in one.) This girl has worked throughout the school year for 3 years...and it's way more than 4-5 hours a week. She pays all her own car expenses - her choice to have a car so that she can participate in EC's -- lives in the country at the far edge of the school district so no carpooling chances. The school bus only runs right after school, not after practice or to-and-from night school/social activies. So it can be done.</p>

51

<p>"Well the reality is a lot of students have to work if they want ANY new clothes (even ones that certify as "out of necessity"), or a car to travel to college with, or a computer to take to college, or to pay for other moving expenses related to college."</p>

<p>Again it's a choice, one thing over another. It's looking at the big picture the gotta haves vs. the gotta waits. Timing matters. If you concentrate on grades first in HS alot of those other things take care of themselves later. It comes down to what is your goal? </p>

<p>I've seen too many kids not go as far as they could because they wanted a car in HS, and not a beater car, a nice one. I mean what will people say if I own a beater? Well I gotta buy neon undercarriage lighting, I need covers for my buckets, my rims are all funky bad. </p>

<p>Now your'e working 15-25 hours a week. But really it's not just that time. It's the time to get there and back and decomppression time after work to add in. Now you're spending maybe 40 hours in work time. It's about choices. </p>

<p>" Many parents are dead-set on getting their children independent by age 18, either out of financial need or because that's how they know to teach discipline."</p>

<p>Is that bad? Do I hate my parents for doing that to me? It just creates a choice. I chose to work my way through college because college mattered. </p>

<p>" In those cases, a kid is going to need the work experience a lot more than the grades."</p>

<p>Not really, cause your still a kid and are not settling into a lifetime occupation at 16-21 years of age. </p>

<p>"Anyway, work experience is an important part of education and prepares people for the responsibility of college."</p>

<p>Yes, work experience can be important, but when you put it ahead of your grades, you've limited your possibilities for just a small sum of money now.</p>

<p>Instead of having colleges fawn over you because of your scores, you are among alot of other applicants worrying that you won't get in, because the things that the college looks at first don't separate you from the herd. Again what's the goal? </p>

<p>Fawning schools are a real nice problem my kids had, I wasn't so lucky. I was among those who worried I wouldn't get in. </p>

<p>"Work experience in college is a "must-have," because when you get that first salary its going to have almost nothing to do with your GPA."</p>

<p>And if you have an engineering degree, your fast food or grocery store work experience isn't going to help you land that engineering job with an airplane manufacturer. Is it?</p>

52

<p>"It can be done...</p>

<p>I have said it can't? What I have said is if your goal is college, your first priority should be grades and thus your choices should revolve around that. If you can pull a 4.0, 2200 sat, 34 act and hold a fast food job, do ECs, buy new clothes with your own money and so on... Is any of it a problem? NO Worries.</p>

<p>However, if because of all the things you do from this point ( hold a fast food job, do ECs, buy new clothes with your own money and so on..) reduce your gpa, lower your test scores and take you from the... </p>

<p>"please come to our univesity we'll give you x dollars if you do.... to we'll let you know soon..", do you now see my point? :) </p>

<p>[note I am just using your post which is similar to others to make my point. It is not intended to be an in your face personal response. K?]</p>

<p>I know alot of things CAN be Done.. I'm proof. </p>

<p>But my ks worked a little bit (tiny), did their ECs and sports, both nmfs, both #1's in classes of 650+. Both had more schools then they could decide on offering full rides, even extra money and a housekeeper... They never had to experience the uncertainity of a school saying "no", and that wasn't because of a part time job. was it? :) </p>

<p>Their first job was school. As long as school was good, everything else was too. If too many EC's got in the way of school, the ECs time was reduced, not school. The goal was scholarship dollars, between the two about a quarter million was collected. So my way works pretty well too, doesn't it? ;)</p>

<p>I know it's not the only way, but it seemed to work out Ok. It comes down to choices. </p>

<p>However, both drive cars that as my S put it, would be in the junior class if it was a person. They have decent clothes, I guess. I'm a levis guy and beyond that... well I'm not a judge of colthes. They proudly park their ford taruses between the new beemers, porsches and big old explorers on campus.</p>

<p>My D even called me to laugh over what someone she rode with for a night out. It seemed this freshman was complianing loudly about her BMW "only" being a 2005 model, not a 2006 like her brother got. She was really mad at her parents for the slight. Then as usual, I asked mine how her 89 tarus station wagon was doing? Ya checking the oil? How are the tires? :) </p>

<p>We all make choices and have priorities, it comes down to how serious you are about your goals.</p>

53

<p>Have one suggestion for any college-parent newbies out there: don't care what your income level is unless you're wealthy enough to just throw away money, I suggest you insist on "beaters" for campus living, at least. After 3 kids living on campuses in three different areas from highly urban to highly rural...all 3, and most kids they knew, became full-fledged members of the "scratch/dent/ding of the week club" on their campuses. Hubby finally quit looking at their cars after the first couple of months. (They weren't all "beaters" when they started, but by halfway through freshmen year, all vehicles looked like it.) We blamed the kids for bad driving jobs, rowdy and/or reckless driving, etc. until several older (and wiser) friends said the same thing happened to all their kids, and friends' kids, etc. Even if your kids doesn't indulge, others on campus can, and drinkers drive poorly. At least one dent on one kid's car came from a non-drunk, but definitely clueless friend, giddily walking across the tops of a row of parked cars...he dented hers & several others. An insurance adjuster friend says the college-damage phenom is well known in the industry...and he suggests people buy "don't care" vehicles for college-bound kids.</p>

54

<p>"on the subject of college cars... "</p>

<p>So true so true.</p>

55

<p>About jobs, just do what I do...</p>

<p>Work a 50-hour+ job during the summer, get a big lump of money, and use it for the superfluous stuff during the year. Works for me.</p>

56

<p>"About jobs, just do what I do..."</p>

<p>Absolutely a good idea. I call it the beer and pizza money for school. Or you can call it pop and pizza money if beer makes you uncomfortable.:)</p>

57

<p>about jobs...
some people have to work just cuz they need to support their own family, therefore a job becomes a necessity.
jobs are important and there are scholarships that even put that as a criteria (ex. the burger king schoalrship)</p>

58

<p>despite what advice you receive, it seems you have a quite a dillema. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Besides, if your EFC is 30,000 +...dude you gotta have some money to go to college....your parents must make at least 150,000 + </p>

<p>Best wishes</p>

59

<p>You should apply to small contests like this one</p>

<p><a href="http://www.koreanhero.net/contest/flyer-finalwithgrayborder.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.koreanhero.net/contest/flyer-finalwithgrayborder.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>its so easy. $1,000 prize and you can win money for your school too</p>

60

<p>Call me a cranky old man, but I worked part of the time while in high school and I do think it's a good thing. If a kid works 10 hours a week and then buys some clothing that she really wants or parts so that he can fix up an old car, it gives the child a feeling of accomplishment and potentially teaches him or her the value of money.</p>

<p>Just my humble opinion.</p>