hi everyone,
prospective literature/philosophy HS student here. for those that have studied those areas in college, are there any scholarships that you have benefited from which are targeted at people who want to go into a humanities major?
thank you very much.
You can find scholarships on search engines.
But your best source of money are the schools themselves. It’s the easiest source too. Most external scholarships are time wasters in applying.
Colleges have the bulk of $$. Some have merit tables - your stats show this, you get that. Other schools are opaque but have $$.
Another source of scholarships could be your parents employers. My company gave $2k and $1k to my kids.
Also look locally - while not easy to get, they are easier than the biggies. Some community members endow scholarships.
You can find scholarships via search engines but in most cases, it’s a lot of work for an unlikely to be positive result. If you need money, apply to the right schools and you can potentially do very well. But here are a few links.
https://www.topdegreesonline.org/scholarships/humanities-majors/
thank you so much for the advice.
There are a bunch of colleges which fit into the “kids who love Brown also love…” category. If you tell us what you loved, we can probably help you with a list-- some of which may offer merit, depending on your stats. And some of which may be cheaper, depending on where you live.
yep. i know. i do have a balanced list. however, i do have a reasonable chance of getting into and enjoying Brown, and i don’t think all humanities students that go there can afford the education without scholarships, so if there’s anything on that as well.
thank you!
Brown has been moving to more generous need based aid over the last decade (I believe it was the last Ivy League school to go need blind/meets full need). Make sure you run the Net Price Calculator to see if you are eligible for need based aid… many students cannot afford the sticker price- hence financial aid.
i have run need based aid. the efc is roughly 10k/year higher than what my parents can give. is this enough to be covered by loans?
So this is great and I assume you are full pay.
Apply to Brown - but know it costs $87648 for one year and still rising. And they accepted 5% of applicants per the last Common Data Set.
Davidson is a bit easier admit letting in 17% - and has a $76450 and still rising cost. And you’re going for a scholarship than is harder to admit at Brown.
So - the reality is - before you start picking schools - you need a budget.
What is the budget? Because if you’re full pay and your budget isn’t $375K (Brown) over four years, then Brown isn’t for you. The likelihood you’re going to put a huge dent in that # is slim to none - short of having need.
So - the proper thing - is to have schools you know you can get into - and can get you to a cost. For example, Kalamazoo is excellent, has an open curriculum, and depending on the student, one can get to the mid-30s.
Davidson isn’t open - but there are schools - from a Furman to a Sewanee to a Rollins to a Gettysburg, etc. that have big merit money and might be like a Davidson.
So the reality is - few kids are going to hit a home run privately. You might pick up a little money here and there although most don’t.
Talk to your high school guidance counselor about local scholarships. Look up local scholarships online. Talk to your parents about scholarships their work offer. That’s all great.
But first things first - what is the budget?
For example, I’m full pay but I limited my kids to $50K each. So applying to schools like Georgetown and Cornell, that my daughter was interested in, didn’t work. Had she gotten in, I wouldn’t have sent her.
So that’s step one - not what your family can afford (I’m assuming full pay) but what they want to afford.
From there, then you pick schools. Maybe it’s a Rochester instead of Yale (open curriculum too) or maybe you chose Brown for a different reason since you have Davidson too.
The other important rule - let’s call it rule #2 - your most important school is one you can afford (don’t know if that’s Brown til you tell us) and that you can assuredly get into - and I know that’s not Brown or Davidson. The other part of that rule is - not only can you get in and afford, but you’d be jazzed to attend.
Too many kids but a lot of effort into their “fantasy” schools but little to no effort in their bread and butter - the safety - choosing a local school that they aren’t motivated to attend.
So do yourself a favor - look for scholarships by ways I’ve shown - but find out the budget because if you’re lucky, the scholarships will give you a small amount of money, but not near enough to attend these schools.
Don’t mean to derail you but want to ensure your mindset is on the right track.
We all dream - but we also have insurance too - and the insurance is the most critical part of the process. There’s lots of colleges out there that likely will come in at a level you need - and are much easier to get into. Brown and Davidson are awesome - but they’re unlikely for all, especially if you need a school’s top scholarship.
Best of luck.
Brown can only be a fit if it’s affordable. So…what is your family budget for you annually for college…and does Brown fit in that price point?
Just remember, the vast majority of local scholarships are not huge dollars and are not renewable for subsequent years. And if you get these outside scholarships AND are eligible for need based aid, your need based aid could be reduced. You need to check colleges to find out their policies on this.
Read the post by @blossom above mine. There are a lot of colleges that do give merit aid to high achieving applicants and major doesn’t matter.
thanks for the heads up. davidson fellow is btw a scholarship [Scholarships for Gifted Students | Davidson Fellows] and not the school. sorry for the confusion.
i am not full pay (efc puts me at $26k/year after need-based aid). to put my application in context here is my match me [http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/t/chance-and-match-me-please-bowdoin-wesleyan-kenyon-pomona-for-literature-major-3-95-1590/3642418/107.], so i would prefer somewhere that’s academically exceptional (and i think i can put in a pretty good application for that kind of school). problem is that i don’t think a lot of these schools are friendly to my budget ($15k/year from my parents, for example). what should i do?
You need to check to see if the Direct Loan is already included in the net price calculator results.
For freshman year, your amount of Direct Loan will be $5500.
I’m not sure the net price calculators have been updated for students starting in 2024. There are some significant changes to the FAFSA formula and these NPCs include things like the Pell grant, for example (it doesn’t sound like you would be eligible). @Mwfan1921 any idea about this…
Can you get a part time job now, during senior year, and then also work full time next summer? That, plus the $5.5K first year student loan should fill that $10kish gap. (Double check like thumper said that the loan isn’t already included in the $26K, I assume that’s from an NPC?)
Then during college do the same…work part time during the school year, full time in the summers.
When you say EFC, are you talking FAFSA or the Brown specific net price calculator.
FAFSA is for federal loan eligibility. But schools calculate need on their own - so your family needs to run the Brown net price calculator.
Each school is different so Brown will look different than Harvard than Davidson than Occidental, etc. Sometimes it’s similar. Depending on the school, often times its higher.
What do you mean by this?
I do have a reasonable chance of getting into and enjoying Brown.
No one truly knows if they’ll enjoy a school until they’re there. But you make your best guess and hope you do. As for a reasonable chance, they accepted 5% overall and 3.8% of RD applicants and 60% of their admits have a 35 ACT and they reject many a perfect candidate.
I hope you get in and can afford it if that’s your goal - but please don’t have a dream school and I don’t want to dissuade you, but you don’t have a reasonable chance of getting in. You have a slim chance of getting in - and that’s ok.
But keep your expectations in check. Nothing worse than kids saying they have a “dream” school - which you didn’t say but you’re setting yourself up for hurt in what you’re saying.
Find a list wide and expansive (sounds like you have it) and don’t fall in love with any.
Good luck.
You cannot borrow 10K per year. Google the federal loan limits to see your caps and to see what your repayment will look like.
Two caveats on local scholarships- one is that some of them which are theoretically open to everyone (i.e. they don’t care what you major in) have a thumb on the scale for needy kids. I served on a scholarship committee for an organization which offered “merit awards”-- but in reality, they were “last dollar awards” intended to bridge the gap for kids who needed $1K or $1.5K which they literally could not get from any other source- they were already getting Pell (a low income scholarship program funded by the federal government), need-based aid from the college, and in some instances, a merit award from a national organization. So if you have not been getting free or reduced price lunch at school-- you are likely not going to fall into the “needy student” bucket for local organizations- even though you have need.
And second- as Thumper mentioned- these local awards are typically for the first year. Lots of organizations (garden club, local realtor’s associations) assume that by sophomore year you’ve found a job which can help fill the gap. It is harder for a freshman who is showing up new on campus to hit the ground running getting a part-time job, so these local scholarships really help. But they aren’t that much help once sophomore year rolls around if you are at a college you really can’t afford!
NPCs aren’t updated and I agree it doesn’t sound like OP qualifies for Pell.
When OP and their parents run the NPCs they have to increase each school’s COA to approximate what it will be in 2024-25…say 5% more than 2023-24.
I don’t remember if OP had anything unusual in their financial picture…divorced parents, and/or parents own real estate or a business, or if there are multiple siblings in college, to take a few examples.
Don’t conflate ranking with this statement.
There are “lower ranked” or unranked schools that are rigorous and I know there’s some kids who attended highly ranked colleges that weren’t overly challenged at all.
Both my kids are at low ranked schools - they went as exceptional students but chose safeties - and both have had their butts kicked.
Find the school that’s affordable to you - and if you seek rigor, you shall find rigor. Attending an unaffordable school will strangle you financially in the long run.
And please don’t make assumptions - about which schools are “academically exceptional” and which aren’t - there’s truthfully no way to know other than research and talking to student ambassadors, etc.
Edit - not saying these are right for you but there are schools with full ride opportunities - more than a few. Some are NMF based. Others like Washington & Lee and SMU - as well as others - offer to all. For W&L, 10% of their students earn a full ride - so that’s the kind of school, if you have a slot open on common app, would be worth a flyer.
Tons of great schools out there - far more than you care to imagine.
Best of luck.
When you say EFC, are you talking FAFSA or the Brown specific net price calculator.
it is the Brown specific one.
I hope you get in and can afford it if that’s your goal - but please don’t have a dream school and I don’t want to dissuade you, but you don’t have a reasonable chance of getting in. You have a slim chance of getting in - and that’s ok.
And please don’t make assumptions - about which schools are “academically exceptional” and which aren’t - there’s truthfully no way to know other than research and talking to student ambassadors, etc.
i’m sorry if i came off as elitist. it’s just that i personally prefer Brown having looked at many colleges. sorry again. my list also consists of schools like Bowdoin (which is much more reasonable with financial aid – i might ED1 there), Wesleyan, and Bennington (a safety for which i have a scholarship already). maybe that’ll give you an idea on which school vibe i am looking for.
btw i am not looking for prestige. i have looked into Brown’s programs and have a niche interest. i joined their college tour and liked it more than any other one. it’s not a dream school either – i’m just saying that that would be my ED1 choice as of now (of course, this is before discussing financial aid) given my research into multiple schools.
is there any financial aid advice for my kind of student?
thank you very much for the suggestions.
clarifying:
that said, are there any scholarships i should apply for?
i don’t have unusual family circumstances. i would say i’m upper middle class.
on adjusting the COA – i will do that. thank you so much for telling me about this.
Op- I just read through your other thread and I’m a little sad. We all told you to stop focusing on the “cut throat culture” as a way to evaluate colleges- but now you’ve replaced that with “academically exceptional”, which is equally unhelpful and misleading.
Where do you live? Let’s start there for what will likely be an affordable option-- your instate flagship.
You are going to find “academically exceptional” students everywhere. And they will be easier to identify in the humanities than they will be in other departments, because NOBODY is studying Akkadian/Sumerian with an eye towards working at the British Museum because they are looking for “easy A’s” or to get their ticket punched!