<p>Hey all,</p>
<p>I am currently searching for merit based scholarships that are not need based as well and can offer a decent amount of money. I have used fastweb.com but found nothing that was of any value because the vast majority were need based, which I do not qualify for.</p>
<p>Do you know of any place where I can find some good merit based scholarships?</p>
<p>Thanks a bunch.</p>
<p>there are 2 approaches:
1) win contests. This money can be used at any college
2) get awards from specific schools. This requires that you be at the top of their applicant pool. Virtually all colleges except Ivy League, Stanford, MIT offer merit scholarships to try to lure kids who would otherwise go to a higher level college.</p>
<p>I am going to be attending Columbia next year and as an Ivy League school, they do not offer merit scholarships. Thanks for your help though.</p>
<p>check out Ben Kaplan's scholarship books. They all involve merit, and they do not all involve need.</p>
<p>No one can give you useful answers to your original question because it depends on who you are and what you are strong at. I can tell you that you can win $100,000 by winning the Intel Science Talnet Search, but if you're terrible at science, that isn't going to help you. Plus the people who win things like that have invested hundreds of hours in their projects.</p>
<p>Go back to Fastweb. The scholarships there do not all require financial need, but they all require something that is going to make any given scholarship a poor match for most people. It might be community service, minority status, descent from the Mayflower, born in a certain place, dad in the military, plays accordian. Figure you have to sift through dozens of scholarships to find one that you might have a chance at. Then figure you have to apply to 10 scholarships to have a chance at getting money from 1. Many scholarship applications are very time-consuming. Some people find it a better use of their time to just get a job. Other alternatives are to take out loans, or to give up Columbia in favor of a less selective school that would give you money.</p>
<p>Money is not an issue as I did not apply for financial aid. I was just wondering if there was anything I could do to help pay for the costs individually, without putting all the burden on my parents. I have about 6 long essays that are all unique and could be used for scholarships, and I would hate for them to go to waste.</p>