whats the best way to research scholarship opportunities pertaining specifically to me. Some reliable websites would be appreciated. thanks
As most posters will tell you, to make sure you can afford college, you first need to find affordable schools – whether that means a school you can pay for out of pocket (often community college --> transfer), or find a school that will give you guaranteed merit aid for your stats. What are your stats (GPA and test scores)?
Only once you have a good application strategy in place, and are executing on it, should you apply to outside scholarships. Back in the day, I used Zinch, fastweb, Chegg, etc etc etc – anything at all that aggregated scholarship listings, honestly. But you will always have to do your own filtering: all of those sites’ “matching” systems are next to useless – I was matched with many scholarships that were not applicable to me.
I just need to reiterate again that it is very hard, almost impossible, to fund your education with outside scholarships. Being able to do so is not a function of intelligence, or anything else directly, but rather a convergence of many factors like financial need, extenuating circumstances in the home, academic merit, community service, etc. I was able to fund my education with outside scholarships, but ONLY because all of the above factors converged in my case. They usually do not, so fair warning.
You can also check with your high school guidance counselor for suggestions.
Outside scholarships are either incredibly competitive or are for a few thousands dollars and are not renewable.
^ Most are not even a few thousands dollars.
What is your situation? You may have a bad strategy.
If you’re needing aid to help pay for FOUR years of college, then looking for outside awards will not likely work. They’re often for SMALL amounts, hard to get, and ONLY for freshman year.
Kids often make the mistake of cobbling some outside merit for frosh year, and then they have to leave their school because the money is gone after that.
If you need money to help pay for FOUR years of college, then look at the schools that award huge merit for YOUR stats.
What are your stats? What is your career goal?
Thanks for all the replies, I have no intention of using outside scholarship to fund my entire college education. I only asked because a few hundred to a few thousand dollars would still be very helpful. I know that I should be applying to schools I can afford (and I will), but if I am eligible for merit based scholarships I want to take advantage of that.
Ok!
Have you asked your parents how much they will spend each year? If not, please do so. Then have them run the NPCs on schools’ websites to determine if they’re affordable.
However, NPCs will not be accurate if there is a noncustodial parent or the family owns a business, other properties, and/or takes business deductions.
The very best merit scholarships come directly from the colleges. Have you considered colleges where you have a high probability of getting merit aid…or where merit aid is automatic for your stats?