<p>So I am a middle-class Caucasian from washington state with a 36 on the act and a 4.0 uw gpa. I'm looking for scholarships that are NOT school-specific. What are some major scholarships available based primarily on academics that are open to all students? I know of ones such as coca-cola scholarship, but unfortunately the date has passed :/</p>
<p>If you are a HS senior now, the date for most, if not all, of those BIG outside scholarships has passed.</p>
<p>Why aren’t you interested in scholarships that are school specific? </p>
<p>Yes unfortunately I’m behind on the scholarship search…
And primarily because after looking through the threads that list automatic full rides, etc., most of the schools are not ones that I could see myself going to. I would look to attend a top school, but I know that most do not give out merit based aid. An exception would be USC, however, which I’m applying to in hopes of the trustee scholarship.
But basically, I’m looking for any large 3rd party scholarships that would give me the flexibility of going to whatever school I felt was the best fit for me</p>
<p>I think you are a little late for these types of scholarships.</p>
<p>But if you are that outstanding a student, there are some fine schools where you might get scholarship money.</p>
<p>How much do you need?</p>
<p>It sounds like you are not eligible for need based aid…and some of those outside scholarships also have a need component. </p>
<p>Will your parents help you with college costs? </p>
<p>There are some very select merit awards at other schools too. Vanderbilt gives some merit, and so does Univerosty of Michigan. There are plenty of,others as well.</p>
<p>But the deadlines for the most generous college based merit awards are usually December 1. </p>
<p>If financea are a serious consideration, I would strongly suggest you get a couple of those applications done ASAP.</p>
<p>Yes! What are some that are December 1st? And financially I’m kind of getting screwed this year. My dad is self-employed and we’ve had some very lean years 2008-2013 but he just happened to have an exceptionally good year in 2014, which disqualifies me from a lot of need based aid for both schools and scholarships. So basically, they are still recovering from the past several years fiscally and that leaves me with the majority (if not all) of the financial burden without the help of a lower income to provide need-based aid</p>
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<p>But what if you aren’t accepted to any? What are your financial safety schools?</p>
<p>The way im looking at it my best bets are either at top tier schools that give the most financial aid or just to go to my state school, uw, where tuition would be lower. Does the css profile take into account income from past years? Or is there a section for explanation? </p>
<p>for financial aid purposes for 2015-2016, income from 2014 will be the determining income for need based aid at most school.</p>
<p>You have me very confused. On one hand, you say you want scholarships you can use anywhere. If you are eligible for need based aid and are a competitive applicant at a school that guarantees to meet full need, what is the issue? Are you saying that your family income has taken a big jump in 2014 and was lower in previous years? Is this a one time windfall that guaranteed will not repeat (like an inheritance).</p>
<p>You are applying to UW. It won’t be free. </p>
<p>But U of Alabama would be very close to free with your stats…well at least free tuition, I would think.</p>
<p>Are you a NMSF?</p>
<p>Internal scholarships are actually better bet as it would be much less competitive than the large external ones and they are mostly renewable. Nevertheless, many schools would only consider merit scholarships for the EA applicants. I hope you have already planned for that earlier as there is not much time left for EA if you have not passed the deadline already.</p>
<p>@thumper1 I was 3 points away from NMS, cutoff was 219 in my state. And my dad is self employed so we have no idea what out income will be next year. They also have no money saved for my college expenses and chances are that I will be paying for college entirely out of my own pocket.
I’m looking for scholarships to use anywhere because ideally I’d like to go a top school (ivies; stanford, etc.), and I most likely will not receive enough financial aid for me do so without the help of outside scholarships</p>
<p>The “top schools” that you mention all guarantee to meet full need (as they calculate it, which can be pretty generous). However - if you go to one of these schools and are awarded need-based financial aid, be aware that any outside scholarships that you have been awarded will likely reduce that need-based aid by an equal amount. So in the end, it will be a wash and the effort in finding and applying for the outside scholarships will result in zero extra dollars for you. Do you understand?</p>
<p>@MiddKid86 Yes, I understand that but because of my income this year I’m not expecting very much need-based aid in the first place :/</p>
<p>Have you run the Net Price Calculators for the schools that you are interested in, based on 2014 projected income and assets?</p>
<p>I haven’t filled out the css profile yet, but does it look into previous years’ incomes in addition to 2014’s data and assets? Or is there any place where I could add it? Because our income from 2008-2013 paints a very different picture than 2014’s numbers</p>
<p>It is just going to look at 2014. </p>
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<p>The 2015-2016 CSS Profile also asks for the parents’ 2013 income and benefits. Whether and how this older information is actually used is up to each individual school.</p>
<p>OP, again: Have you run the Net Price Calculators for the schools that you are interested in, based on 2014 projected income and assets?</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, Middkid. In this case, it will will depend on how drastic of a difference 2013 income is compared to 2014, but like mentioned - the school is going to be the determining factor. </p>
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The way im looking at it my best bets are either at top tier schools that give the most financial aid or just to go to my state school, uw, where tuition would be lower.
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<p>This is a risky strategy. many people can’t afford their instate school even with instate tuition. UW will cost your family about $30k per year. If your parents will happily pay that much, then fine. If not, then UW isn’t a safety for you.</p>
<p>For a school to be a safety, you have to know that you have 100% of costs covered. </p>
<p>Ask your parents how much they’ll pay each year. You need to know that.</p>
<p>With very volatile income, I suspect it is difficult for the family to either project next year’s income or to commit to paying any amount of money for any given year. The systems are set up for stable incomes. The OPs family probably depleted all their savings and perhaps went into debt for 5 years. Now 2014 is a windfall year or else was a turnaround year that they probably hope will continue indefinitely, but based on 2008-2013 are not able to project that. Having an outside scholarship will provide a low-frequency filter to this wild volatility. This is what the OP is trying to achieve (re: post #10), and it is not useful to try to get the parents to commit based on zero reserves and likely volatile and unknown future income profile.</p>
<p>What other strategies would people envisage, given that the OPs parents are trying to recover and are either paying off debts or trying to build up a bit of a reserve against another downturn, and income is volatile and uncertain?</p>
<p>This student needs to find out how much the parents will pay for UW. He may find out that they can’t pay for UW, and if so, that school can’t be a safety.</p>
<p>Every year we hear kids say that their instate school is their safety because compared to the privates, it costs a lot less. Then they later find out that their parents can’t/won’t pay that much…so they end up with nothing. </p>