Looking for Scholarships, Having Trouble

Paying for College
1

Hello everyone, I’ve been trying to find some scholarships because I really need some money because with the colleges I’m looking at, it will certainly be an issue.

Right now I’m looking at mostly engineering schools, which are around 60k per year.
I’m a high school senior (GPA: 3.75)
In the middle class, however not applicable for financial aid, yet at the same time not rich enough to pay completely.
If demographic helps, I’m a white male, which does limit my options on scholarships a bit.

If anyone has any suggestions for this, I’d love to hear them.

Thanks!

2

Where did you apply?

some schools give aid to the middle class. What is your parents’ income? how much will they pay?

What are your stats?

You’re not going to find outside awards to make a dent in your college costs. The best scholarships are from the schools that give them.

3

They’ll most likely be able to pay around 40k per year.

Current schools I’ve applied to:
RPI
WPI
Cornell
Boston U
Lehigh
Purdue
Roger Williams
Clarkson
Northeastern

4

It looks like Clarkson has some significant merit scholarships and additional awards for incoming freshman. Roger Williams may, too. RW’s merit is automatic; Clarkson has some competitive awards – some deadlines have passed already, some have not. Apply asap.

It’s unfortunate that you didn’t apply to more financially realistic schools. The rest on your list don’t give out much, if any, merit – and likely none for a 3.75.

5

Penn State, Pitt should cost around $40k, also Ohio State.

Did you apply to any schools that offer merit for your stats?

Which state do you live in, what engineering specialty are you interested in?

When you apply to schools you should run net price calculators to see what they expect your family to pay.

If they are not affordable, where do you think the money is going to come from?

Most national scholarships require very high stats and are meant to help lower income students, also application deadlines are usually in the fall.

What is your SAT/ACT score? As long as a school is ABET accredited it should be a good engineering program.

There might still be some schools to apply to where you can pay $40k or less and maybe get merit.

6

Both RPI and WPI can give need blind merit upon acceptance without any action on your part. They will let you know within a few days of your acceptance. In the case of my daughter, RPI was 1/2 tuition.

7

I doubt that your parents are ‘middle class’ if they can pay $40K a year (you may be defining middle class by not being wealthy, therefore your family is ‘middle class’).

What do your parents say they can pay, and are there any other schools and making sure you have made the school’s scholarship deadlines?

As another poster commented, the best scholarships come from the school themselves.

8

What’s your CR+M SAT?
Send one to Union, Rose Hulman, perhaps UMass Lowell, Rowan, Miami Ohio if the deadline hasn’t passed. Most scholarships deadlines were in December.
What’s your state of residence and did you apply to a couple of them by the scholarship deadline?

9

DId you run Net Price Calculators for those schools? Use actual numbers and you should get accurate numbers back

10

What state are you in?

Penn State and Pitt will be closer to $48,000 for OOS students.

Unfortunately, you’ve missed the deadlines for a lot of the OOS merit awards.

And with a 3.75 GPA, the odds of big merit at many of the schools you applied to is pretty slim. My son (3.9+ GPA; 1500 CR/M) was offered Union’s honors program but no merit and their COA was about $20,000 more than the full-need schools he applied to.

Are you assuming you won’t get any aid? I hope if you’re truly middle-class you filled out the FAFSA and CSS profiles required by these schools.