<p>I moved to the US few years ago and I am going to one of UCs. Because I moved recently, my class rank is pretty "low" for big scholarships, only 39/500, so as my GPA (4.2). And I cannot compite for essays scholarships (obviously, I don't know English well enough to compite against other students). Is it possible to get scholarships for sophmore year in college by showing hard work/good grades/etc. freshman year? And if so, what else do I need to do in college (I am not student-athlete)?
P.S.: my biggest problem in high school was that I had very short amount of time to rise my GPA (sophmore year 3.8, junior 4.0, senior 4.67)</p>
<p>I think you can apply for outside scholarhsips anytime but those that given by college are usually given to freshmen to attract them to particular school. If you are already there college won't have any incentive to give you more money than your initial award.
But there are lots of other awards you can possible compete ar your school-some research grants, internships, etc. - they might differ by the college so you need to check with school itself. There is also work study which is usually good and you might even find job at your department of interest.
If you lucky to have long break during winter holidays lots of student pick up some temporary retail sale positions for holidays and able to earn few $$ during winter break.
You can also save by taking few courses during summer at you local community college and graduating earlier from your school.</p>