Outside Scholarships?

Paying for College
1

<p>Is it possible to earn a large amount of money from outside scholarships without spending an inordinate amount of time completing applications for them? Is it feasible to get a large amount of money from outside scholarships even if I do spend an inordinate amount of time on applications?</p>

<p>Background --
After a discussion with my parents, I've realized finances dictate I will be unable to afford many of the colleges currently on my list. I'm in the process of updating said list with an eye toward finances; however, my mother seems to think I should not do this and thinks it is feasible for me to earn 80k-100k (this is about the gap between many of the colleges on my list and what is affordable) in outside scholarships. </p>

<p>I do have relatively high stats: 4.0 UW, likely NMF, and decent EC's, but nothing that really makes me stand out. I'm not going to qualify for scholarships based on financial need, as I have a pretty high EFC. I do not want to spend my entire summer and fall writing essays for scholarships I'm unlikely to win. I do intend to major in engineering, and this seems to be where my mother thinks all these scholarships will come from (women in engineering and all that). I think that it's very unlikely I'd have time to apply to enough outside scholarships to earn that kind of money and still have time to participate in my EC's and keep my grades up. I'm certainly willing to have my mind changed, though. :p</p>

2

<p>I dont think you can do what your mom thinks is possible.</p>

<p>It sounds like your mom thinks you can earn (from scholarships) the amount of money that schools think your family should pay.</p>

<p>If so, then your mom is wrong on two counts.</p>

<p>1) outside scholarships are usually for small amounts and are only for freshman year.</p>

<p>2) any scholarships that you win will cause the schools to reduce their aid. You would have to win HUGE merit to cover what the schools give you AND cover what your parents are supposed to pay. NOT happening.</p>

<p>for instance, if a school costs $60k and they expect your parents to pay $20k and the school provides $40k in aid, if you win (not likely) $20k per year in grants, the school is not going to let you use that to cover your parents portion…the school is going to reduce your aid.</p>

<p>if your mom doesnt believe this, then just be sure to also apply to 2-3 schools that will give MEGA merit (so much that it covers all or nearly all your costs) so that remaining costs can be covered by your family. You need to have financial safeties.</p>

<p>how much can your family pay each year?</p>

<p><<<
do intend to major in engineering, and this seems to be where my mother thinks all these scholarships will come from (women in engineering and all that).
<<<</p>

<p>while there are some of these, you cant rely on large amounts, nor can you rely on awards for all four years. You might win a one-time award of a few thousand.</p>

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<p>extremely unlikely…extremely. you might win $10k total…maybe $20k in outside scholarships over all four years.</p>

<p>Your mom may be feeling badly about your family’s situation, she may have some wishful thinking going-on. she badly wants this to happen so that would solve the problem. but…it is just wishful thinking.</p>

<p>Instead of wasting time on wishful thinking, you need a strategy that will get you what you need.</p>

3

<p><<<<
I’m looking for some safety schools on the East coast for computer science. I’m also possibly interested in engineering, so I would prefer a school that has a decent engineering program as well. Good merit aid is a must as I will likely not qualify for much need baed aid, but there’s no way that the EFC is realistic for my situation.</p>

<p>I have a 4.0 UW GPA (school does not weight) & will have 7 AP & 5 dual enrollment courses by my senior year. I do have decent test scores - got a 33 on the ACT w/ no prep and hoping for a 35 or 36 with some prep. I’m team captain and head programmer of a FIRST Tech Challenge team and have very good references from coaches/mentors involved in that. I’ve been in FIRST robotics programs all four years of high school and have been successful on a state and national level. I’ve also mentored FIRST teams with younger kids since sophmore year. I have ridden and worked with horses for all four years of high school. No real awards from that, but mostly because I’ve not competed at a high level.
<<<<</p>

<p>since it looks like your family would be full pay, but cant afford to be, it is important to determine how much they can pay each year. </p>

<p>can they pay/ $20k per year? more? less?</p>

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<p>Ah, ok, I didn’t even realize aid the school offered would reduce due to any outside scholarships. It looks like my family can afford somewhere in the neighborhood of 10k a year; I know this amounts to the cost of room/board most places, so I’m looking around for schools that offer full tuition scholarships. I’ve got one that will give me automatic full tuition because of my stats, a few more that likely will, and some where it’s possible, but unlikely. I just have no desire to waste my time either applying to way too many financial reaches or applying for lots of outside scholarships. For what it’s worth, <em>I’m</em> ok with this strategy of choosing colleges, my mother just seems to think I’m settling.</p>

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<p>If you do rely on financial aid (merit or need based), your school choices are definitely limited. That is the reality many students need to face. If there are large outside scholarship without much effort, there will be for sure tons of applicants and will be extremely competitive. Most outside scholarships are $5000 or below and most are not renewable. So merit aid from school seems to be more suitable for you. For that, you may want to look for schools that offer substantial scholarships to NMF, or those that offer scholarships automatically with high SAT/ACT scores. It seems you do have good chance to get those. Chance to go to a financial reach school is much worse than going to a reach school. </p>

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<p><<<
my mother just seems to think I’m settling.
<<<</p>

<p>well, your mom probably has a mix of emotions. apply to a couple of reaches and a few merit awards, and the results will speak for themselves.</p>

<p>the app season is time consuming, senior year is time consuming…your mom has to accept that you cant and shouldnt spend a good bit of senior year sending out random apps in hopes of being able to cobble together enough money.</p>

<p>there are literally 150+ very good engg programs in the US. calif alone has over twenty five good programs. you will not be settling.</p>

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<p>Tell you mother to find two such scholarships that award such large amounts of money for 4 years and you will apply to them. It is unrealistic to think that you will get a large award if you don’t apply. So I don’t know what to say about that. But maybe that will shut her up for awhile while she looks into it.</p>

<p>I don’t think there is any reason not to look into and apply to some scholarships, perhaps stopping short of speing all your time doing it. This site has one application for multiple scholarships for women in engineering. I think this just covers unmet need, look into it. Note if they are renewable or not. See that they are not the amounts your mother expects.
<a href=“Scholarships - Society of Women Engineers”>Scholarships - Society of Women Engineers;

<p>Show her a couple of policies about outside aid. From Cornell’s page:</p>

<p>Outside scholarships or tuition benefits will reduce the self-help component (loans and work-study) of your financial aid package, but will not reduce the family contribution.
<a href=“Outside Scholarships | Financial Aid”>http://www.finaid.cornell.edu/types-aid/grants-and-scholarships/outside-scholarships&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>School policies may differ; many schools do not clearly state their policies. Stanford is an example of a school that is pretty clear about its policy on outside scholarships: <a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/finaid/aid/outside/”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/finaid/aid/outside/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Your parents are not being realistic about what you can come up with from outside scholarships. You want to look for large merit scholarships like those listed here:</p>

<p><a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<a href=“NMF Scholarships: An Updated Compilation - #833 by BobWallace - National Merit Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>NMF Scholarships: An Updated Compilation - #833 by BobWallace - National Merit Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

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<p><<<
Tell you mother to find two such scholarships that award such large amounts of money for 4 years and you will apply to them. It is unrealistic to think that you will get a large award if you don’t apply. So I don’t know what to say about that. But maybe that will shut her up for awhile while she looks into it.
<<<</p>

<p>very good advice. tell your mom to find a couple/few of these very large FOUR year scholarships that do NOT consider need and apply to those few. But tell her that as a safety-net, you will also be applying to schools where you know for sure you will get enough money. After all, your mom doesnt want you to risk being empty-handed, right?</p>

<p>do NOT assume that if you cobble enough for year ONE, that you can do the same next year and thereafter. Most of these awards are for frosh only.</p>

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<p>Perhaps it would be better to show her this thread. That way we can we the ones who tell her to find you those scholarships. If YOU do that, it may come off as passive aggressive or disrespectful :frowning: Let us parents who have looked carefully at colleges and scholarships give them the facts from our own experiences,</p>

<p>You are an excellent student with high grades and stats. But, face it, there are thousands of students like you out there. Even if there were scholarships like your parents suggest out there, the competition would be fierce and the odds of winning them slim. You can get an excellent education at many of the schools that offer generous merit aid.</p>

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<p>good suggestion.</p>

<p>Yes, ask your mom to read this thread. The parents posting here have many years of experience with this sort of thing. We are the parents of top stats students and we’ve helped thousands of top stats students, so we know what is out there. </p>

<p>there just arent that many private entities out there who fund four year awards…especially ones for more than a couple thousand dollars. The few that do typically have some parameter, such as the student needs to be low-income or a URM (under-represented minority). </p>

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<p>Thank you all for your help. :slight_smile: I’ve gone through the stickied threads with lists of colleges offering significant aid and I think I’ve got a basic list of schools that are possibilities. Now off to do some more research on those schools and narrow down the list.</p>

<p>Also, I did ask my mother where to find said scholarships, but she told me it was my job to find them, not hers. Based on this thread and others I’ve read, I think my time is better sent researching merit aid at college.</p>

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<p><<<
did ask my mother where to find said scholarships, but she told me it was my job to find them,
<<<</p>

<p>glad to hear that you’ll be firing yourself from that job and pursuing a path that will lead to funding. </p>

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<p>Apply to some of the schools that your mom thinks you should attend. You never know, you could be offered some amazing aid by them. And if not, you can show her their financial aid packages to prove that you could not afford to attend them.</p>

<p>And as mom2… suggested on your earlier thread, consider Alabama. Hot weather can be tolerated for four years if you remind yourself you are getting an excellent - and free- education! Afterall, a whole lot of your time will be spent inside for classes and studying in air conditioned comfort.</p>

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<p>^
tuscaloosa is only hot for a few weeks at the beginning of fall semester. the rest of the year is very nice…sunny blue skies with fluffy white clouds.</p>

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<p>You are getting good advice here. Our finances sound very similar to yours. D’14 has a 4.0UW GPA, 33ACT, lots of AP classes, a reasonable list of ECs and is pursuing a less common engineering major. She applied for several outside scholarships and has not won any of them. None. The largest of those scholarships was $10000/year. The only one still outstanding is SWE and we aren’t counting on anything there either. She chose her list of five schools to apply to based on the possibility of large merit awards from the schools, and ended up with large scholarships at all of them and four affordable options (cost to us of just room, board, and books, or less, and no loans). She had two great in-state options. She was heavily recruited by one lesser known school (University of Wyoming) that wants to build its reputation and offered her an excellent scholarship package, and also won a competitive full tuition scholarship at Illinois Institute of Technology where she will attend. She did not apply to more prestigious schools that do not offer large merit aid. The chances of any of the prestigious schools that offered her major turning out to be affordable was too small for her to want to put her effort there. She didn’t care much for prestige and focused on getting the education she wants at a price we could afford to pay.</p>

<p>If you research and choose schools carefully, and make sure you meet school scholarship requirements and deadlines, you will have many good quality, affordable options, especially if you are NMF. The lists of automatic and competitive scholarships and NM scholarships here on CC are really helpful! If mom wants you to apply to more prestigious schools, and some outside scholarships, go ahead, but also include some schools that you like and will offer you the merit money you need from the school itself without relying on outside scholarships. You will really like having choices you can afford, and your parents will too.</p>

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<p>I am considering Alabama - the weather is definitely a downside, but the amount of merit aid makes it at least worth a look. :p</p>

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<p>I think you are misunderstanding the weather. It is only hot for a short-time after school starts. Fall is gorgeous, Winters are mild, and Spring is beautiful. </p>

<p>What are you thinking that it is like??? lol</p>

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<p>I like cold, snowy winters – weird, I know. :stuck_out_tongue: but it’s only for four years.</p>

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<p>lol…well, you will get cold/snowy for the 3 or so weeks that you’re home for Winter Break. :)</p>

<p>and I’m not saying that it doesnt get cold in the winter in tuscaloosa. It does, and sometimes there are snow days (very light snow, rare accumulation). However, the majority of winter days are much more mild than what you’d find in the NE or Midwest.</p>