<p>Does anyone know any scholarship or scholarship websites that have small scholarships for already in college students? I am in need of money for college.</p>
<p>Try your own college. Look at the departmental information on scholarships. </p>
<p>Try to work as much as possible over winter and spring breaks (and summer). </p>
<p>Do you need money right now…or for next school year?</p>
<p>Has your family financial situation changed?</p>
<p>I will probably need it for next school year and I don’t get offered much financial aid</p>
<p>It’s probably best to see if there are some small scholarship at your college. You can look for small scholarships from websites like Cappex and Fastweb but in my opinion those are time-consuming and difficult to win especially if you are already in college. </p>
<p>It’s kind of like trying to pay your rent by winning raffles and playing lotto tickets; yeah it might pay off but you’ll spend a lot of time and energy on it - time that could be spent on more realistic scholarship opportunities or work.</p>
<p>Ill try cappex. i found fastweb just a means to get your email address or cell number and then spam you. </p>
<p>I hate to be that guy, but Cappex isn’t that much better. Honestly, those outside websites are all a crapshoot. It’s like playing the lotto. Yeah, you might win a million bucks, and some people you know might have won something but it’s not the best use of time. </p>
<p>I would exhaust your list of schools that give merit aid first, then go through locally-available scholarships (church and community groups, employers, etc.) and THEN if you have some time to kill go to Cappex and click “Apply” a few thousand times (knowing that there’s a million other kids doing the exact same thing). </p>
<p>Dmitri…I believe this poster is currently a college freshman. She is looking for more money for,the upcoming school year. Her best bet is to look at what her school has to offer. </p>
<p>It is also possible that there are some small local scholarships in her hometown. She should see if she can find that out as well.</p>
<p>I thought most fast web and cappex scholarships were for incoming freshmen. And I do agree,a ton of work for little gain.</p>
<p>The problem with your plan is that even if you find a few scholarships to help offset your costs, you are then stuck with years 2, 3, and 4 to pay for. You are better off if possible applying to schools that offer merit money where you are in the top quarter or better statistically of their student body. The easiest way to get scholarships is from the colleges themselves, not outside sources.</p>
<p>If you are still intent on outside scholarships, go talk to your school guidance counselor and ask if they have a list of local scholarships students from your school have gotten in the past.</p>
<p>Intparent…the OP to this thread is a freshman IN college already. She is not applying to colleges now. She is looking for additional money for her sophomore year of college. See post 3.</p>
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<p>My mistake, @thumper, I should have quoted @proudfather when I was responding to him to make it clearer; he was the one who was contemplating going on Cappex to look for outside scholarships. I didn’t mean that advice for the OP of this thread – for her, I definitely concur that scholarships from her college (probably departmental scholarships or general ones available for current students) are best.</p>
<p>@proudfather What is your child’s situation? She’s a current college student? She’s wasting time with Fastweb and Cappex…she’d be better off finding a part time job. </p>
<p>Looking at past posts, Proudfather was waiting for acceptances for his daughter last March. So his kid is also a current college student. Plus…it’s very hard to follow a thread when someone else high jacks it.</p>
<p>It is hard to find outside scholarships for incoming frosh that aren’t from local community or without some hook (military, etc). </p>
<p>It’s even harder to find outside scholarships for continuing students. Usually those are found within your dept major, but even those are usually awarded to the few top students in the major…because depts usually don’t have much to award…and often focus such awards on upper-classmen who’ve demonstrated top grades within the major. </p>
<p>My older son got an extra one-time top math student award from his dept and it was only $800. Better than nothing, but certainly wouldn’t close any significant gaps…and certainly wouldn’t help for any other college years.</p>
<p>My younger son got two one-time extra awards…one ($2000) from the national engineering honors society that he got his senior year, and one ($1750) endowed dept award that was to help pay for a summer research project after junior year…so didn’t really help with college costs. </p>
<p>When picking out a college it is important to make sure that you have funding for ALL FOUR YEARS…and not rely on later wishful-thinking awards that likely will not come later. If awarded local scholarships as an incoming frosh, note that those awards typically are for frosh year only and if affordability decisions were made based on THOSE awards, then the school quickly become unaffordable after that (I’m always amazed at home many people don’t pay attention to the fact that those awards are one-time only!)</p>
<p>@proudfather and others… your students would likely earn more money working part-time during the school year and full-time in summer rather than wasting time on “scholarship” websites that are just gathering info about you to spam you later.</p>
<p>I’m one who doesn’t believe the student has to have all four years secured before starting school. I don’t think you should have no plans for the future and use all your savings in year one, but scholarships do come up in future years, money can be earned, a break can be taken to earn more money. One of my kids has a good hunk of money ‘promised’ for her 4 years, if she maintains her gpa and plays her sport. We’re still looking for other funds to make up the gap, and there are several engineering scholarships she wasn’t even eligible for as a freshman (or because she wasn’t 18 yet). My other child has enough funding for her first year, but who knows what will happen going forward. She might have to take loans, work, take a break and save up more, apply for more scholarships.</p>
<p>A lot can happen in the years between application and graduation.</p>
<p>That’s true too. Honestly, for me it’s just a risk-averse personality. For me, going on Cappex and Fastweb every year and hoping to close a gap may be acceptable if the gap is a couple hundred dollars, but I would find that terrifying if the gap was like $15,000 and growing each year. Even worse than that for me are the stories of people taking out those crazy Parent Plus things to make freshman year work, only to find that they can’t keep it up for sophomore year on and have to drop out or transfer.</p>
<p>Someone should start a thread - “Post Here if you ever received money from using FastWeb.”</p>
<p>The site-awarded scholarships are a scam/complete waste, but I’ve actually found the list of matched scholarships (from outside institutions) pretty legit/useful. Became a finalist for 5-7, won 2 (found through Cappex). Not much, but it’s something. The sites serve a purpose: compiling a list of awards you would be eligible for, avoiding aimless Googling. Found the HSF (Hispanic Scholarship Fund) awards there, for example, which can be generous, depending on the specific award.</p>
<p>Always look for merit from colleges themselves first, but if you still need some cash even after their monies, it doesn’t hurt to keep looking. Strategically pick the more realistic options & don’t waste time on the rest.</p>
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I’m one who doesn’t believe the student has to have all four years secured before starting school. I don’t think you should have no plans for the future and use all your savings in year one, but scholarships do come up in future years, money can be earned, a break can be taken to earn more money. One of my kids has a good hunk of money ‘promised’ for her 4 years, if she maintains her gpa and plays her sport. We’re still looking for other funds to make up the gap, and there are several engineering scholarships she wasn’t even eligible for as a freshman (or because she wasn’t 18 yet). My other child has enough funding for her first year, but who knows what will happen going forward. She might have to take loans, work, take a break and save up more, apply for more scholarships.
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<p>That may be a fine strategy IF the student isn’t declining a good option where costs are covered to take one where they’re not. When you have to leave because you didn’t have funding for all 4 years, it can be very difficult to go back. Sure, a person might end up being able to return home and then commute to a local public, but how desirable is that IF the student had initially turned down a better situation for a risky situation as an incoming frosh?</p>
<p>Another problem with not having all costs covered is that a number of kids get halfway thru a semester and have a large unpaid bill. Getting that paid and cleared can be extremely difficult for a student w/o a degree.</p>
<p>I don’t think most are turning down full tuition offers to go to another school; mine certainly wasn’t. I don’t have all 4 years of tuition and costs all saved up for my daughter and if I felt that necessary, she’d be working at her h.s. job and still not in college. Her COA is about $25k per year, she gets about $6k in grants and scholarships, and I have enough for her to go for two years, but after that she’ll need another plan (or I’ll need a new job). She might need to borrow, she might need to work, she might get some additional funding. In fact, she picked up almost $4000 for next semester which helps a lot. I think it will work out.</p>
<p>She also picked a school that had a low cost so that if we do run out of money, she has a hope of earning it. I’m not saying ‘throw caution to the wind and just go for it’ but to not go to school as a freshman because you don’t have enough in savings for junior and senior year doesn’t seem like the right call either. There are scholarships for upper classmen. There can be department money. Kids who start on of full scholarship may not need to look for them, but they are there.</p>