Private scholarship search madness

Should I even waste my time applying to private scholarships as a white male student with average stats who comes from an upper-middle-class suburban household? Literally half of the scholarships out there have a requirement of being a minority, and then the ones for people with millions of volunteer hours etc. You get the point. So the ones left are either the raffle scholarships or scholarships that might be able to buy half of an iPhone. What’s worse is that just when I see one that is both worth applying to and something I might be able to get, they hit me with that “for residents of county x y and z” and of course I live in county w.

@premed9956

The best scholarships come from the colleges to which you are admitted.

From reading other threads…it looks like you are instate for Texas. Are you not eligible for any Texas college aid? I guess not…income is too high.

What can your family pay annually? How much more money do you need annually for college? Your family income is $200,000 a year or so. No money for college there?

@thumper1 Yes, I mainly am relying on institutional merit aid. I got accepted to tech and austin college so far with 5k/year and 25k/year from each respectively. Just wondering if Its worth it to stress myself out applying for (much smaller) private scholarships. My efc is 28k/year but I am looking to see if I could try and make the more expensive colleges on my list more affordable.

Go see your guidance counselor as soon as school is back in session. He/she should have a list of scholarships still open. You have a much better chance of being awarded local or state scholarships; the national ones are very difficult to win.

Check the websites of surrounding high schools. Often there is a counselor’s page or college resource section that will list scholarships and deadlines.

Are you in the top X percent of your class? I thought UT Austin had guaranteed admission for the top 5% or something like that. Not sure how expensive UT is for in-state, but I assume it’s not mega-bad?

I’ve also known a number of pre-med students (looking at your username) study to much success at UT Dallas.