<p>I'm currently a high school freshman, and I know its pretty early to be thinking about this kind of stuff, but, I want to know what sorts of things I should be doing in order to get scholarships.</p>
<p>I'm a Indian Male. Moved from India 4 years ago, and now live in the USA.</p>
<p>Here's some stuff I've done so far:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Took AP Computer Science in 7th grade just for fun, prepared only the night before, and got a 4</p></li>
<li><p>Took PreCalc in 5th grade at community college, got an A</p></li>
<li><p>Took AP Calculus BC in 8th grade (should have taken it in 6th grade, but, the school wouldn't let me), got a 5</p></li>
<li><p>Qualified AIME in 8th grade (yeah, sort of late in comparision to others, but, I tried really hard)</p></li>
<li><p>Started programming in 5th grade, wrote a Scheme (programming language) interpreter in 7th grade, lead an open source project and a regular contributor to many open source projects</p></li>
<li><p>I'm just about to launch a software company</p></li>
<li><p>I run a pretty popular programming blog</p></li>
<li><p>I handle a stock portfolio of about $10k</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Here's my current schedule:</p>
<ul>
<li>Orchestra - going to take Violin grade 1 this year, all self taught</li>
<li>Spanish 3 - what I had to take</li>
<li>AP World History - 1 year ahead</li>
<li>Multivariable Calculus - on EPGY</li>
<li>Gym</li>
<li>AP Statistics</li>
<li>Chemistry - 3 years ahead of norm</li>
<li>Honors Language Arts</li>
</ul>
<p>What kinds of scholarships do you think I should be looking at? What are some places where can I find out what kinds of things I'm eligible for?</p>
<p>My parents don't make an incredible salary, so, I would put as little pressure as possible on them.</p>
<p>“I’m a Indian Male. Moved from India 4 years ago, and now live in the USA.”
Are you parents applying for US citizenship? Because that will make all the difference- if you are NOT a US citizen by the time you apply to US colleges, you will be evaluated as an International student, and you and your parents need to understand that there are far few openings for International students than US students, even if you are full pay, and there are very few US colleges that offer financial aid or merit scholarships to Non US students.</p>
<p>You need to get a green card in order to be able to apply as a US student and be eligible for FA and merit scholarships at most US colleges. Ask you parents what their plans are for becoming US citizens.
That said, there are a few colleges that give out a few International student scholarships, such as USC. If you do extraordinarily well in HS, [and you seem to be off to a good start already], then you might have a chance to land one of those rare international merit scholarships. But, your odds of acceptances at good colleges as well as landing merit or need based $$ are going to be MUCH better if your parents can get green cards in the next 2-3 years.</p>
<p>OK! backtracking a bit, you would be eligible for FA / scholarships! Since you are only a freshman, the best advise is to 1] continue taking the most challenging classes that you can take, enjoy and do well in [ EPGY classes are terrific-continue to take them as long as you have interest and time and 2] be sure to prep for the PSAT test. That one little test[ which is a pre SAT test] , taken in Oct of your Jr year, determines who will be named a National Merit scholar, and that designation can mean hundreds of thousands of merit scholarship $$ to the 15,000 students who end up being NMSF each year. Now, you do need to know that the best colleges in the US[ Ivys, Stanford, MIT, Chicago] dont give merit scholarships, but they are very generous to middle class families. Going down the USNWR rankings list just a little on, there are Universities that offer full tuition scholarships to tip top National Merit students[ such as USC] and further down [U of Alabama] that offer full rides. So if you are focused and are a very good student, you can, with smart choices, have a very good chance of winning a lot of merit scholarship $$.</p>
<p>*there are Universities that offer full tuition scholarships to tip top National Merit students[ such as USC] *</p>
<p>To clarify…USC offers HALF tuition scholarships to NMF students, not full tuition. </p>
<p>Since the student is only a freshman, right now all he can do is be a great student and prepare for the PSAT, SAT and ACT.</p>
<p>He should also talk to his parents about how they’ll pay for college. If they’re low income/low assets, then he can apply to schools that meet need…no scholarships needed for those schools…and many don’t give them anyway.</p>
<p>It sounds like this kid is a MIT type of kid…so all aid would be need-based anyway since MIT and similar elites either don’t give scholarships or only give a few targeted ones.</p>
<p>to further clarify, USC offers 150+ full tuition merit scholarships to students who score in the top 1-2% of standardized tests, most of whom are also NMF’s.</p>
<p>Candidates are selected by USC faculty and staff from an extremely competitive international pool. Applicants pursue the most demanding curriculum and achieve at the highest level.
Average SAT and ACT scores are in the top 1–2 percent of all students nationwide. In addition to academic criteria, candidates’ talent, involvement and leadership are considered.</p>
<p>In addition, USC offers 350+ automatic 1/2 to NMF’s who aren’t offered the full tuition scholarships. USC enrolls more NMF’s than any other University except Harvard and Chicago.</p>
<p>If I can make it, I would rather go to a top-tier univ, so, I was wondering if there are any private scholarships (i.e. not offered by universities).</p>
<p>I live in Wisconsin if that dictates anything.</p>
<p>some advice from Silicon Valley: you should bulk up the emotional/leadership part of your application. There’s no shortage of people with your smarts, scores and coding abilities; what distinguishes scholarship winners is extracurricular activities that show hard evidence of </p>
<p>a) leadership potential
b) emotional depth/concern for those less fortunate
c) “well-roundedness” and “social intelligence”</p>
<p>A suggestion: contribute your talents to the “Hacking Autism” project. Background: the ex-CTO of Hewlett Packard, Phil McKinney, has an autistic grandson and has been leading an initiative to get programmers to build apps that can help autistic kids function better. From Phil’s blog:</p>
<p>I’m sure your skill in both programming and instructing others could be useful to this project. You could help a lot of people, do something really innovative and cool, and help yourself in the process.</p>
<p>A permanent resident/green card holder is treated exactly they same as a US citizen when it comes to college applications/FA/scholarships. Neither you nor your parents need to have applied for citizenship.</p>