Hi! I am a student who got into Penn ED recently. I applied without aid. I’m into music, have good academic grades and write well. I also debate and have done a lot of social work/have my own initiatives. What are some opportunities for me to earn and receive scholarships in the months between now and Penn?
YOu were told in October in an earlier thread that parents income of $232K will disqualify you from need based aid.
which is why i asked for merit based scholarships; the reasons are tough to explain here
Penn does not offer merit based scholarships “Like other Ivy League schools, Penn does not award scholarships based on academic or athletic merit. All aid is based solely on financial need.” http://www.sfs.upenn.edu/paying/paying-grants-scholarships.htm
What is the gap?
You won’t be able to get any merit or need-based scholarships from Penn.
How are you planning to afford it?
The Ivy League do not give out merit scholarships, and your family income is likely to high for you to qualify for any financial aid. Your will have to pay full tuition to attend.
This is the least that you may want to do: go find a part time job now. You can also work during the coming summer.
Of course, this is unlikely to be enough for your situation. Welcome to real life 101: pretty much all of us have a budget constraint problem.
Research and apply for outside scholarships. Some of the deadlines may have already passed. Both my kids got about $5K from outside scholarships, but they were only for the first year of college. You probably won’t be able to put much of a dent in the total cost.
Visit the Financial Aid/Scholarship Forum:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/
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What are some opportunities for me to earn and receive scholarships in the months between now and Penn?
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There are very few opportunities for awards that would be for 4 years. The deadlines have passed and there weren’t many that don’t look at “need” as well.
If your parents indicated that they won’t pay for Penn, then it was a strange decision to apply ED rather than focusing on schools that would give you merit.
You don’t seem to understand. There are FEW incentives for outside organizations to be funding merit scholarships to affluent teens. Why would they bother? The few outside entities that provide 4 year awards usually want to focus on merit AND need. I think Coke doesn’t look at need, but I think the deadline passed.
Oh wow! You’re an int’l. I missed that.
There really aren’t private entities that give int’ls merit unless it’s some ethnic club that gives small awards.
Sorry, but there really aren’t any.
And, you have no need.
So…are your parents going to cough up the $70k per year for you to come here?
As said here, Penn like the other ivies, Stanford, MIT, does not give merit aid. It only gives need based aid and your family income will most probably disqualifies you for that. Also for international students it is important to not estate you not ask for need aid at any point while at Penn if you did not explicitly designate in your app that you might need aid at some point during your Penn career.
You could get a job now and start saving and also get a job while at Penn, but i m pretty sure that would only barely cover your personal expenses.
Didn’t bother to respond to the merit question as there was no reason, as others have explained. Did penn require you to demonstrate your ability to pay your way? Some schools require this for internationals.
My parents did agree to pay for Penn, it’s just that I personally wanted to make it less of a burden on them. By scholarships I meant external ones. Thank you for the help!
I meant external aid in the way that Cornell has external scholarships by notable alumni like Ratan Tata. Thank you for your help!
My parents do have the ability to pay for Penn. I wanted to reduce the costs by at least some amount to make it less of a burden.
There is nothing specific to Penn that I am aware of like the Cornell one you posted… not sure if this will help but a quick internet search of “merit scholarships for international students to study in the usa”
returned some links that may have some advice such as this http://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/scholarship-advice/international-scholarships-study-us
also I would look into any scholarships your own country may provide for students studying abroad you may have better luck in receiving merit scholarships from your own country that allow you to also study internationally.
The best place to look is in their website if you are looking to see if any alumni or Penn specific scholarships might apply to you. They will all be very competitive, and some may not apply to non-residents of the US.
Thank you so much!!