<p>I will be a first year this fall at UChicago having deferred my admission to complete a year of service work. During senior year I was nominated for several private scholarships; however, I was deemed ineligible for most of them as I wasn't going to be enrolled in college this year. I am now running into the same problem again: I'm not a HS senior and I'm not a college student, and no matter where I look (internet) or who I talk to (admissions and finaid offices at the university) there seem to be no scholarships available to students in my position (which can't be the case, right?).</p>
<p>I have set a goal to raise $4,725 in scholarships and any ideas or scholarships you know of would be really appreciated.</p>
It certainly can be. Donors of scholarships make their own rules, and they can and often do specify that the student must be a high school senior going to college the following year. </p>
<p>If you were not awarded a merit scholarship from Chicago when you were granted admission, and did not confirm that the scholarship would be deferred along with your admission, you may be out of luck.</p>
<p>The concept of “gap year” is relatively rare in the US. Many kids either go straight to college or take several years off before applying. So yes, you are no longer in high school and you are not yet in college although you are accepted and know where you are going this fall. If you worked during the time off between high school and college, look at your company or your industry to see if there are scholarships. If you did volunteer work look at that industry. You might also investigate your local community foundation. Foundations often have one-year scholarships for those off to college and currently in college. I know our area foundations only require a copy of the FAFSA, a transcript, info from the college and their own application and for many of the scholarships there is no “exclusionary” language regarding at what point the person is, only that they are heading to college. You might also be able to locate something by searching on “non-traditional student” and scholarship. Use the essay portion of the scholarship application to explain why you took time off and what you did during your time off especially if you volunteered 40 hrs a week and didn’t do any paid job. Finally you should easily be able to earn at least half of the money you are looking for with a spring/summer job, so if you didn’t work during your time off, get a jump on the high schoolers and college kids and nail down a summer job! Good luck, with alittle research and a job you should be able to cover the $$ you are seeking by mid-August.</p>
<p>This is a problem that many who are considering gap years don’t think about. The concept of gap years gets thrown around CC a lot - which is fine if there aren’t any negative financial implications (such as needing merit money for education).</p>
<p>Scholarship pages often don’t state that their scholarships are for current high school seniors who will be enrolling in the fall, but it’s often in the “fine print” elsewhere.</p>
<p>I don’t know the reason for this…perhaps the concern is that SAT/ACT scores taken after fall senior year would be unfairly higher - I don’t know. There may be another reason.</p>
<p>^^I think because historically the kids who took a break after high school were the wealthy who sent the kids to Europe or something and didn’t need aid. Many of the kids that do this now are “paying” for the year or as my friend put it for his offspring who deferred an expensive selective uni for a year and went on a community service trip to the other side of the globe - an expensive vacation. Kids that needed money took the time off after high school to earn money to go to college and often the break was longer than a year or was break plus community college part-time. Those types of kids should look for non-traditional scholarships or industry and community related scholarships.</p>
<p>my daughter is thinking of taking a gap year in Germany immediately after high school and is not aware of how this would limit the number of college scholarships available. this information was extremely helpful.</p>