<p>Just wondering if any homeschoolers have had trouble getting financial aid or merit scholarships? How do you apply for scholarships where class rank is required or certain gpa's? Has anyone found this to be a problem?</p>
<p>Your financial aid should be based on your family income. You can go search for FAFSA and see what sort of questions you will need to answer.<br>
"A is for Admission" is an older book on college admissions and the author writes very frankly of how the class rank is used in calculations for college acceptance (along with SAT and SAT II Scores) -- but surely there is another way homeschoolers are evaluated.
You might get specific answers on a homeschool forum . . . good luck!</p>
<p>For need-based aid homeschoolers are treated like anyone else. Merit-based aid might be more variable. My kids were homeschooled, but we have a fairly modest income so both got need-based aid. At the college my daughter is attending there is also merit aid available based on grades and test scores, and with her test scores and her grades from various institutions as well as her homeschool grades, she did qualify. The fact that she was homeschooled never came up as an issue. They also enrolled her in the honors program based on her grades and test scores. I do not recall reading that class rank was a factor at this particular college (a regional state u.)</p>
<p>My son is at a very generous private LAC that only awards need-based aid, no merit aid. He did apply for a local outside scholarship and got it, but he only applied for the one becuase his need-based aid from the college was sufficient to attend the school.</p>
<p>I think where class rank is not available for one reason or another (a homeschooler, or just a school that doesn't rank, or some other situation) scholarship and admissions committees will just look at what information is available and work from that.</p>
<p>There may well be awards that are going to favor traditionally schooled kids just because their peg fits the particular hole more easily, but I wouldn't worry much about that. I have know quite a few homeschooled kids who won lots of scholarships for various skills, talents, or achievements. The just apply, write essays, send in the pertinant info like everyone else.</p>