<p>So someone mentioned in another thread that any outside scholarships you get really don't help you since you still pay Stanford the same amount of money...</p>
<p>So the reason I'm mentioning this here is that my father makes $250k a year, and I got zero financial aid. I have two little brothers, one 11 and one 5, so they've got some time until they enroll in college. </p>
<p>So outside scholarships won't help me at all, right? Why bother? i should just go find a job, get some kids to tutor, charge them $30 an hour saying "I know what I'm doing, I got a 2400, 4.0 and I'm going to Stanford..." because money from a job would help me more than any scholarship I'm going to apply to? </p>
<p>I also appled to HYPM, do those schools have any better financial aid for someone in my circumstances? I really don't want to come out of college owing near $200k to my father, who would probably just tell me not to worry about it, but I'd feel hella guilty about it. So I guess... is it even worth it to apply for outside scholarships?</p>
<p>It doesn't hurt to apply for scholarships. It'll only help you in the future because it looks good on your resume. I know my case is not like yours, but here is an example. Without the Gates Millennium Scholarship, Stanford costs around $5,000 a year for me. I could have taken out loans and/or do federal work-study. But my scholarship paid for it all. (Granted my EFC = 0 and my contribution was $29.) Don't ask me how the Finaid Office came up with $29. But getting the Gates scholarship was nice because I can choose to stay for a fifth year at Stanford and, by then, Stanford refuses to give me anymore aid (only 12 quarters of aid). I wouldn't have to worry because Gates will pay $45,000K or however much it'll cost to attend. </p>
<p>With that advice in mind, apply if you have free time. I applied to Columbia and Yale because I had two extra fee waivers so I was like, hell, why not? It earned me a free tip to New York City.</p>
<p>Hold on one sec buddy. You said outside scholarships don't help you pay? How does that work?</p>
<p>Right now, since you got zero financial aid, you're paying all 47k or whatever it is. So if you get any outside scholarships, you use those to pay towards the 47k, and that's less that comes out of your pocket. Or am I mistaken?</p>
<p>julyinoh, you're probably right... that's what I wanted clarified, because I have no work study/grants/loans/aid for Stanford to deduct from. I just want to make sure my scholarship money goes back to me, even though my EFC is the full 47k. hah... -_-</p>
<p>I think it depends how the organization awards the money (to the school or to you directly). If it goes to the school, I remember reading somewhere that it will only reduce work study and loans (basically the "self-help" categories). I don't think it will reduce your EFC (which is the only thing in your case that can be reduced...). Anyone please correct me if I am wrong.</p>
<p>hmm. my "self-help" adds up to $5500.
please help me out if i'm wrong on this:
i should get $5500 in scholarships that are paid directly to stanford to get rid of the whole "self-help" amount. and then..
i should look for scholarships that awards the money to me directly so i can use it for my EFC.
that's my understanding of the whole deal so far..</p>
<p>my package includes the $3500 in loans that they offer to every single student. But I have the option of declining that, it's 8% interest when I can borrow the same $3500 from my parents for no interest.</p>