<p>First it was the testing. Then the applying. The essays. The reporting. The fin aid reporting. The 7th semester grades. All these hurdles of this last year. Now, down to applying for "outside scholarships". </p>
<p>Are your kids cooperating to complete these? S has filled out at least 1/2 dozen of them with another 1/2 dozen yet to be done. While it was a bit of a struggle to finish them along with everything else, I have to say he hasn't complained too much. He has an interview today for one of them he applied to, but hasn't heard back from anything yet. The first one received is so rewarding and sure would help to get more completed! Nothing like pointing out that the couple of hours spent on an application in exchange for $500, $1000 or whatever is really, really worth your time. Best hourly rate they may EVER make!</p>
<p>^ "Are your kids cooperating to complete these? "</p>
<p>Not really. It’s the essays that turn my S off to many of these scholarships. I’ve used the same logic about hrs. spent vs. payback$, but he’s really dragging his feet. He recently won a small, local scholar/athlete scholarship and seems to feel his work is done.</p>
<p>We had decided to forget about national or state level scholarships and only apply to the local ones this time around. But the school just put out the list for this year, and it is much diminished from previous years. Of them, there is probably only one D has a legitimate shot at. When S went through the process, I think he applied to at least 15 or so local ones and received several. All but one of them is missing from this year’s list.</p>
<p>It was like pulling teeth to get D1 to apply to local scholarships when she was a senior. She was so burnt out after the first semester college app season. Later, when she was attending college, she said that she was sorry (for our sakes) that she didn’t apply for more scholarships. Day late, thousands of dollars short…</p>
<p>My son applied to an essay contest. It was a painless entry because all he had to do was submit an essay he already wrote for one of his college apps. He didn’t win. </p>
<p>He also applied for an Army ROTC scholarship, which he received. To be honest, that process was so long and drawn out that I was amazed he stuck with it. Maybe that’s one of the ways the army assesses a candidate’s commitment.</p>
<p>Our son has been cooperative on this front, but we’re not asking him to do a lot. We went through the long lists of scholarships on the school’s Naviance pages and FastWeb and chose about 6 that seemed like good bets. We’ve done 2 of them so far, with two more coming up soon. He’s been good about it. I think he understands the stakes.</p>
<p>My son has applied for about a dozen outside scholarships. Most of them are local or state; we skipped ones like Coca-Cola where he almost certainly would not win anything. We also looked carefully at how much effort the application would require. If he could re-use a college app essay, go for it; if an entirely new research paper was required, forget it.</p>
<p>He’s heard from three of them so far. He won something from two of them, nothing from the third. That seems like a good return on investment.</p>
<p>D’s done a few that only required same essay she has already written or little other extra work. I wish she’d done more as it’s a numbers game, but I’m so done with this. I will ask her to do more, but not going to make myself (or her) crazy. The local list from her guidance dept comes out on April 1 – (hopefully before the week she gets off actually) – will try to get her to do some of these.</p>
<p>I am offering DS a cut of any winnings. Having him put skins in the game :)</p>
<p>For example, he’s applying for one worth $7500 for which he has to write an essay (only 250 words but its a stupid topic). If he wins, he gets $1000.</p>
<p>Unless you are realllly in need or URM, Go for local. Skip the national.<br>
Encourage HS senior to a) focus on finishing strong and b) enjoying the last semester of HS.</p>
<p>3 years ago when S was in 9th grade and D in the 6th grade there was a circular in his take home packet about a scholarship eligible for kids K-12. I gave my kids the big lecture…my job is to do my best to earn enough to pay for a decent undergraduate degree for each of you. Your job is to get the best grades/qualifications to get into the best school for you…AND you must apply for all applicable scholarships…so after the speech I made each do the scholarship assignment thinking that it was a lesson for the future. </p>
<p>S complained and moaned and said he would never win (the prize was a huge $$ account in a 529 plan)…so I said…this is so big, you win, I buy you a car! (with zero expectation of being required to do th is)…Of course he won! We bought him a very cheap car two years later. </p>
<p>So my advice as a parent is start them applying for t hese things early so they see benefits and don’t push back when they are burned out…now he is a senior and also very tired of the whole application business…but still I make him apply to all the school scholarships and a small group of local/private scholarships and competitions. It isn’t enough to earn the big scholarship…he has to continue to try to ease the financial burden through additional scholarships. To motivate applying to scholarships at schools he may want to attend to I have said that I will not help pay for that college if he doesn’t at least try to get a scholarship there. In addition, I do all the printing/labeling/tracking dates/filling out crazy forms – he does the essays or jumps through any other hoops they come up with. The lesson…you can’t win if you don’t enter and paying for college is a FAMILY undertaking not a PARENTAL obligation.</p>
<p>I’m a student who’s applying for a ton of these and I didn’t realize it was negotiable. If you’ve worked hard and put yourself in a position to get these, it’s just free money sitting right there. But hey, to each his own.</p>
<p>I researched scholarships a lot for our first kid. It seemed like so many required significant essays – and were often won by home schoolers who had the time (or could be assigned the task). </p>
<p>I think the local stuff is the way to go. </p>
<p>I spent a day reading scholarship applications for a local college and I have to say that what leaped out right away was the letters of reference. Again and again I would put two very similar sounding kids into two different piles (go ahead pile or stop here pile) because of what the letters of reference said. </p>
<p>What was odd was that enthusiasm was more important than WHO was writing the reference. One of the best was from a baker who just went on and on about how hard the kid worked. It wasn’t the best English writing in the world, but you could tell that this boss thought the kid was a winner (and it sounded like the baker had hired and fired enough people to know). </p>
<p>Find somebody who really likes you (not a big name who barely knows you) to write your references.</p>
<p>DS1 didn’t apply to the one that would have gotten him some real cash, but the ones on some “Fast-something” web page were a total waste. He ended up getting nice merit from colleges at least.</p>
<p>I’ve been trying to find more local scholarships for DS3 and haven’t found any. Seems that every one I’ve come across is very specific: for Black students, or women, or artists, or low income. Nothing fits. Can you post where you’ve found out about these scholarships?</p>
<p>The only major one I know of that is still open is the Sammy Body By Milk (referenced by ish76 above, and fwiw I think it’s a unique, but not difficult, topic), and that is only going to be worth it strong student-athletes. I primarily used fast-something, but found a few more going back over with a website called scholarshipexperts. </p>
<p>For a complicated set of reasons, I qualify for essentially 0 local scholarships, so I’m stuck with only the big national ones. It looked like I’d be alright when I got the Elks MVS and semifinalist of another one, but lately my luck’s run very dry, so I may not receive much more. These all have such long odds that one never knows. Worse percentage chances than one has for getting into Harvard. Even though I started early, going back through I realized that I missed a few back in the fall that I could’ve probably gotten. Oh well. Nevertheless, I’ll already receive a minimum rate of $100/hour for this work, which is sure better than what I get at my job…</p>
<p>I avoided the ones solely based on the essays as well. Not my cup of tea and too much work for a small chance.</p>
<p>“Unless you are realllly in need or URM, Go for local. Skip the national.”</p>
<p>not true. I’m white and middle class and received all three national scholarships I applied for. if you think you qualify, apply. it can’t hurt.</p>