I am having trouble finding scholarships for college in engineering that do not require you to be a minority or female. In fact most require that? Isn’t that the definition of discrimination?
Did you apply to colleges where you would get scholarships based on your SAT and GPA? The best scholarships come from the colleges directly.
But he’s right that there are more engineering scholarships for females, minorities, and military dependents.
OP, there are DOD programs, but the deadline has passed for this year. https://smart.asee.org/
There are scholarship for white males. You have to look into HBCU. Certain HBCU are offering diversity scholarships to white people to increase diversity in their schools. The scholarships mostly go unused and over looked because most white either don’t know about them or are not comfortable with being in the minority.
You have to think outside the box when looking for money for college.
Those private scholarships can choose whatever they want as their criteria. If I wanted to set up a scholarship for people who have dyed hair and blue eyes and are going to major in Underwater Basket Weaving, I can do that. It’s my money. Just because they don’t want to give you their money doesn’t make it discrimination. They’re not required to give it to anyone.
There are fewer women and minorities in engineering than there are white males, so they don’t need to encourage white males to go to school for engineering.
Even those of us who ARE minorities don’t qualify for those scholarships; most are need-based so you can’t really have any kind of income.
My 3 kids tried constantly for those but our family is not flat broke, so we didn’t qualify for anything.
So basically you have to be a minority, female, no income or from a family with 0 EFC to qualify for most scholarships on the internet— And I specify “internet” because I know there are always local or specific scholarships to the actual university or location for students. And who is to say ‘they’ don’t need to encourage white males to go into engineering? Why not every person, student, and kid who has an interest or knack for the field?
A white kid (or ANY kid) can qualify for merit scholarships for eng’g (or other majors) if they have the STATS and apply to the schools that award them.
So…yes…white males (and all males and females) are encouraged to go into eng’g.
Did you apply to schools that would give you merit for stats? If not, why not?
Are you the parent or student??
[QUOTE=""]
Thank you all for your responses! Here are his stats.
[/QUOTE]
3.91 weighted gpa
25 act. 680 math 480 English 480 writing. Act better
6 credits from Pitt for French 1&2
4 AP classes
Rest all honors
Electives include robotics, digital and game design, mobile app design. Loves physics, calc, and computer science.
We live in western pa. He wants to go away to “experience” college but not too far from home. He has gotten excepted at Westminster and allegheny and most likely Gannon. Has gotten accepted at slippery rock honors program. He likes computer science at the liberal arts schools and sru has a major computational physics. Applied there because his mom went there. He has to check the accredited status for them. Seems like even with merit aid all private coa ends up being around 24k. He was blown away with PSU and is first choice. Possible civil or mechanical or cs. He also liked the ist program at PSU.
Efc is about 5k. We have saved about 35k for his college. I assume we will get some grants too.
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
I can see why you’re looking for aid. PSU campuses are lousy with aid and you may not qualify for much aid…a small Pell Grant and maybe a small PA state grant. So, is it safe to say that you’re looking for aid to cover other costs?
How will you cover the other costs?
Look beyond the big name schools at directionals and smaller private schools. There are scholarships you just have look outside the usual list of engineering schools. Try the Merchant Marine Academy as well.
Most kids have to get student loans and the avg graduate comes out with over 35K in debt. Thanks economy
With those stats I would think getting in a reputable Engr program would be hard even if the applicant has blue skin, one eye and walk on his hands … never mind scholarship.
Stats not issue- has 4.29 gpa this semester, I know all schools weighted different. We are happy he is going to college and with honors! Only ‘outside’ scholarships we are having difficulty finding any- like fastweb scholarship.com etc…
Stats are an issue. Test scores are typically the #1 factor in merit scholarship awarding at schools. Those scores won’t get scholarships. Especially not in engineering, where applicants tend to be more competitive than many other majors.
You are looking for scholarships for an engineering student. This student would need to have better stats than the ones posted upstream to get substantial merit as an engineering major.
Sorry…stats do matter when it comes to scholarships…and especially for engineering.
Thanks hopefully the scholarships will come after the first year of college. Assuming he will do well. Thanks for the input all :))))))
Looking for scholarships “on the Internet” is a waste of time for almost everyone. The colleges themselves offer the best merit scholarships to their incoming students. Stats ARE the issue for him getting merit aid – it is not about GPA, it is about test scores. My unhooked Caucasian D got some pretty good merit offers – but she applied to schools that offer merit where her test scores were high for their pool. If you are looking for merit, you have to let that be a driver to some extent of the application list. Fastweb isn’t going to get you there. And Penn State isn’t very affordable for anyone, you have the misfortune of living in a state with expensive state colleges.
I assume he does not have all his aid packages yet – have you run the net price calculator on each school’s website? Your FAFSA EFC doesn’t tell you what his cost will be at each college, but their calculator may help see what to expect. Some students end up living at home and commuting when they don’t have affordable options, too.
Apparently PA has grants that they give to college students with good grades whose schools nominate them (Ready to Succeed grant). First-come, first-serve, and must be nominated. Wouldn’t count on it though.
If you have ever walked into an sea of cubicles filled with engineers, you will find that 90+% of them are caucasian males. So is it any surprise that there are more scholarships for women and minorities interested in engineering? The purpose of a scholarship is to recruit the desired applicant, whether for a college or for a job.
You mention robotics - does your high school have an official FIRST Robotics team, and, if so, are you a part of it? The well-respected private engineering university near me awards $10K to first-year students who have been on a FIRST Robotics team. This school also offers $15K scholarships to students who attend high schools that are designated as National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Math, Science and Technology (NCSSSMST) schools. As you may infer, this particular school is pricey, but their focus is engineering and high-tech, and if you are pursuing those kinds of programs, focus on schools that are looking for you, and see what they have to offer.
Find the best engineering program you can at a university that you can afford, and then, once enrolled, get top grades. Your future employers are never going to ask about your high school stats, but they do like to know your college GPA, and it better be high. Your high school test stats look like a typical engineer - higher in math, lower in English. Makes sense. So aim to be a stand-out engineer by taking speech communication classes and writing classes while you are in college.
And don’t bother going for your Master’s degree. More education is not what you will need as you begin your engineering career - you will need hands-on experience, so get those internships. In the future, let your employer pay for your graduate degree (and they will, especially if a DOD contractor - my husband earned both his MS and PhD, and his employer paid for it all, but he did this after having worked about 20 years, and, even 20 years later, the graduate program wanted to see his undergrad grades.) A co-worker was not admitted because she had a couple of C’s in her undergrad major classes. So GPA will matter, just not your high school GPA.
Like chesterton’s nearby school, the engineering school my daughter attends would give a merit scholarship to OP’s son for that gpa/score combo. There are 3 levels of merit, and the first is for anyone with the stats OP listed, or for Robotics club, or for the STEM high schools, or eagle scout/Gold award, or a few other things. It’s about $15000 for $39k tuition. The second level is about $20k merit, and the ACT score would be really close to qualifying. Top level of merit is about $25k, but the score would need to be in the 30’s. There is no exact grid, as the merit awards are calculated each year for that incoming class, using gpa, scores, and class rank. Each level does not stack, so if you are an eagle scout with top grades and scores, you take the higher merit award. Other grants and awards do stack with the merit award.
So these schools do exist, you just have to look for them and be willing, as some have said, to attend a school that is not well know and may be smaller or bigger or colder or hotter than the dream school. There is South Dakota School of Mining and Tech, there is NM Tech, there are all the western schools like Utah and Montana and Idaho that all have engineering schools and are cheap.