Scholarships?

<p>I hope I don't sound stupid, but I've always wondered this. How do people get scholarships to colleges (mostly full rides)? Does the college approach the student or does the student apply and then the college replies with an acceptance letter and scholarship offer? I know I'm ignorant, but please help.</p>

<p>bump......</p>

<p>will someone just answer? I'm sure someone knows...</p>

<p>It can happen either way with merit aid. At some schools, there is a separate scholarship application that you have to fill out and then they will let you know w/ your acceptance, while at others, application to the school is all you have to do to be considered for merit aid.</p>

<p>Usually, a student will fill out an application with all of his or her stats, and when the university sees this, they will then send word of acceptance and scholarship offers.</p>

<p>Full ride scholarships (usually tuition) are found at those colleges who offer merit aid. If you go to the financial aid page of any college website and search for scholarships you will get an idea of whether that school offers this kind of merit aid. The most competitive schools do not offer merit aid at all. Financial aid from these schools is based on your financial need. Moderately competitive schools offer this type of aid but may require some special admission submissions or a early application deadline. Check out University of Rochester, Villanova and Vanderbilt as representative samples of schools that offer "free rides". There are other scholarship possiblities. Check out <a href="http://www"&gt;www&lt;/a>. fastweb.com as one of several sites which monitors scholarship offerings.</p>

<p>Thanks for the replies. So if I applied to schools to which my stats were better (like state schools), what kind of chances would there be for a scholarship offer? (I want to go an ivy-league, but my family is telling me that we are in serious financial trouble and that I need to find a full ride somwhere)</p>

<p>You can't expect anyone to tell you that without knowing your stats, what school you're going to, ect...it depends on a lot of things, including that particular year's applicants</p>

<p>For merit scholarships, you need to apply to schools where you will be at the top of the class in terms of stats. There are some schools that will guarantee money for certain stats, but they tend to be third tier and below. No ivies offer merit money.</p>

<p>If your parents want to pay below their EFC, look at schools where your stats fall in the top 15 or so percent.</p>

<p>well my stats are... pretty good ECs (club president/captain, club founder, club VP, on 2 nationally ranked academic teams, community service)... 3.75 UW/4.22 W GPA (top 10%.. and I think 5% hopefully)... 2210 SAT (800 M, 700 V, 710 W)... my school is public but very competitive (ranked in top 100 in that AP thing and considered the best in my state).. oh yeah and 11 APs by the time I graduate (except all 4s and two 5s so far)</p>

<p>Need based scholarships are available if you really don't have the money. for them, you check the "applying for aid" box and look on the colleges site to see what forms they need--fill out profile and fafsa, probably.</p>

<p>Merit based: again, look on the colleges website. For a state school, if your stats are considerably higher than average for the school, you will probably get aid. If you are considering Ivy League, you could almost definitely get a full tuition scholarship to most state schools. Some will send a thing saying "we think you qualify for our such and such scholarship, apply and fill out this form" some you apply automatically with your regular application (may have to apply earlier--deadlines are very important), others you fill out a seperate application. Many colleges have specific guaranteed scholarships, eg, if you have a 3.5 and 1350 or over, you get $_____________/tuition, or whatever. </p>

<p>Also, for less prestigious privates (maybe states too) be sure to mention all ecs and interests--they may have a scholarship for it. If you interview at the school, let them know that you are concerned about money--if your stats are higher, they will want you and will probably be willing to help you get more money.</p>

<p>That minimum GPA thing concerns me. My UW is pretty low and I realize that, but I've taken the hardest courseload possible at a very hard school (and I did bad freshman and sophomore year, but really well junior). I checked the Villanova site, like mol suggested, and I would need a 3.8+ UW GPA to even have a chance at the scholarships, but my SAT I think qualifies. Is my GPA going to dash my chances at scholarships like with the villanova one?</p>

<p>atomic, there are two streams that sometimes converge. One is needbased financial aid, one is merit money.</p>

<p>For needbased finanical aid your family's estimated financial contribution is calculated using a fairly standard formula. The EFC is what you pay; ideally the college pays the rest in the form of grants, loans, workstudy, etc. There are on line calculators which can give you an idea of your EFC. Caveat: even though the formulas are similar different colleges calculate differently. This is a guideline, not a guarantee.</p>

<p>Some colleges guarantee to meet all demonstrated financial need. Some, due to financial constraints, can only offer part of what you need. Note, this is what THEY say you need. It may not actually jibe with what YOU (and your parents) feel you need.</p>

<p>All of the ivies and most superselectives only offer needbased aid.</p>

<p>Merit money is given by colleges to attract top students or students with talent or diversity status. The range of merit money available is wide. There have been other posts (I think on the parents board) on this topic. Search for a list of colleges that are generous with merit money. It is possible to get both needbased aid and merit money.</p>

<p>After you get your acceptances and financial packages it's still possible to go back to the financial aid departments and renegotiate their offers. How they respond really depends on how much they want you.</p>

<p>In addition to aid there are specific scholarships offered by individual colleges. These are similar to merit money but are usually the rules are more clearly defined.</p>

<p>In any case, you apply to the college and submit a series of forms that document your family's financial situation. After you get your acceptance you receive a financial aid package or offer.</p>

<p>Whether your GPA will be a disadvantage for any particular scholarship, i.e. Villanova, is unknown at this time as you will be competing against their applicant pool for your admission year. At Villanova you could contact the honors program and get more of a sense of their view of your stats and whether it would be worth your while to apply. The same would probably be true at other schools. Remember to look at second and third tier schools whose criteria for these scholarships will be less stringent.</p>

<p>Schools that have published stats for merit money stick to them. Other schools look at you individually.</p>

<p>You should have your family run your financials through an EFC calculator. If you are low income you will surely get tons of need-based financial aid. If you are higher-income, but have 'financial troubles' (debt, I guess) then I'm not really sure how that works, but your family should try to get a little more educated on the situation instead of just leaving it to you to seek a 'full ride.' If the EFC indicates they can pay more but just don't want to then you need to discuss how much the are willing to pay--there are many colleges you could get a $10k merit with no problem. You GC should know.</p>

<p>We could not touch ivy prices, but my dd is able to go to one based on the incredibly generous need-based aid available. Our EFC calculator was very accurate, but our financials are simple.</p>

<p>Don't expect any aid from state schools no matter how high your stats are. Most state schools are so underfunded they have very little aid available. The merit aid from privates tends to bring them into the range of state schools. It's a lot more likely to get a partial, 25%-50%, than a full-ride.</p>

<p>that would depend on the school....</p>

<p>Public universities do provide merit aid for many elite students despite any financial woes they might have. they consider it a good investment to get better students for a relatively low price. Suze, I am not sure that schools that have published stats are always so rigid in following them. Again it seems to be that the merit money is there to attract a better quality student than the usual ones they admit...so if a student looks excellent in many respects but fails to meet a criterion, I think they will be inclined to at least review them for merit aid.</p>

<p>Check your state- Illinois is broke. The only merit money I've heard of from them is that they will give you a scholarship for the difference if you qualify for one of their study abroad programs. They offered this to students with 34 or above on the ACT. Pretty slim pickings.</p>