FAFSA question

[LoveSpringsteen]

Speaking of scholarships, where do you look to find available scholarships? I'm clueless about this.

I am by no means an expert on this, but I've done a little research. Others may weigh in with additional tips. First, start with your child's high school guidance counselor. They usually have a list they can direct you to. Other advice I've heard is to start searching for local scholarships first (groups that may offer scholarships include credit unions, banks, fraternity organizations, organizations related to your work/employer, etc.) and apply for those as the odds can be slightly better vs. national scholarships. Then look (via Google) for scholarships associated with the student's chosen field of study (i.e. nursing, engineering). Search for scholarships based on ethnicity, first generation college student, etc. Many scholarships are for those students showing financial need.

 

[barkley]

my kid's university required fafsa to apply for ANY and ALL scholarships (one master application was taken once per year-you had to have fafsa done to apply). there were many strictly merit based scholarships but fafsa was still required. beyond scholarships-many on campus jobs and paid internships can have very odd funding sources that while they are not based on income criteria do require that students have completed the fafsa (mine worked multiple jobs on campus that were not income based but while she was able to be considered and hired for them her same major classmates who had failed to fill out the fafsa were not).

 

[mjkacmom]

In our experience there is no such thing as merit money. There almost is always some income evaluation or other scholarship dollars in the equation.

But we always filled out the FASFA. Finally paid off when my wife went out on disability.

There is definitely merit money not tied to income. The only way my kids could attend OOS colleges was with merit to bring the costs down to in state. My daughter gets $17,000 a year in merit, zero FA, our EFC is too high. She loses it if her grades drop below a 3.0 (she’s a senior so I don’t think that will happen).

 

[barkley]

side note on scholarships (merit or income based)-if your kid is awarded one always have them find out if it's renewable. mine received a couple in high school that had we not looked into ourselves we would not have known they were renewable each subsequent year with only the sending in of her grades.

 

[LuvOrlando]

It's basically a financial audit that every caregiver of every student in the US is forced to undergo every single year that child in in college regardless if there is any benefit to the family AND, to be clear, that audit forces the caregivers to open up all financials to the student who is legally supposed to be filling FAFSA out. If a long gone parent, step parent etc refuses then that kid might not be allowed to go to school, which says a lot for the US institutional stance on access to education for the underprivileged who need to go begging for this every single year. My son has a 4.0 plus friend who nearly couldn't go to college because of his deadbeat dad and another who nearly couldn't go because Mom was running away from her student loans from another state. Thing is the student can declare themself independent to get more help but if you read the language that's like publicly stating that parent rots & that can cause an even deeper rift between parent and child if a child is super dependant on crumbs of support that parent will only do in exchange for the tax deduction of naming that kid a dependant. I knew a girl whose deadbeat father totally messed her up with this. No idea who dreamed this up.... don't even get me started on the application fees

 

[mjkacmom]

Speaking of scholarships, where do you look to find available scholarships? I'm clueless about this.

My oldest went to community college and now since totaling mom's car, she bought her own car and now has to work. So through FAFSA she has grants that paid for her community college.

The other one wants to go away to college for 4 years. She is battling NOT wanting to be #1 in her class right now because she doesn't want to give a speech at commencement. We have no idea how to go about all this, meanwhile a coworker's kid gets a full free ride because she's skinny and can run and kick a ball. So one of my kids had to quit college and the other one who has been #1 for nearly all of her 6 years of the high school I don't know how to get her to college.

To chase merit, you want to apply to schools where her stats put her at the top. My daughter with a 34 ACT only applied to safeties even though she would’ve been accepted at T50 schools if not T20. There are a ton of valedictorians with perfect scores at state schools or lesser privates to save money. Make sure she has some leadership roles as well, and it helps to have activities that she stuck with all through HS. Rigor is also important, if her school offers many AP classes and she took 3, not great, especially they are the easier ones. Solid essays take a lot of work. I’ve had 5 kids go through the process.

 

[bjscheel]

Speaking of scholarships, where do you look to find available scholarships? I'm clueless about this.

The other one wants to go away to college for 4 years. She is battling NOT wanting to be #1 in her class right now because she doesn't want to give a speech at commencement.

DD was valedictorian but honestly it doesn't matter much to colleges if your DD gets herself into #2 or #3...anyway, she applied for every scholarship she could locally- I had made a list from the prior year's newspaper article but the guidance counselor should have info. I also google searched some state-wide ones and ones for our church denomination, i.e. ones with a greater chance of winning than national ones. That's all generally one time only but it helped us through the more expensive freshman year when she had to live on campus.

The other thing was she went to a small regional public where her GPA/ACT combo was in the top tier of automatic merit. (So these schools aren't prestigious or anything but they had what DD needed at a price we could handle. That's where your merit is- from schools who want to attract students like your DD to raise their averages. If you might qualify for need based aid though, a private college might be better. You'd just have to run their net price calculators.)

DD applies for the school's foundation/departmental scholarships for continuing students every year.

At her school after automatic merit, the cost of attendance is about $16K/year. Maybe the directional publics could be more in other parts of the country, but they will generally be cheaper than other types. Living off campus after freshman year makes it closer to $12K/year all in. She had money in savings, works during breaks (and now working during the school year too), so she can pay rent and some tuition. We pitch in $2500/semester for tuition and get $2500/year back with the tax credit.

She had some college credits in HS and will be able to graduate 1 or 2 semesters early as well.

To be fair, she was helped by getting a r&b refund for covid, some CARES Act payments, stimulus funds we shared with her, and a really good paying job Summer 2020. But if she had not, she could have also taken a small amount of loans.

 

[AndreaDM]

Definitely check with the school's guidance counselors for scholarship recommendations, that's what they're there for. My daughter applied (and received) one from a local foundation for $7K a year for a total of $28K! It was a lot of writing which I think deterred some other candidates but I basically forced her to apply for that one. With that and the merit scholarships from the school, she only had to take out $3K in loans a year, so she will graduate with only $12K student load debt. And since she's going into education, some or all of that could be erased depending on where she teaches.

 

[Southernmiss]

Many universities have December of Senior year of High School deadlines to apply for merit scholarships.

If a student is currently a senior, they should be deep into applying and getting letters of recommendation from counselors and teachers.

For us, our 4 got merit scholarships based on ACT and SAT scores, involvement, leadership, etc. Class rank had little to do with the best merit money.

They took the ACT several times to boost their scores as any point over 30 can add on additional merit awards, depending on the school.

 

[mjkacmom]

Many universities have December of Senior year of High School deadlines to apply for merit scholarships.

If a student is currently a senior, they should be deep into applying and getting letters of recommendation from counselors and teachers.

For us, our 4 got merit scholarships based on ACT and SAT scores, involvement, leadership, etc. Class rank had little to do with the best merit money.

They took the ACT several times to boost their scores as any point over 30 can add on additional merit awards, depending on the school.

I have 2 college freshmen, with so many colleges going test optional, GPA was heavily weighted for merit scholarships last year. ETA, yes at this point most college seniors should be close to the finish line, especially is looking for merit, since they usually involve supplemental essays. Dd18 applied to 20 schools (her major of actuarial science could be achieved in SAS or Business, she wasn’t sure which route to take). It was A LOT.

 

[Southernmiss]

I have 2 college freshmen, with so many colleges going test optional, GPA was heavily weighted for merit scholarships last year. ETA, yes at this point most college seniors should be close to the finish line, especially is looking for merit, since they usually involve supplemental essays. Dd18 applied to 20 schools (her major of actuarial science could be achieved in SAS or Business, she wasn’t sure which route to take). It was A LOT.

I agree. But a student can have a great GPA and still not be Valedictorian or Salutatorian-that was my point. The distinction of 1 or 2 doesn't get as much merit $ as the rest of the student's profile.

So many people in our experience were under the false impression that all Valedictorians or Salutatorians automatically received full scholarships based on that alone.

 

[mjkacmom]

I agree. But a student can have a great GPA and still not be Valedictorian or Salutatorian-that was my point. The distinction of 1 or 2 doesn't get as much merit $ as the rest of the student's profile.

So many people in our experience were under the false impression that all Valedictorians or Salutatorians automatically received full scholarships based on that alone.

Oh I agree, at our HS AP classes are weighted the same as honors, so one can have a similar GPA without taking any. I do believe colleges have their own ways to recalculate grades. They also look at how competitive the high school is. The grades are so so close atthe top of the class.

 

[tvguy]

Our sons did not get any federal aid or scholarships, so we never filled out a FAFSA.

You can't get federal aid and in many cases scholarships without filling out a FAFSA.

 

[tvguy]

Speaking of scholarships, where do you look to find available scholarships? I'm clueless about this.

My oldest went to community college and now since totaling mom's car, she bought her own car and now has to work. So through FAFSA she has grants that paid for her community college.

The other one wants to go away to college for 4 years. She is battling NOT wanting to be #1 in her class right now because she doesn't want to give a speech at commencement. We have no idea how to go about all this, meanwhile a coworker's kid gets a full free ride because she's skinny and can run and kick a ball. So one of my kids had to quit college and the other one who has been #1 for nearly all of her 6 years of the high school I don't know how to get her to college.

Your child's College Financial Aid office should be doing that leg work for you on scholarships, etc. As my kids College Guidance Counselor put it, no college is going to admit a child and then not do everything they can to get them financial aid.

 

[rockawaybeachgirl]

1. The best scholarships come from the schools themselves. There are a few national programs (Coca Cola, Gates, etc) but they require financial need and are like hitting the lottery. To get merit scholarships, as someone else said, target a school where your child's stats are in the top quartile. No school is going to give big money to a kid that barely got in (unless the school 'meets need' and have calculated your child as having need.

2. Many schools do NOT promise to meet need. So, they can admit a kid, recognize they have need, and give them nothing. One big example is the California system - for the vast, vast majority of OOS admits, they give zero money.

3. On the flip side, lots of schools give merit that has nothing to do with need. My daughter was offered $20k/year from her first admission (in November) waaaaay before any financial aid forms would have been submitted. We knew we wouldn't qualify in any case.

 

[barkley]

the other thing to look at with soon to be college students-the first year offers of scholarships and other monies from the colleges are generally the most generous as compared to the subsequent years. they want to get your student in and taking classes so that it's not as easy a decision to opt for another college the following year when the financial package isn't as attractive. review offers to see if they are renewable year to year or just something offered to incoming freshman.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Speaking of scholarships, where do you look to find available scholarships? I'm clueless about this.

My oldest went to community college and now since totaling mom's car, she bought her own car and now has to work. So through FAFSA she has grants that paid for her community college.

The other one wants to go away to college for 4 years. She is battling NOT wanting to be #1 in her class right now because she doesn't want to give a speech at commencement. We have no idea how to go about all this, meanwhile a coworker's kid gets a full free ride because she's skinny and can run and kick a ball. So one of my kids had to quit college and the other one who has been #1 for nearly all of her 6 years of the high school I don't know how to get her to college.

Have her check her high schools school’s counseling page. My DD’s has an entire section for it. Our counselors also recommended Fastweb. They can be a lot to sort through, but some are worth trying through.

Also make sure to check the college websites for ones specific to the school.

 

[NotUrsula]

Speaking of scholarships, where do you look to find available scholarships? I'm clueless about this.

My oldest went to community college and now since totaling mom's car, she bought her own car and now has to work. So through FAFSA she has grants that paid for her community college.

The other one wants to go away to college for 4 years. She is battling NOT wanting to be #1 in her class right now because she doesn't want to give a speech at commencement. We have no idea how to go about all this, meanwhile a coworker's kid gets a full free ride because she's skinny and can run and kick a ball. So one of my kids had to quit college and the other one who has been #1 for nearly all of her 6 years of the high school I don't know how to get her to college.

If your school guidance people don't give you much guidance on this topic, try your public library; they often will have quite a lot of wayfinders set up to help people research this topic. Besides the prime targets of big school-based scholarships, there are also all kinds of small random scholarships that can be found for all kinds of reasons if you are willing to take the time to apply for them. If you patch together enough of them they can make a dent.

 

[AppleDumpling]

I agree. But a student can have a great GPA and still not be Valedictorian or Salutatorian-that was my point. The distinction of 1 or 2 doesn't get as much merit $ as the rest of the student's profile.

Our high school no longer gives out class rank. They stopped about ten years ago, with the exception of valedictorian/salutatorian. No one else even knows what percentile they are. The top students, maybe the top 30-40, are usually very close. Supposedly, it’s fairer for students this way and gives them better admissions results, because a lower rank could be viewed as a negative.

To chase merit, you want to apply to schools where her stats put her at the top. My daughter with a 34 ACT only applied to safeties even though she would’ve been accepted at T50 schools if not T20. There are a ton of valedictorians with perfect scores at state schools or lesser privates to save money.

I agree, this is your best bet for seeking merit money if you’re a top student who doesn’t qualify for need-based financial aid. You want to stand out with above average test scores and GPA. Some of the most selective schools, including all of the Ivy League, do not give out merit scholarships, because essentially all of their students deserve it.