have your kids apply for every LOCAL scholarship they qualify for-search them out (through your credit union, unions, utility company, service groups.....). when my oldest was in her senior year all her classmates focused on the big statewide and national ...
Agree. Specific thoughts:
- Yes, few people will win the big-money scholarships, and the competition IS fierce; you've gotta genuinely be tip-top AND the right demographic in every way. Many people will be disappointed.
- These big scholarships are fewer in number every year. Back when I started teaching, our top 10 grads could expect a full-ride, and a number of our top 10% grads had full-rides. Now ... well, I haven't seen a non-military full-ride scholarship in years.
- The big-money scholarships tend to show up in the fall, while the couple-hundred scholarships tend to pop up after Christmas.
- Some students have the mistaken idea that you can only accept one scholarship.
- Some students have the mistaken idea that you don't apply to scholarships -- people seek you out.
- Many students have the mistaken idea that a couple hundred dollars isn't worth it. I often ask them, "If a $100 bill were laying on the ground, would you pick it up?" Obviously, yes. So, then, how can you say a small scholarship isn't worthwhile?
- Some students have the mistaken idea that you apply for scholarships after graduation, when your grades are 100% complete.
- Small scholarships often pay only a limited time. One of my daughters won a small scholarship that paid only freshman and sophomore year. My other daughter won the Dr. Pepper scholarship, which was a one-time check. Don't get me wrong: money is nice, but you don't want to commit to a school with the assumption that you're going to keep getting that $1000 check -- read the details; every scholarship is different.
there are scholarships that go unawarded-no one applies.
Eh, true and not true.
As I said earlier, I've been on lots of scholarship committees over the years, and PEOPLE APPLY. Both of my girls applied to 40-50 scholarships, and they aren't the only kids who did that. We graduate 300-330 seniors every year, and every year I know 15ish kids who are RABID about scholarship applications; these kids do not "skip" any reasonable scholarships.
So, yeah, kids
don't apply for certain scholarships /certain scholarships go unawarded, but this comment implies
"Kids are so lazy that they just don't bother", when the reality is more like
"Some scholarships are so very specific that few people qualify." I have literally never seen a "general scholarship" -- by that I mean a non-specific scholarship, a scholarship for which many people are qualified -- I have never seen a "general scholarship" go unawarded.
For example, I know of a small that church really believes in education. They give a pretty good scholarship -- I want to say $5000/year -- to every graduating senior who has been an active member of the church youth group AND who has a 3.0 GPA. The money can be used at any school, for any major -- but this is a small church, and they don't have a graduating senior every year. It's not really fair to say that no one applied; it's more honest to say that no one was qualified this year.
For example, my girls were big in Girl Scouts, so we investigated scout scholarships. If anyone was qualified, it would've been my girls -- or some of their troop-mates. At the time they graduated, no scout scholarships were available in our state. One scout scholarship was available in a neighboring state, but it was only $1000 and only good at an expensive private school that wasn't interesting to my kids. Realistically, this scholarship would only go to a person who could say, "I've already chosen to attend ____ school, and this $1000 scholarship for having been in scouting is the cherry on top of my decision!"
Another example: About a decade ago one of our graduates died in a car wreck just weeks after graduation. His family tried to make some good out of this tragedy, and they started a scholarship in his name. The scholarship is only available to graduates of our high school who plan to attend ___ small school and plan to study ____. We don't have such a person every school year, so the scholarship isn't awarded every year.
Another example: My girls both attended a state school in a remote area. The area surrounding the university is sparsely populated and poor, so many of the kids born in the shadow of the university could never afford to attend. A number of scholarships that pay about 50% tuition are offered to help these kids, but the requirements are very specific: they must live in the area /must have attended the county public high school 4 years. But thing is, poor grades often accompany poverty, and many of these kids aren't admitted to the university -- and, if they aren't admitted, they can't qualify for the scholarship. And a lot of the kids who qualify don't want to go to university in their own backyard. So the reality is that only about half of the scholarships are awarded.
So, yeah, some scholarships do go unawarded ... but NOT because kids aren't trying for scholarships. General scholarships for which kids reasonably qualify, are claimed. Even the small ones.
If you want to "up" your kids' chances of scholarships, here are a couple ideas:
- In almost every situation, good grades are required.
- Extra-curriculars are necessary. Sports, band, drama, other school clubs, church youth group, community groups or sports -- they all work. Scholarship committees aren't impressed with students who are members of 5-6 clubs; rather, they'd rather see that a kid is heavily involved in 1-2 things, and they like to see a progression of involvement. They'd like to see that a kid is a member of the drama club as a freshmen, had a major part in a play as a sophomore, served as vice president as s junior and president as a senior.
- Leadership and/or community service are required for many scholarships.
- Sports scholarships are very complicated. In my area, athletes who want to be considered must register with a "clearing house" type thing, or they'll never even be considered. Coaches and/or the school's Athletic Director will help with this -- my school offers a "Come learn how to do this" night for parents and students in all sports.
- Don't bother to apply if you're not fully qualified. You're wasting time that could go to other applications.
- Type your application (or, if handwriting is required, be super-neat). Proofread the application. Sloppiness, misspelled words, or poor grammar will cut you out of the running.
- Complete the application. An amazing number of kids turn in incomplete forms. If you're not going to get teacher recommendations or aren't going to write the essay, don't bother to fill out the easy part of the application. The head of the scholarship committee will look through the forms first /will set aside the incomplete forms /the whole group will never read them.
- Meet deadlines. You will not be considered if you're late.
- Realistically, overall,
who gets scholarships? Minorities, kids with financial need, kids whose parents are/were police or military, kids who plan to study nursing or education -- more options exist for those kids.
- And above all, kids who APPLY get. You can't fill out three forms and sit back to see which one will reward you. My oldest, who is my more academic kid, applied to 40-50 scholarships. She won two -- and another two over the course of her four years in college. I knew the system, so she had an advantage. Because I'm involved with the school, I know she was runner-up to -- was it two more or three more? But runner-up doesn't get paid.
It's not easy, and the majority of college students do not win any scholarships.
Last thing, when your kid wins a scholarship, MAKE HIM OR HER WRITE A THANK YOU NOTE. One of the scholarships my oldest won was from a small doctor's office. After they received her note, they called her and said, "Wow, we've been giving this scholarship for years, and yours is our first thank you note." It never hurts to stand out in a positive way.
This process is so convoluted and complicated to start off with, and then to have to research every single school to see how outside scholarships affect your aid package is over the top.
Yes, it's convoluted, but if you're going to win at this game, the research is required.
By the time your student is a senior, the list of prospective schools should be reduced to 2-3, so it shouldn't be all that much work. Students who are still considering more than this tend to think that a school-specific scholarship is going to make all the difference; in reality, this is very rare. Most scholarships are not school-specific, and those that are school-specific tend to be the big-money scholarships that are awarded relatively early.
. there was one local that we know that dd was the only applicant for. just a few hundred but every bit helps. we learned of another that was very generous (several thousand per year) that was renewable for up to 5 full years of attendance. it initially had a very specific applicant pool but went unawarded b/c of that for a few years so the foundation that administered it reworked it to open it up to a very large population and did a campaign on their website/shout outs to the public and private high schools to solicit applicants. nothing, not a word. i finally reached out to a friend whose son easily met the expanded criteria but was already a freshman in college, and suggested he contact the foundation to see if they would consider accepting an application from him. he did and they said if they received none from any high school students they would contact him to apply..........a couple months later after their twice extended application deadline they contacted him and after submitting an application was awarded several thousand (and received it for the following 4 years).
