<p>I have seen and researched options for my D to get scholarships for a wide variety of categories. Most are essay and each one is different. Looking at the amount of time needed for her to create the hundreds of essays, I wonder how many of you Moms and Dads had your, to be college bound kids, create and was there a good "payback" from what you found out there? Most of this is directed to parents who already have kids in College.</p>
<p>Thanks, Dad in Training</p>
<p>My advice is to stay as “local” as possible . . . it makes sense that local scholarships are much easier to obtain due to the fact that fewer students are in the application pool. Go to your D’s school website and check to see if/what scholarships are listed there. If none are listed, call the school. Local businesses and groups definitely provide a lot of opportunities. In my D’s case there were several local scholarship opportunities with groups like the Elks, unions that have local affiliation, local doctors group, etc. There are three high schools in our town of about 85,000 and even in our relatively small town there were thousands of dollars of scholarships available locally. </p>
<p>Another thing to think about is you and your spouse’s background . . . in my D’s case her dad was in the military and she applied to (and received) many awards due to his service and her hard work at doing “one more application” after the seeming millions she’d already done. </p>
<p>We also found some great scholarships, a couple of which my D received, via Fastweb Scholarships (just search and it will come up, can’t put in URL here) If you take the time to complete the profile piece, many of the scholarships are tailored to type of degree your D is pursuing. Of course there are some “advertising ploy” type scholarships where you fill out a simple application and then you probably get a lot of solicitations. Those applications are easy to spot though. </p>
<p>Best wishes to you and your daughter!</p>
<p>Thank you…sounds like solid advice. Will keep looking on the local front and the local high schools too.</p>
<p>Check w/the specific schools your kiddo is considering auditioning for. Is she a kid w/exceptional stats and GPA? If so, many schools have some big academic awards – some of which are guaranteed – for a kid w/the stats they want to attract. </p>
<p>Schools to think about (that we know of…I am sure there are others) that have strong MT programs and that give large awards for academics (talent awards are out there…but cannot be depended upon). Elon – has “Fellows” program (an on-campus competition); University of Cincinnati – Cincinnatus (another competition, up to full ride), Ball State (variety of awards, flagship is the Whitinger Scholar, competition).</p>
<p>Some other schools, like Point Park, Otterbein, Baldwin-Wallace have awards that are more or less guaranteed for those test scores and GPAs. Look at the schools your d is considering; check the NPCs (Net Price Calculator). There you can put in things like GPA and test scores, and it will often show if there are guaranteed scholarships for these.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that many of the Fastweb and similar awards are one year only…so consider that when making the cost/benefit analysis of the award she is considering applying for.</p>
<p>Good points momma frog . . . the school academic scholarships are the heftiest too! </p>
<p>In regards to Fastweb and similar awards: In my D’s case, all of her scholarships are renewable except for one, and it was for $500. Of course, that doesn’t mean that she’s guaranteed to receive them, but they are definitely renewable.</p>
<p>I started to write a reply that sounded good in my head and involved saying things like, “if your kids spends 2 hours on an essay for scholarship and wins $500… that amounts to pretty much the best paying job she/he will ever have in theatre”.</p>
<p>Then I got real and realized that advice was exactly what I kept telling my MT kid in the moment but the reality was that it sounds great… but time is really precious when you are in the thick of the college hunt. So dadintraining, what I would say to you is this, your best odds for scholarship money will always be with the schools you are applying to that want your daughter. If you have time outside of that to apply for other things — do it. But if you need to triage, focus on the schools. They give out the majority of the money. The rest is $500 here, $3000 there (not sneezing at it) but the schools themselves are the ones that are in the position to say $20K/year here etc…</p>
<p>That is what i have been doing at the moment (focusing on the schooling my D is interested in applying to and also feel that after that, if we have time, we can try for the $ 500. here or there.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Dadintraining, I thought it would be much easier than it actually was for my D to obtain random scholarships. She has excellent grades, test scores, extra curriculars, and LORs, but no luck on any of the scholarships. She ultimately received her money from her college. Looking back, I shouldn’t have had her waste her time with those applications and essays in the midst of BFA auditions.</p>