Hi! Some of you may be familiar with my financial situation and to ease the burden of potentially being a full pay student somewhere, I am looking for some scholarships. However, I’m really struggling to find scholarships that are for my major (Communications) and that do not factor need in. All I get are a lot of Do Something campaigns that I don’t have time to do. So I am really interested in essay scholarships that have deadlines in March. I’ve looked on fastweb, and I got 10 total scholarships that are a “fit”. And when I go on meritaid.com, I’m only finding stuff for specific school scholarships. I am looking for something that can apply to multiple schools. It doesn’t have to be an essay, but it can’t be one of those Do Somethig campaigns. Any help? And it cannot have a need component because I will not get it if it is. Preferably something over $1000 and renewable.
Calicash…good luck. Most of these outside scholarships are one time awarss, and the vast majority are for $1000 or less.
You may have already done this - FWIW, here’s my suggestion. Go to some high school web sites of schools near you or high schools near your university of choice and browse those school web sites for scholarship opportunities. GCs often have a page of scholarship opportunities and some GCs are more thorough than others. My child’s school staff tell students and parents to browse the other schools’ scholarship list pages in case they missed something. Good luck!
@CaliCash did you see “social media” scholarships like on collegeNETdotcom?
Hi Cali. I think @Thumper1 is right. Most outside scholarships I’ve seen are one time awards of ~$250. The conventional wisdom on CC seems to be that the best aid comes from the schools themselves. You might try searching the Financial Aid & Scholarships forum for outside scholarships, but I suspect if any substantial ones existed they’d be pinned to the top like the Gates and others are. Good luck with your search.
Calicash…even at smaller amounts, look for local scholarships in your community. While these are one time awards, they will at least help for this year.
But you will need to report your outside schoarships to your colleges. It is required. These outside scholarships will reduce your financial need, and could reduce your need based aid awards (as I recall, you were anticipating need based awards the first two years…but not the second two when YOUR EFC would be $70,000 a year).
However, if you actually need money for all four years…that is another whole issue.
The best scholarships come directly from the schools.
@thumper1 Then what’s the point of ever getting a scholarship if it just takes away from what I would get in the first two years?
Every school has their own policy regarding reducing aid when scholarships are awarded. You would need to check with each school to get a definitive answer.
Calicash. Check with your colleges. Some allow “stacking” of awards…but some don’t. And some might allow an outside scholarship to reduce the efc…but many do not.
If you are receiving need based aid…it would take the COA and first subtract your family contribution (because your family is exoected to pay that amount…and schools do not award need based aid to cover the family contribution).
Then any net cost would be reduced by aid you receive.
If there is a gap between the aid and your COA minus family contribution, the school might allow an outside scholarship to fill that gap. Might…because some schools will say that the outside scholarship reduces your need…and they would reduce your need based aid. Usually loans and work study are reduced first…before grant aid.
Colleges will not award need based aid to pay the family contribution in the very vast majority of cases.
You need to find out the policies of your colleges…all of them…as YMMV depending on the college.
@CaliCash
It doesn’t sound like you’d qualify for much/any aid from most schools, so scholarships would reduce what your family has to pay.
However, I know your situation and applying to a bunch of outside awards isn’t going to get you what you want. You want to reduce the costs for all 4 years so that your mom will be happy with the net cost.
@mom2collegekids Then what can I do to reduce the costs? Because even if I go to the cheapest college available, that’s still thousands per year and I don’t want to put that heavy burden on my family. Even if it’s $20,000 per year, over 4 years, that’s a mortgage!
Well, you can work over summers and contribute that money. You can commute to a local school and that would cost a LOT less.
You can choose a school that would give you a LOT of merit for your stats.
If you don’t want your parents paying much, then you need to choose other options. Going away to school is often very expensive…which is why most kids commute.
I know it’s frustrating, but that’s the situation in most cases.
@mom2collegekids I’m not applying to anymore schools. I don’t want to, and I couldn’t even if I did (transcript request limits). So any other options? And I will try to find work. I worked last summer.
Cali…this has been hashed over with you on multiple threads over time. The issue of affordability was addressed. The issue of aid was addressed. The issue of costs was addressed.
Do you have affordable options on your list of accepted schools…or not?
FWIW, the schools my D is applying to use outside scholarships to reduce loans and work study in FA packages. So need is reduced, but not grant aid unless the outside scholarship exceeds the loan+work study amounts.
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not applying to anymore schools. I don’t want to, and I couldn’t even if I did (transcript request limits). So any other options? And I will try to find work. I worked last summer.
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@CaliCash
Did you apply to any affordable schools?
Which schools ON YOUR LIST will your parents pay for ?
Right OHmom. But those schools do not reduce the family contribution…right?
No, they just reduce loans and WS before grants. Which does, in a way, reduce it since both of those are things you have to either earn or pay back.
I realize not all schools have this policy but I checked with D’s this year.
ETA: I don’t think my info helps the OP at all who seems to need a lot more than the $7K typically awarded as loans/WS, but I thought I’d mention it for anyone else reading the thread. WHen S’12 was applying I erroneously believed schools would reduce grants by the amount of the outside scholarships and told him not to bother.
The best I have seen is to reduce work study + loans, then to allow the student to use remaining excess funds for a laptop computer before decrementing the grant aid (but not the EFC). It always seemed a bit strange that institutional merit aid would decrement EFC, but it seems that outside scholarships (i.e. extramural merit aid) never do.