<p>I have stopped bothering applying to scholarships with a chance of 1 in however many thousand people apply, especially because these are usually essay contests and I am not good at writing essays. I was wondering what scholarships have the best odds (the most amount of scholarships given out)? I know that Coca Cola gives out 250 and Elks gives out 500, so are there any more in the 50 and up range? Thanks!</p>
<p>You might want to look for local scholarships. There may be fewer scholarships awarded, but in theory fewer people apply.</p>
<p>While the odds of winning (number of awards given / number of applicants) is a valid selection criteria, you really need to also look at:</p>
<p>the amount of the award (eg. $500 vs. full tuition)
whether or not it is renewable
how much work the scholarship application will take
how well your profile fits what the scholarship is asking for</p>
<p>KFC Scholars gives out 50-75.</p>
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<p>The number of scholarships awarded may sound large, but you need to compare it to the number of applicants. 85,000 to 100,000 students apply for those 250 Coca Cola scholarships. </p>
<p>Generally, the more local a scholarship is, the better your odds. Ask your GC about city or regional scholarships where you stand a better chance.</p>
<p>it’s hard but keep working at it, i applied for daniels fund, it is for colorado wyoming nebraska kids i think. Local scholarships are better like everyone says</p>
<p>If you want an assured scholarship, then apply to schools that will definitely give you a specified scholarship if you have the right stats and you apply on time.</p>
<p>Where are you applying?</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for your input! Unfortunately there aren’t many scholarships in my area that I’m applicable for (I’m not a minority, etc.), but the advice from all of you is wonderful (especially the advice from entomom and the encouragement from jag2618)! I’ll keep searching! Thanks again! I really appreciate it! :D</p>
<p>What are your stats? Where are you applying? There may be scholarships offered at your choice of schools.</p>
<p>whiteandnerdy: About 95% of the scholarship dollars floating around every year are given by the colleges themselves, not multi-national corporations or local service organizations. College money, when it’s awarded, tends also to be larger, sometimes much larger, than the nickel-and dime prizes found on sites like fastweb, etc.</p>
<p>If I might make a suggestion which could be a far better use of your time: Instead of trying to hunt down and apply for many relatively small scholarships (with a decent chance that all your hard work will get you nothing at all), you might want to think about re-orienting your search. Spend your energy looking instead for schools that are generous with aid money, and then apply to those for whom you’d be a top candidate. In other words, find schools which would really want to pay to get you. In many cases, you won’t even have to apply separately for an institutional scholarship; your admission application IS the scholarship application. Go where the money is. ;)</p>
<p>mom2collegekids: The schools that I’m applying to that would require a scholarship are UNC, Johns Hopkins, Boston College, and Northwestern. I’m applying to safeties that wouldn’t require a scholarship (I have Bright Futures), but I would prefer to go out of state which is why I’m still looking. Unfortunately from what I can tell UNC gives the most aid of the four, and there isn’t very much merit-based aid available from UNC (again, from what I can tell) :(</p>
<p>Lasma: Thank you, I will look into that! It’s not too late to change my list of colleges, and that seems like a much more worthwhile way to spend my time and energy :D</p>
<p>w&n,
Since you have BF, I’m assuming you’re from FL. UNC-CH has some excellent OOS merit scholarships, but they only go to the tip top candidates that apply. JHU and NU (I’m not familiar with BC) also offer very few merit scholarships. Do you know that you’ll qualify for need based FA from these schools?</p>
<p>I agree with Lasma that going with colleges that offer good merit aid tend to be a better idea than going for lots of outside scholarships. However, you need to look for schools where you’ll be in the top 5% or so of the applicants. By definition, good schools for merit tend to be safety or match schools for your stats.</p>
<p>What are your stats? </p>
<p>Have you looked at those colleges to see what merit they offere (if any)? I don’t think BC does.</p>
<p>Lasma is right; you need to apply to some schools where the money is at.</p>
<p>If you tell us your stats, we can recommend some schools, but you’re getting close to deadlines (and have passed some already).</p>
<p>Yes, I am from Florida, sorry I didn’t mention that! My stats are 1540/2280 SAT, top ten (out of about 650), 13 APs by the time I graduate, etc. but my ECs aren’t spectacular so I don’t think that I’ll be getting one of the approx. 5 scholarships at these schools</p>
<p>Your stats are good. What are you interested in majoring in?</p>
<p>The other advice to look for merit aid at specific colleges is good. Last year, my son applied to many, many scholarships. The only one he won was given out by a foundation in our area, and it was only for $750 (non-renewable) – nice, but wouldn’t make a dent in the tuition at BC, Northwestern, etc.</p>
<p>From what we found, if you are low income or minority your chances at the bigger scholarships offered by organizations outside the colleges themselves are much better. Otherwise, merit aid at specific colleges is much better.</p>
<p>Best wishes.</p>
<p>With your stats, you could get assured good-sized merit scholarships from many schools - such as Tulane, St. Louis U, Univerity of Indiana, etc.</p>
<p>OP: Here is a list to get you started. This is from the Parents forum; there’s another in the Financial Aid & Scholarships forum.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html</a></p>
<p>Remember, as several have said, that you’re looking for schools where you’d be one of the top applicants. Make them buy you! :D</p>
<p>Mom6350- I’m not sure yet about majors. Thank you so much! I really appreciate all of your help!</p>
<p>Mom2collegekids- I’ll look into those, that sounds like a great idea! Thank you!</p>
<p>LasMa- This is a wonderful list and I’m so grateful that you sent it to me! Thank you! :D</p>
<p>Thanks again for all of your amazing advice and help! :D</p>
<p>Thank goodness someone else said it so I can tell my mother and not feel so guilty- there is no WAY I am getting these random scholarships, it just isn’t in the books, I will be much better off focusing on local and my university scholarships.</p>