<p>I am a highschool junior and am very confused on whether or not I should start applying to scholarships that I am elegible for. My reason is that my school's guidence councler tells me that it's best for me to wait until next year my (senior year), because the amount that fafsa will grant to me will be lowerd if I have won any scholarships. I am a bit worried about waiting so much because I plan to attend an Ive League college which is at least 45,000 per year and my family for certain reasons will only be able to contribute a very small amount---only a FEW thousands. I have found so many scholarships that I can apply for, but am hesitating. What should I do?</p>
<p>What you need to do first, is sit down with your parents' financial information and run one of the FAFSA calculators and one of the CSS Profile calculators. You can start with the ones at EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?. This will give you a reasonable estimate for what the colleges and universities will use for your Expected Family Contribution (EFC).</p>
<p>After your parents recover from the shock of learning what their EFC is (Be warned, tears and shouting may be involved. If your parents drink, you may want to lock the liquor cabinet.), sit down with them and find out EXACTLY how much money they can pay. Find out EXACTLY how much debt they are willing for you to take on. Use this information to make up your own personal true family contribution.</p>
<p>When you have that figure, go back to your college list and see whether they are indeed reasonable options.</p>
<p>I guess I don't understand why your guidance counselor would tell you not to apply for scholarships now. In my opinion, winning FREE MONEY now for your education is a much better option than holding out on the chance that your FAFSA EFC will come in low enough to possibly qualify your for financial aid next year. And, just because your EFC is low does not necessarily guarantee you that you will get free money, you may be offered loans to make up your need instead. And, I may be wrong about this, but I am not sure that winning a scholarship now will have any impact on your EFC anyway next year, because I would think that most scholarship providers would not even give you the money until you started school anyway.</p>
<p>Finally, by senior year, there are lots of students out looking for scholarships so the competition to win them is greater. This is not to say that there is no competition for the junior level scholarships, but I tend to believe it is less because there simply are not as many students even thinking yet about college money, never mind applying for scholarships.</p>
<p>Go ahead an apply now. Scholarships don't affect your EFC. Scholarships affect what federal aid you are entitled to, given your EFC. Regardless of whether you get them this year or next year, you still have to report them, and it will adjust your Financial Aid Award at the time they find out about it.</p>
<p>You need to check and see the scholarship requirements. Some scholarships are ONLY for students who will be attending college the following year. In other words...seniors.</p>
<p>There's no downside to applying now. Perhaps your counselor would like to see you get an aid package first, but by then it would likely be too late to apply for outside scholarships, and the school would amend your aid package anyway once they learned of the outside awards. It's true that if you have $20,000 in unmet need that would have otherwise been met with need-based aid, and you earn $5,000 in outside scholarships, colleges will assert that you now have only $15,000 in unmet aid (which, while disappointing, is conceptually true if you think about it). But there are good reasons to still seek outside scholarships. Some schools have requirements that students chip in a couple thousand dollars of their own earnings toward their financial package, and are willing to let you replace that work assignment with outside scholarships if you have them. Also, if you win any outside awards, you might be able to communicate with the donor to see if they will stipulate that it be used for something other than academic year expenses - summer study abroad, for instance. Show this thread to your counselor - I'd presume that most of us who are responding are parents of college students who have outside scholarships, and we all say "Go for it."</p>
<p>Research and line up the scholarships now - as a junior, so that when the applications come out for next year you are ready to go. Maybe even draft a few essays. Researching scholarships takes time; writing essays takes time. On top of school work and college apps, finding and applying for scholarships in Senior fall may be overwhelming.</p>
<p>On one FA officer said, think of researching and applying for scholarships as a really well paying job. Invest 5 hours and pull in $500 - beats McDonalds!</p>
<p>Just be forewarned that scholarships can be really difficult to win. That's not to say that you shouldn't try, but don't count on them as a means to pay for college. The talk with your parents is most important.</p>