Do most private scholarships require citizenship or permanent residency, or are all private scholarships open to international students?
Many are only available to citizens, or at least to permanent residents. You have to check the qualifications for each offering.
Few private scholarships in the US are open to int’ls.
By few do you mean slightly less than half or close to zero?
Few is closer to ‘zero’ than to ‘slightly less than half’.
Why should Americans give scholarship money to foreigners? What is in it for us? How does it benefit the USA?
Few close to Zero. Private entities here in the US have little to no incentive to give merit scholarships to int’ls.
You can just look at the requirements for a few big scholarships (Coke, Gates, Elks) and then look at a few you might be qualified for - Women Engineers, Theater Arts (whatever you can think of) and see if you fit the qualifications. My daughters’ high school had a list of local scholarships, maybe 100 on the list. One daughter qualified for about 5 because she is a minority and was staying in state for college, the other not a single one. Many were for kids who lived in a different county, children of military, had achieved certain honors, participated in band or sports.
You have to do the research.
Coca Cola requires that you be a citizen or green card holder. For Elks, you must be a US citizen. Gates you must be a minority (are you)? There are just so few that are open to int’ls.
Thank you so much for all your help 