<p>I'm 16 years old. I graduated last year from high school with a diploma equivalent by taking the California High School Proficiency Exam. I attend my local community college and plan to transfer to a four year university in Spring '13 I currently have 24 transferable units and will have 35 at the end of the Fall semester. I would like to earn a Bachelor's of Business degree and would also like to enroll in an entrepreneurship program or something similar. My family earns over 80,000 a year so it's hard to get financial aid but there is no way I can go to college without financial aid or scholarships so I was wondering 1) if my age and academic achievement make me more valuable to colleges, enough so to get significant scholarships, and 2) what scholarships would be good for me to apply for? (I do not want to take out any loans.)</p>
<p>If anyone else is/was in a similar situation and they have any advice, that would be great too :)</p>
<p>A full scholarship as a transfer students is pretty rare unless you are looking at state schools, which may be different. What you should do is go on websites like fastweb.com and apply to as many scholarships as you can. Academic-based scholarships may also be awarded by the college itself without having to apply (it’s automatically considered along with your FAFSA info - I was able to receive half of my tuition cost as a scholarship when I transferred, and from what I’ve heard since then that was a considerably large amount for a transfer at the type of school I went to). </p>
<p>Your age will likely not have any impact. Your GPA and extracurriculars, as well at recommendations and other application considerations will have the greatest impact on whether the school offers you aid.</p>
<p>Loans are not such a bad thing if you keep them in perspective and work hard to achieve a good education, skill set, and of course, a job. I do not think you should expect to go to college for free. Stafford loans are the best to take out first if you are offered them - from my experience they are also easier to apply for forbearance if you /do/ have difficultly finding a job, the job doesn’t pay as well (I have a ridiculous amount of loans but I’m also saving to apply to grad school, so I deferred my Staffords and am paying my other private loans), or for whatever reason you may need to defer.</p>
<p>I want to add, when I said that “you should not expect to go to college for free,” I didn’t mean it in the way that everyone should have to pay X amount for their education - I meant that in your particular situation, you should not expect to receive a full tuition scholarship, and that you will likely need to pay something since you are a transfer student (unless you win tons of outside scholarships).</p>
<p>Umiami has a transfer scholarship for 16k for anyone over 3.75 GPA. Only offered in the fall though. 16k is a lot but when the tuiton is 39k+, it doesnt help too much.</p>