College Scholarships

[mtblujeans]

Let's start a thread for college scholarship info/links.

2009 Microsoft: Computer Science.

 

[Alicia87]

Great thread!!! I'm still trying to find one for children with Congenital Heart Defects

 

[sherry7]

subscribing

 

[123Disney]

subscribing

 

[ugadog99]

Have you all tried scholarships.com or fastweb.com? On both of these sites, you enter all your high school stats and interests then they send you notifications of scholarships you "match." We have a ton of scholarships to work on. However, we are always looking for more. Since my daughter really wants to go to a private college, we will need all the $$$ we can find.

This is a great thread, by the way!

 

[lastminutemom]

Uga

Does your DD qualify for the Hope and are you willing to pay if she chooses not to use it? This is something we will be struggling with soon at my house. Just wondering how you are handling it.

 

[mtblujeans]

Here is a listing of freshman scholarships if anyone is interested in attending school Montana State University in Bozeman.

 

[mtblujeans]

If your child/student works for Taco Bell at least 15 hours per week, they are eligible to apply for the Glen Bell scholarship. There are other requirements.

Check with your child/student's previous elementary school. Whether private or public, they could have a memorial fund that previous students can apply for scholarship monies.

 

[ctinct]

My daughter is still a sophomore, but I have been thinking about this for a while. One thing I am doing is opening bank accounts at every financial institution we are eligible to join that gives out scholarship money. I'm not opening them all at once, just every few months opening a very small savings account. Google credit unions in your area, then check them for scholarships. In our case, besides the bank I have been with forever, there is another community bank in town, and I have found about five credit unions besides the one I was already a member of that grant scholarships only to their members. A few of these I had never even heard of, but the only requirement to join is to live in our county. If even one of them results in a scholarship, it will have been worth it.

 

[mtblujeans]

My daughter is still a sophomore, but I have been thinking about this for a while. One thing I am doing is opening bank accounts at every financial institution we are eligible to join that gives out scholarship money. I'm not opening them all at once, just every few months opening a very small savings account. Google credit unions in your area, then check them for scholarships. In our case, besides the bank I have been with forever, there is another community bank in town, and I have found about five credit unions besides the one I was already a member of that grant scholarships only to their members. A few of these I had never even heard of, but the only requirement to join is to live in our county. If even one of them results in a scholarship, it will have been worth it.

Very good idea....which makes me wonder about our local utility companies and what scholarships they may offer to their customers, too!

 

[Shmily1]

Uga

Does your DD qualify for the Hope and are you willing to pay if she chooses not to use it? This is something we will be struggling with soon at my house. Just wondering how you are handling it.

We are soooo glad to have the HOPE!! It has been wonderful with DS19 and will be great for DD17 this fall. Extra scholarships could never hurt though.

 

[mominwestlake]

My dd is also a high school sophomore. Are there any scholarships out there for sophomore or juniors and then you can save that money?

For all of you with high school seniors, would you mind posting any scholarships that your student found, applied for, and received? My nephew located some on fastweb but didn't receive any.

 

[Shmily1]

DS didn't get any from fastweb either. The local clubs around here have a lot. Kiwanis, credit unions, electric companies, and large companies in the area have pretty good scholarships. The companies usually have several for employees' children and then some for the rest of the community.

 

[espana94]

Subscribing...I can use all the scholarship money we can find for DD.

 

[MiMi2Three]

I know that you are asking for names of scholarships, but I thought that I might add some info that proved invaluable to me several years ago when my girls were preparing to enter college. Start a list of their awards, activities and work experience while they are in the 9th grade and then add to that list each year so that by the time they are in their junior or senior year you have all the information to make a resume. This can be done in resume format with academic achievements, extra-curricular activities(sports, clubs, offices held,etc) and then work experience. We included this with every scholarship application, most of them want this information and this gives a very professional look. Also, make sure you file a FASFA, this is used to see if they qualify for federal financial aide, but colleges also use it when they start to award scholarships. Even if you think you won't qualify file it you could be pleasantly surprised. The private colleges here seem to have more money to offer esp. if there is academic merit, so make sure ACT scores are sent to top picks.

 

[Shmily1]

I know that you are asking for names of scholarships, but I thought that I might add some info that proved invaluable to me several years ago when my girls were preparing to enter college. Start a list of their awards, activities and work experience while they are in the 9th grade and then add to that list each year so that by the time they are in their junior or senior year you have all the information to make a resume. This can be done in resume format with academic achievements, extra-curricular activities(sports, clubs, offices held,etc) and then work experience. We included this with every scholarship application, most of them want this information and this gives a very professional look. Also, make sure you file a FASFA, this is used to see if they qualify for federal financial aide, but colleges also use it when they start to award scholarships. Even if you think you won't qualify file it you could be pleasantly surprised. The private colleges here seem to have more money to offer esp. if there is academic merit, so make sure ACT scores are sent to top picks.

I definitely agree with the FAFSA and the resume! Start it early though. You won't remember it all if you sit down to right it out in the 12th grade! If you live in GA, but could also be other states that have similar programs, fill out the FAFSA as soon as you have your taxes filed. Even though you may not qualify for Federal aid, HOPE uses the FAFSA too and you will be required to file for that anyway. Might as well kill two birds with one stone on that one!

 

[MiMi2Three]

One thing to keep in mind when filing the FASFA is to file your income taxes ASAP because you have to have filed them to complete the form. And with scholarships, loans, and aide early filing is better because once they start making awards the money runs out quickly for that term. If your child has already picked a school, contact their financial aide office and ask them for any help or information that they have concerning scholarships and or work-study programs.
Major corporations, Pepsi, Coke, Tylenol,etc., had scholarships several years ago, I would google these for contact info., then request applications either by phone or e-mail. Also, the high school counselor should have a wealth of info on scholarships in your area. If they don't volunteer this info I would make an appointment to ask about scholarship opportunities.
I will say that the process can be labor intensive, so help your child with the paperwork. I don't mean writing essays for them, that should be their own work. I mean the FASFA(it involves your tax info), follow-up on dead-lines, help with the resume(format, resume grade paper), neatness of the application, all of these need attention to detail.
If you haven't noticed by now I have a passion about this subject. I was a single mother during my girls college years and we needed all of the scholarships and financial aide that we could get. They qualified for both need based and academic merit aide, they both did work-study, and had loans. They both graduated in 4 years, so I had 7 consecutive years with them in college, one year with them both in college at the same time. All of that to say, that only one year did they qualify for a Pell Grant, yet they did receive lots of financial aide. So, file the paperwork and see, don't just assume they don't qualify for help.

 

[SnowWtch]

You do not have to have your tax return filed already to complete FAFSA. You can click that it's an estimate and the school will ask for the actual documents later. I'm a financial aid advisor and that's what our school does. Please make sure you check with your school for the EXACT on-time deadline. FAFSA will give one date but that may not correspond to the individual school.

Most grant programs are funds limited (Pell is one of the exceptions, you are guaranteed one if you are eligible) and it's first come, first served based on the signed FAFSA date. Also, keep in mind that most schools will not do a package for a student that is not accepted to the school. We are not able to do anything for a FAFSA without an admissions date. That means, if you got your FAFSA in on time but you didn't get admitted till a month later then we will hold it until you are officially admitted which may mean less aid.

For scholarships not with our school, we recommend www.fastweb.com. It allows you to tailor things to the specific student then matches the student with scholarships.

 

[SnowWtch]

One other thing I forgot to mention. If you have had a change in income such as loss of employment, death of a parent, or even large medical bills then you can petition your college for an adjustment. The FAFSA must be completed with the accurate tax information but you can request a professional judgment petition to review the changes. You will need to provide documentation such as medical bills that have been paid, termination of employment letters, copies of your tax return, any unemployment you are receiving, etc. But it is possible to get a review done to lower your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) which determines your grant and subsidized loan eligibility.

 

[DisneyBill]

Bumping this up.