College and getting Scholarships. TIPS?

[Puffy2]

Ok experts, who has tips on how to go about getting scholarships for college? Thought others could benefit if we posted info here. Have your own story to share?

 

[Breezy_Carol]

My story is that it doesn't matter how good your child's grades are, if you don't have enough financial need you are out of luck.

 

[Saphire]

Our experience is that no matter how much scholarship money your child acquires, the college will want to know about it, then they deduct it from the scholarship they award to the student. For us, it didn't make sense to seek out these outside sources. The school gives their own scholarship to make up for what you cannot afford.

 

[buddy&wooz]

Apply to the right schools. My son has decent grades and really good SATs, and applied to schools that typically attract kids with slightly lower GPAs, but offer him what he's looking for. So far two have offered generous merit scholarships. He did apply to one reach- still waiting to hear from them, not expecting to see any money.

He's also applying for some local scholarships that require short essays. Last year my husband helped decide on the recipient of one and only 3 kids applied for a $1000 scholarship. I like those odds!

We've been told the merit scholarships are not subject to being decreased by other scholarship money, but need-based would be.

 

[Blueeyes101817]

When i was in my senior year (i graduated in 2003, so not that long ago) every month our guidance counsler would put a newsletter in her office that had a 2-3 page list of scholarships...alot of them were write an essay for 500.00 or 1000.00...
some were for things just like "having blue eyes" "going for education" ...i got a couple 1000.00 scholarships just for writing an essay--when i went to accept them, i was told that less than 5 people applied for them and most years, no one won them since no one applied

 

[becka]

www.cofo.edu

College of the Ozarks. Every student at C of O gets a "free" education. In return for free tuition each student works 15 hours per week during the school year and 2 40-hr weeks during vacation weeks at an on-campus job (cafeteria, departmental assistants, admissions, landscaping, etc..). You get a grade for your job just like for any other class and it is part of your GPA. You can also get room and board paid for by working 12 40-hr weeks in the summer at an on-campus job or you can just pay for it out of pocket or with other scholarships. So basically most students end up graduating without a dime in student loans.