<p>I read the "if you knew then what you know now" thread, which was really helpful btw, and wonder, "how did you deal with the trade off between, for example, working on scholarship apps and studying for the SAT I&II?"</p>
<p>Should you spend more time trying to get into the school you want, or balance it with your budgeting needs? What are your experiences?</p>
<p>My parents are well out of the range for receiving FAFSA support, if that gives you and idea of how badly I need scholarship money. Basically, there are a lot of people who should get it before I do.</p>
<p>DS is a scholarship recipient. He took the SATs in May of his junior year, and October of his senior year. Both dates were LONG BEFORE any of his scholarship applications were due. If you are taking SAT 2s your senior year, you aps and scholarship applications would already be complete. I don't see where there is a conflict. You should be able to prepare for the tests AND apply for scholarships...lots of kids do this.</p>
<p>I hate FAFSA. People lie and essentially cheat their way to reduce college payments. I should just take my college fund and buy a car with it instead ;)</p>
<p>My son is a scholarship recipient as well. He took SAT in May and October and SAT IIs in Nov of Junior year, June also and Nov of Senior year. He didn't have much time to review since he was involved in IB. He did all his apps for both regular admissions and music audition tapes etc. between Nov and Jan. Then he wrote essays and filled out forms for scholarships and financial aid. He had a busy roller coaster year! In the end, he thinks it was all worth it.</p>
<p>I made a decision not to start scholarship applications until I had finished all of my college applications. In fact, I filled out most of my scholarship applications after acceptance to colleges. This will work for most scholarships. </p>
<p>However, for huge, huge national awards, you may have to start in junior year. If you decide to go for the big ones, you may have to fill out applications while studying for the SATs or applying to colleges. Actually, for those applications, it probably won't be the application fill-out so much as essay-writing, muscial masterpiece-creating, medical research, huge community projects-type things that are just basically good to do regardless of scholarship money.</p>