Hello!
As the title suggests, I am currently looking for scholarships, and I have some very unique criteria I fall into. I am a High School Senior, with a GPA of 3.8 (with AP, CC and Advanced classes) and a decent SAT score. The criteria I fall into (and makes scholarship searching so hard) is that I am a immigrant to the USA (I am a South African citizen) and I am here on a H4 visa (child of an H1 visa holder). I have lived in the US for roughly 4 years (this time) as I have moved around a considerable amount. Some other criteria that might qualify for one or two scholarships (I have searched but I have not been able to find any that I can apply for) is that I am a sibling of a cancer patient (he is currently still undergoing treatment for Leukemia and is 10 years old) and he also is on the autism spectrum.
So the problem I have, is that every single time I got to apply for a scholarship it requires I am a US citizen, or have a SSN (I do not currently have a SSN, and won’t have one until I have a greencard) and I end up being eliminated for eligibility.
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Your best bet is to apply to colleges that give scholarships to international students. There are some that do. As a senior, you may have already missed some application deadlines for some schools that give merit awards.
Most private scholarships in this country are for U.S. citizens.
Some scholarships don’t even include GC holders. It can be very difficult. If your parents are professionals working for an international company then they could ask what the company offers for families in your position, however the h1, unless it is a stop gap before your GC, is kind of disconcerting because it lacks permanence. You are going to be competing with internationals. Have you been admitted anywhere yet? You qualify for merit? I think you have missed deadlines at quite a lot of institutions and I doubt your situation is very unique. What is your home state option?
Scholarship monies are not prevalent and they are fiercely competitive. Your immigrant status puts you out of the running for most private scholarships. Remember that these are US colleges, so most private scholarships are funded by local donors who want to encourage American kids at their Alma Maters, and these donors tend to cater to American students.
Your immigrant situation, although individualized, is not really unique since most international students need money to attend American universities.
Did you search for scholarships offered by your home country?
U missed the 15-Dec deadline for Univ of Alabama’s automatic full tuition Presidential Scholarships for high stats kids. Even int’l applicants were eligible.
@livingforlife97 What is your decent SAT score?
@Alfonsia I do qualify for merit scholarships at 2 of the universities I have applied too, the only problem being is that the one I have the most interest in is currently giving a lot of trouble with my application (some miss-communication on what application I should fill out etc.), but I do not believe I qualify for merit at my number one choice.
@madison85 I scored 600 reading, 570 math and 600 writing (not the best) but I will retake the SATs later this January
@madison85 Yes, I live in the USA
@aunt bea yes, the international student classification is more of hindrance than anything at this point. I was hoping to try and find some small scholarship just awarded to people studying in the US with a South African citizenship
There are probably a surprising amount of SA kids applying for college from inside the USA at any one time. You guys get around.