<p>I'm going to a college which didn't give me any scholarship or financial aid. Is it common that college gives scholarship or financial aid for returning students (sophomore~senior) who received no aid at the time of entrance but did extremely well in academics after entering to the college? </p>
<p>Usually there are department scholarships you can apply for in the $1-5K range. Talk to your advisor and your FA office to see</p>
<p>Is it common? No. Should you expect some? No.</p>
<p>Depts may have some small awards that they give out. Go to your dept major’s webpage and see if they have any that you can apply for. </p>
<p>Schools expect kids to do well. And with so many current students having high gpa’s these days and the emphasis on incoming frosh, they dont have much motivation to give more to returning students.</p>
<p>If you are among the top of the class, check out the departmental scholarships. They are rare but do exist. Whether you are qualified to it is another story.</p>
<p>I’m going to major in math at a small liberal arts college. Because of my unusual background, there’s huge chance that I will be the best student at math department. I’m not sure whether or not I can get the highest total GPA in the class, but that chance still exists. I will check info of the department’s website and try to find some small scholarship chances. Since my school has unusually high endowment/student rate, they probably exist. Thank you guys for all info 
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<p>does your school even give out merit? or is it a needs based aid school?</p>
<p>threads like yours are a red flag to me. You got no aid, but seem to really want some. do you need some? or would it “just be nice, but we can easily afford all costs”? Were your parents expecting you to get aid this year…and when that didnt happen, did they say that they expect you to get scholarships for the other three years??</p>
<p>My family is financially at well-being. I really don’t need it, but I want scholarship if I’m eligible for it. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can get fin aid because of my family’s financial well-being. Yet, I’m sure I will probably be at the best or near the best in college regarding academics. My school gives merit scholarship and had been 100% need-blind until some years ago. Although it’s a small liberal arts college, it must be one of the most magnificent school in this country. </p>
<p>Worry. Being need blind is an admissions thing. It has nothing at all to do with financial aid, need based or merit. It simply means that your ability to pay for college is considered when you application for admission is reviewed.</p>
<p>If you are such a very strong and exceptional student…why didn’t you get ANY merit aid from your college as an incoming freshman? In the vast majority of cases, colleges give their best merit awards to strong incoming freshman applicants. What happened that prevented you from getting a merit award for the upcoming school year?</p>
<p>You say you are “eligible” for scholarships. It sounds like your college didn’t agree with this. If you had been eligible for a merit scholarship, your school would have given you one.</p>
<p>Does Grinnell give merit aid to incoming freshmen who are internationals?</p>
<p>I understand that, but I mentioned once again that my school is financially magnificent. I didn’t mean anything other than that. But I apologize for my misleading sentence. </p>
<p>I actually didn’t apply for merit aid because of the following reasons:</p>
<p>I have quite unusual educational background. I didn’t go to middle school, and I skipped the 10th grade. So, I don’t have grades for these two years. Also, since I’m an int’l student, I couldn’t do well in SAT, so my score is merely around top 20% of the accepted students. Considering these factors as well as the fact that I’m an Asian, I thought I’m nowhere near from competitive applicant pools for merit scholarship. </p>
<p>However, that doesn’t mean I will not do well in academics at college. I have competed in many math competitions and attended some prestigious math camp. Also, while not going to middle school, I was having an accelerated education in math and sciences (it’s not a school, though.) So, that made me quite proficient in math and science, and I’m sure I will excel at college math, since I have already studied the most of it from graduates and professors as well as by myself. This almost guarantees my success in math but doesn’t guarantee my success in academics as whole. However, my school has semi-open curriculum, so I can take many math and science classes. All I have to do is to do well in subjects other than math and science, but the chance of getting near the highest GPA in total isn’t so low also because I already got near the highest GPA in my high school.</p>
<p>I heard that Grinnell gives merit aid for a limited number of int’l students. </p>
<p>One general idea to keep in mind is that merit scholarships might not only go to students with the highest GPA. You have mentioned highest GPA or best in academics a few times, so I thought I’d just point out that in my experience, merit scholarship awarding guidelines often consider many different facets of a student’s success along with GPA/academic success.</p>
<p>Yes, there are some such examples as athletic success, writing some decent paper, and etc. I will also check that type of chances. But I don’t have anything not related to academics which will make me No.1. I’m not interested in any activity other than studying and lab works, so it must be easy to find the every possible chances. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.grinnell.edu/about/offices-services/social-commitment/scholar-fellowships”>http://www.grinnell.edu/about/offices-services/social-commitment/scholar-fellowships</a></p>
<p>thanks for the list! i will look through them :D</p>
<p>Follow that link to intl ideas.</p>