Hi everyone! I am going to be a senior in high school and am starting to apply to colleges. I will definitely apply for financial aid but was hoping to get as much financial assistance as I can. Thus, can anyone recommend some scholarships I could apply for? I am a classically trained soprano and cellist so I am open to sending in tapes, as well as writing essays for an academic scholarship. Thank you!
The best scholarships come from the colleges themselves. You can look in the subforums here for some national level scholarships.
Good for you for starting to think about this now, not in March when so many have the light dawn on them that college is expensive.
It would be helpful for you to share with us some of your stats - SAT/ACT score, location (state), major, minority status, EFC from the FAFSA etc.
Let me be honest with you from experience:
First thing - realize that while you may think you have financial need - most colleges don’t help out unless the need is dire (less than say <60,000 a year with a family of 4). It doesn’t matter if your family has a big mortgage, or lots of debt, or never saved - won’t help you.
Second thing - sit down NOW and have an honest conversation with your folks about what they can afford. Take it seriously. Don’t allow “oh, whatever you need” No. Pick a few colleges, run their net price calculators, watch jaws drop. Talk again. Be polite and pleasant as you can be, but get the answers.
Outside Scholarship talk:
My daughter won $8,000 in outside scholarships, including Carson, Comcast, Simon Youth and several local only ones. She was very organized and applied to over 100. Her qualifications included raising 3 guide dog puppies, editor of high school newspaper, 3.7 unweighted/4.0 weighted and 1260/1600 SAT.
These are all scholarships with lots of essays, and very little concern about economic situation. She made it to the semi-finalist level in several others (Jack Kent Cooke, Elks) but those took financial need into account.
She got much more money (11,500 a year from Rowan University in NJ) in merit aid from the school she attends. Because of AP transfer of 29 credits and lots of effort, she will graduate in 3 years. Currently has a 3.9 GPA and enters her junior year in the fall. She did not qualify for any race or low income based scholarships.
(She did win a $1,000 scholarship from the college in addition to the merit aid this spring - I was excited that she kept up her searching 
)
I would strongly disagree with the idea to set expectations on “winning scholarships easily” to pay for school. I would advise you to concentrate on finding affordable schools and not to waste money applying to expensive schools you realistically won’t be able to attend. One or two dream applications, fine, but don’t drop $1,000 applying to 10 places instead of focusing on the schools you can afford (and will enjoy especially coming out with low debt!).
I also have a foster son who won Gates Millennium. There were 57000 applicants, 1,000 winners. The scholarship was changed for this year, and there are only 300 winners. That is a huge amount of competition. Nothing is easy money. He had phenomenal grades, activities, leadership, volunteerism and letters of recommendation. He is also a junior with a 3,9 GPA and just completed an amazing 10 weeks in a summer research program with a stipend.
Feel free to continue the conversation here - the people here are much more experienced, and there is a collective will to help out. It enabled me to get two kids thru college who will ultimately have no debt upon graduation.
(Edited: Found your other post and will connect it below. My family loves Tanglewood too )
HelpMeThx - stats (lightly edited by me)
Interested in: Emerson College, Columbia University, Fordham University, New York University, Catholic University, George Washington University, and Yale University.
School Type: Private Catholic Single Sex (Female)
Class Size: about 130
Location: Pennsylvania
Race/Gender: Biracial (Korean and Scottish)
Prospective Major: Unsure (possibly Music, Journalism, or Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality)
Weighted GPA: 3.869/4.0 grading scale
Class rank: no ranking
ACT Scores
Overall: 30
SAT I Scores
Math: 650
Reading & Writing: 680
(Probably won’t send in unless my score increases significantly in August)
SAT II Scores
Literature: 600
U.S. History: 660
(Should I even bother sending these scores in? Would they be a detriment to my application?)
AP Scores:
Music Theory: 5
U.S. History: 4
English Language and Composition: 4
Instrumental and vocal scholar at high school
Extracurriculars:
School Newspaper
-Editor-in-chief (12th grade)
-Contributor (10-12th grade)
-Section Editor (10-11th grade)
School Orchestra
School Musical
Community Service:
Music therapy at nursing homes
Cantor at various Catholic masses
Summer intern at District Attorney’s Office
Music:
Cello
-principal cellist of chamber orchestra
-member of string quartet
-attended the Tanglewood Institute, ARIA International, and Philadelphia International Music Festival
Voice
-lead in school musicals (9th-12th grade)
-attended the Peabody Institute for the Classical Singers Workshop
I apologize that this is so late, but thank you for your response! I will most certainly look into the school-related scholarships. I managed to get my SAT score up from a 1330 to a 1420 so I will most likely be sending those in as my standardized testing scores.
@helpmethnx NYU won’t be affordable. They are stingy with aid.
@NJRoadie That is a great amount of scholarship money. Was that per year or total?
Total for outside scholarships was $8,000.
Total for merit scholarships from the school $46,000, broken into yearly amounts of $11,500.
She will be graduating in 3 years through AP credits and “Degree in 3 years” college program.
Dividing evenly across 3 years, it is $14,166 per year from all scholarships on a COA of $28,000, leaving $13,834 a year to pay. Between her savings from work in high school and now, plus our “donation” , she will make it out with no debt, even assuming a COA 4% a year increase.
She is currently in her 2nd year at Rowan (public NJ college), but a junior in credits and will graduate in 2019, not 2020 (a year early). She has a 3.9, made good friends, and we barely see her - by which I mean she has adjusted very well
Original post below:
My daughter won $8,000 in outside scholarships, including Carson, Comcast, Simon Youth and several local only ones. She was very organized and applied to over 100. Her qualifications included raising 3 guide dog puppies, editor of high school newspaper, 3.7 unweighted/4.0 weighted and 1260/1600 SAT.
These are all scholarships with lots of essays, and very little concern about economic situation. She made it to the semi-finalist level in several others (Jack Kent Cooke, Elks) but those took financial need into account.
She got much more money (11,500 a year from Rowan University in NJ) in merit aid from the school she attends. Because of AP transfer of 29 credits and lots of effort, she will graduate in 3 years. Currently has a 3.9 GPA and enters her junior year in the fall. She did not qualify for any race or low income based scholarships.
(She did win a $1,000 scholarship from the college in addition to the merit aid this spring - I was excited that she kept up her searching )@helpmethx : St Olaf has music scholarships that “stack” (you can add them to other merit scholarships and/or need based aid). They’re an excellent school for music, which you can practice at a high level without being a major. In addition, they’ve got a top-notch premed program, math major, economics with management concentration, the “conversations” (Great conversation if you enjoy classical texts, science conversation, etc).
https://wp.stolaf.edu/musicadm/
https://wp.stolaf.edu/musicadm/admissions-instructions/
https://wp.stolaf.edu/musicadm/audition-repertoire-requirements/
@helpmethx please be aware that many schools will reduce your need based FA by the amount of outside scholarships you are awarded.
So you really want to run the NPC and look at college based scholarships.
I didn’t think she was clear if she was eligible for financial aid like Pell Grants (maybe she posted that in another thread). We were only eligible for loans, so my DD winning outside scholarships wasn’t a harm to us, as they did not reduce the merit aid because of them. We did check