I won $292,500 in outside scholarships and almost $425k total. My Story.

Archive Other Major Scholarships and Competitions
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Bringing up a thread I posted in a similar forum a year ago, since the fall scholarship season is almost upon us – Coke and some others open as early as August, and the time to start prepping applications is now

Before I post my story, I just want to say – I am in no way advocating that you only apply to outside scholarships, or even make any part of your college plan contingent on getting outside scholarships. In fact, this is a very bad strategy; outside scholarships are awesome, and for sure apply if you have time – AFTER coming up with a reasonable plan that includes financial safeties (schools where you’ll get merit aid, and/or are super cheap due to in-state tuition, whatever – find something that works for you) and executing on that plan. Only then is applying to outside scholarships a potentially good use of time.

I repeat: outside scholarships are NEVER something to be counted on. Please keep this in mind throughout this post, and this thread. I worked hard to maximize my chances for every scholarship, but there’s always a lot of luck in this process. Don’t let luck (or lack thereof) keep you from going to college.

So, with that long disclaimer, here we go–

I first started applying aggressively to scholarships in June of 2014. I’d moved away from home to accept an internship in another city, and self-supporting on a low wage – in a metropolitan area – is pretty rough sometimes. That’s when I started to have the, “If I don’t even have the money to go get groceries until this friday… how am I going to go to college?” epiphany. Again, please note that that epiphany spurred /a lot/ of emails to faculty, financial aid offices, and many institutional merit aid applications (I ended up getting $128,550 in merit from my school). However, at the time – without that offer in hand yet – I also applied obsessively to every single scholarship on Fastweb et al.

If you haven’t figured this out already, this is not a good idea. The time/reward ratio is way too low, and I was applying to all the "Ayn Rand Essay Contest"s out there, all the random sweepstakes, etc. And no, I didn’t get any.

I think the big takeaway here is to think long and hard about what opportunities you’re applying to: The “easy” stuff on Fastweb and similar sites are the scholarships literally everyone is applying to. You’re not going to win. Point blank. “But someone has to win, and it only takes 5 minutes!” is terrible logic – you can find a more reputable (harder to complete, honestly) scholarship in 5 minutes. (Related side note: I’ve been told local scholarships are super awesome. I personally never had any success with them, but I think that’s an anomaly. So, second takeaway: always prioritize local scholarships before national ones.)

Third point, in my mind, the outside scholarship world is really owned by a duopoly: (1) Scholarship Management Services/Scholarship America and (2) ISTS. They administer almost every big dollar scholarship, and even a bunch of local - mid tier ones. If you aren’t applying directly through their site, their applications are often embedded in a Foundation’s scholarship application site (the Burger King Scholars program is a good example). Anyway, this means that a whole ton of scholarship applications you’ll find yourself filling out – if you do decide to apply to outside scholarships – are going to be the same exact thing, or at least very similar. Save every application you fill out. Think about how you can fill it out better. Lots of these scholarships are autograded – the number of lines you can fill out matters. The content of those lines matters. Some programs even look for “unique” activities that not many other students (or any) listed. But, I can go into all these finer details if someone posts a question below

I don’t want to make this post super long – I think those are probably my top three takeaways for most students. But, definitely ask whatever questions you have. One note: at every scholarship event I’ve gone to, I always see the same kids (or, mostly the same kids). Yes, part of it is being a good student, but another large part is figuring out what matters to the scholarship administrators and learning to represent yourself in the light they want. A very small percentage of scholarship applicants win a very large percentage of the scholarships out there – you want to figure out how to represent your story in the best light for each scholarship, so you can be one of those kids.

Re: the stats question – 4.0 GPA (weighted is above that), upper-90th-percentile SAT score, I would consider my family middle class, but we were still eligible for programs like Jack Kent Cooke, etc (<$95k income).
For the record, there were Coke Scholars/GE-Reagan Scholars/etc that I see at every event that did not have top stats. Stuff happens.

Outside scholarships won include the following:
Jack Kent Cooke College Scholarship ($160,000 as needed)
Burger King WHOPPER Scholarship ($50,000)
GE-Reagan Scholarship ($40,000)
Coca-Cola Scholarship ($20,000)
SanDisk Scholarship ($10,000)
Elks Most Valuable Student Competition Scholarship ($4,000)
AXA Achievement Community Scholarship ($2,500)
VIP Women in Tech Scholarship ($2,000)
Brad Feld Aspirations in Computing Scholarship ($1,000)
National Space Club Keynote Finalist Scholarship ($1,000)
Lint Center Army Staff Sgt. Richard S. Eaton, Jr. Scholarship ($1,000)
GoEnnounce & UPromise Define Yourself Scholarship ($500)
Harry E. Arcamuzi Aviation Scholarship ($500)

Institutional scholarships and grants (ONLY counting the ones I accepted, at the school I am now attending) include the following:
CCA Scholarship - High School ($1,500)
Presidential Scholarship ($90,800)
Women of Excellence Scholarship ($20,000)
FIRST Robotics Scholarship ($12,000)
Alumni Endorsement Grant ($4,000)
Campus Travel Grant ($250)

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How did you go about finding these scholarships? Were there specific websites that you looked at?

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Hi Courtney,
Do you have any scholarship recommendations for soon-to-be college freshman?

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@runna67 Fastweb, Cappex, etc. I used as many as I could and compiled a spreadsheet of scholarships to apply to from there. Advice: DON’T fill out profiles on those sites and expect them to do the sorting for you. Just go straight to their “Upcoming Deadlines” list, click on each scholarship, and see if it might be a fit for you. This is, imo, the best way to filter; I’ve never found a site that accurately finds scholarships that match your specific profile. It’s really something that requires some human oversight.

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@Kingb543 So, the reality here is that high school seniors have a lot more opportunity than anyone else. So, hopefully you chose an affordable school to begin with and are just hoping to cover some smaller expenses here and there, like books and supplies.

There are some outside scholarships out there, so continue aggressively applying to those, but also keep your sights set on opportunities (not just scholarship ones!) at your university. Top students often get small monetary awards from their departments, and there are often other ways to reduce costs – sometimes fee waivers are given to students on the Student Government, student-athletes, and students who are chosen to be Resident Assistants (free room and board in that case!).

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Thank you for your reply! And yes I was fortunate enough to obtain my fair share of outside scholarships + federal and aid from the school :slight_smile: Ahh I did not know that – thanks so much again :slight_smile: By the way – I started listing a few scholarships that I found on an excel spreadsheet, its so neat and organized! Good thinking.

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Thanks for your reply!

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Can you explain more by what you mean by “unique” activities? Also, is there anything that seniors can do now to further improve there competitiveness for these scholarships?

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Most of the scholarships that I have seen so far seem to be need-based. Any suggestions on finding scholarships that are strictly merit based. How about ones that don’t require hundreds of hours of community service?

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“Any suggestions on finding scholarships that are strictly merit based. How about ones that don’t require hundreds of hours of community service?”

In the outside scholarship world, merit = not only grades and test scores, but LOTS of community service. The pool of merit-only outside scholarships is tiny (I can only think of Coke), and the pool that is merit based but doesn’t look at community service is basically 0. Outside scholarships are looking to make a community impact. If you have little impact on the community, you are not likely to be picked.

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@dylan37 Lots of students list involvement in NHS, Student Government, School Newspaper, etc, and are then shocked that they aren’t picked for scholarships. The reality is, thousands of students hold the same positions around the country. Outside scholarships often look for involvement in activities that not everyone else does; founding your own non-profit or company, high achievements in competitions with high bars of entry, etc.

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So was June of 2014 the summer after your Junior year? I’m currently in the summer after junior year applying to scholarships and I have to say this is very inspiring. One question though: I see that you won the presidential scholarship and that’s an invitation only application. How did you get the nomination and who can I talk to/ what can I do to increase my visibility (for lack of a better word) for being nominated?

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June 2014 was the summer after my junior year.

I won the Presidential Scholarship at my school, not the Presidential Scholars program. But for the latter, you need basically a perfect ACT or SAT score to be invited. You may manage with a 1350 SAT or 35 ACT if you’re in a less competitive state.

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@CourtneyThurston thank you so much for this post. It’s nice to know how many people are willing to help us confused high school students. I have a different question though: when you win all of that money, do you lose all the money you don’t end up using for undergrad (tuition, room, board, laptop). Which ones, if any, can you save for grad school and/or other college expenses. Thank you!

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Is anyone aware of scholarships which can be deferred for grad school?

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I know the Bryan Cameron scholarship can be (I’m pretty sure that’s what it said on their website); it is closed for this year however.

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Thank you! Wow, that’s an early deadline!

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How many hours of community service did you log and how did you get them?

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Hi Courtney! I noticed that you won’t the Coke scholarship a few years ago… do you remember your statement of impacts for your activities and how you wrote them? I can’t figure out how to private message on here!

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What did you end up doing with the extra scholarship money? Were you able to defer any of it to graduate school or apply it to other expenses? Or did it end up being pretty much useless in the end? I only ask because I have applied to countless outside scholarships (the same ones as the ones you listed), and am a finalist for all of them. I was wondering that if I get a full ride to one of my top schools if this money I earn will be in any way useful. @CourtneyThurston