I am currently a high school sophomore with a 3.9 unweighted GPA and no standardized test scores. Where should I start looking for scholarships? I have tried websites like niche, cappex etc. but they looked suspicious to me. My intended major is software engineering/computer science. Are there scholarships available for me? If yes then where should I find them?
(I am also from a low-income family/below 25k per year)
Thanks in advance!!!
There are not very many college scholarships you can apply for as a HS sophomore with no ACT or SAT scores.
My suggestion…
Keep those grades up like you have…and look into Questbridge.
Also, the best overall academic scholarships aside from a few national ones…are from the colleges themselves. If your grades and SAT or ACT scores are high, your options will be much better. Start researching where you might get large merit awards.
And prepare for the PSAT that you will take October of your junior year…your score on that is the first qualifier for National Merit status…and that also can open some doors for you.
High grades and high SAT/ACT might also make you a competitive applicant to a college that meets full need for all accepted students.
So…do your best!!
My daughter won her first scholarship from Carson Scholarship ($1,000) when she was a sophomore. She also started creating a spreadsheet of all the scholarships she could find, what info they were looking for etc that summer. She wasn’t eligible to apply, but she was able to gather the info. From that she learned that she needed to do some volunteer work, so she found some areas she was interested in. She also started drafting essays.
My foster son won both Gates Millennium and Horatio Alger. My daughter was not eligible for either of those programs, and our income was too high for her to be competitive in many of the big scholarships, but she did win some of the smaller ($1,000 to $3000) ones. Best things she did 1. Took AP classes and did well on the AP exams (scoring 4s and 5s on all). Transferred in 28 college credits. 2. Searched and selected schools who provided excellent merit aid and applied only to a few.
Both kids will graduate in May with zero debt for them or us. My daughter is doing it in 3 years.
You are doing well to plan now. Read the Financial Aid board and learn 
It really helped us make great decisions.
American Legion essay contest I think is for younger high school students, and Poetry out loud. Ask your guidance counselor about these.
I agree that the best way to reduce college costs is to get merit aid directly from colleges…and merit aid is generally based on your GPA and test score(s). Thumper gives good advice to prepare for the PSAT so that you can potentially earn NMF status which guarantees merit aid at some schools.
Many outside scholarships require a significant amount of work, are one time only awards, and/or relatively small dollars…a one-time $1,000 award is not going to go very far in paying for college. Doing well in school and preparing/studying for standardized tests is generally a better way to spend your time than writing essays for one time, small dollar awards.
I disagree. My kids got $2k scholarships their first year and it paid for books and to set them up (bike, dorm stuff, transportation). Getting $1k is better than not getting $1k.
A friend of my daughter got several $500 and $1000 scholarships. She also had a merit scholarship from her school and bright futures.
Put your main focus into good grades, good test scores, and focus on a few extra curriculars you really like. Your best bet is colleges that meet need. You can look for outside scholarships, but some schools knock down need based aid for that same amount; how they handle it varies by school.