Let's talk about scholarships

[Jane in NC]

We have all heard the old saw that thousands or millions of dollars in scholarship moneys go unclaimed each year. True? You got me. I figured this is a good time to discuss what I'll call Plan B.

 

We have seen a recurring theme in recent threads: higher EFCs than parents have anticipated so that the gap between merit aid/financial aid offered and the total bill for tuition/room and board is more than expected. So let's talk about scholarships outside of those offered by the schools to which our kids are applying.

 

The obvious scholarships are those offered by employers, professional organizations to which parents belong, and some churches. My son has applied for a 4-H scholarship--maybe other organizations to which our children belong have scholarships?

 

Our local utilities have scholarships. One requires an essay; the other is based primarily on financial need.

 

Some of the local service organizations provide scholarships, as does a large state credit union, but these seem to be for students at the public schools. Read the fine print, folks.

 

There are many corporate scholarships from Coca Cola to Toyota. Corporate scholarships are not necessarily for employees' children. Some corporate scholarships are handled through National Merit. One thing that I noticed only quite recently when I was perusing scholarship lists is that some scholarship applications are due in the fall when our students are in the throws of applying to colleges. How much more can we put on their plates? Any insight on corporate scholarship opportunities might be appreciated by parents of 10th and 11th graders.

 

Rotary (the service organization) traditionally funds study opportunities abroad. This is one to keep in mind for the future.

 

One other thing that I have noted about local scholarships: often the amounts are small ($500) with disproportionate amounts of work involved in the application. No wonder some agencies have few if any applicants! I wonder if some of these organizations realize that, while few students would turn down $500, given the limited amounts of time many have, it is wiser to go after scholarships with larger payouts or fewer hoops.

 

Any one else want to chime in?

 

Jane

[Kareni]

You said, "Let's talk about scholarships"

 

Must we? It's a painful topic.

 

I'd heard from many who said that it's not worth one's time to apply for scholarships, but I didn't believe them and encouraged my daughter to apply for a variety.

 

Our state has an organization that provides one application to apply for several hundred opportunities. It's rather like the Common Application in that there is one application, but Opportunity A requires an additional essay on topic A and Opportunity B requires an essay on topic B while Opportunity C requires a copy of one's hunting license {no, I'm not kidding!}. DD also applied to several nationwide scholarships that were based on cultural heritage, etc. Net result: my daughter did not receive a single scholarship besides the ones she was offered from colleges who admitted her.

 

Have I learned my lesson? Probably not as I asked her to submit an application to the statewide organization again this year. Clearly, I'm an optimist.

 

One other thing to consider as regards scholarships is your child's college's policy. My daughter's college allows the first $500 of the student's scholarship total to go to the student. Half of the remainder is used to decrease the college's grant to the student and the other half can once again be used to decrease the student's contribution. (Admittedly, if your child has no need based aid, all scholarship monies would go to the student.)

 

This is a good topic to discuss, Jane.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[KnitWit]

I will just say that our experience *so far* has been that of Kareni's and to the point that I am also wondering if this pursuit is *time well spent* in light of other things to be done. I guess if my dd were one to just sit down and crank out an essay quickly, I'd feel differently. But, she's not.

 

That said, I haven't been willing to let her lay it down yet. I think she dreads Saturday afternoons! LOL!

[newbie]

Ooooh that just makes me so mad.

 

Especially Rotary, in my area they will only take accedited schools and only hand out scholarships to local public. Plus, the darn ex super is on the deciding commitee.

 

They wanted my daughter for several interview to stand up for all hsers in the area. But that didnt fly w/her.

[Brenda in MA]

Good topic, Jane. Our experiences were similar to those reported by Kareni.

 

Last year, my son applied for at least 20 scholarships, some national found through internet sites and some local. He won exactly one, for $750. It was a local one given by a scholarship foundation in our town. We were thankful for that, but it's a drop in the bucket.

 

My impression is that the national scholarships, like Coca Cola, have huge numbers of applicants. If your child has tippy top test scores & grades, he/she might have a chance at these. As Jane said, the application deadlines are often in the fall.

 

If your student is minority, very poor, or first-generation college student, there is a better chance he/she will win scholarships targeted to this group. Questbridge is a program that gives high $$ awards to kids in these categories.

 

Best wishes to parents & students in the class of '10.

Brenda

[AngieW in Texas]

Our EFC is higher than the tuition+room&board at my 16yo's top choice school (state university). I haven't filled out the FAFSA, just the FAFSA4caster. I don't know how good the 4caster is at determining what the FAFSA would say the EFC is.

 

I have my 14yo and my 16yo working on essay contests. I don't hold out much hope for my 16yo to get anything this way, but my 14yo has a shot at it. She is pretty good at writing analysis essays.

 

My 16yo has no extracurriculars at all. She has no interest in anything. She quit Tae Kwon Do in 9th grade. She quit kickboxing and volunteers at the library at the end of 10th grade. She quit Anime Club halfway through 11th grade.

 

A lot of scholarships look for leadership skills, but my dd is not a leader. A lot of them look for community service, but she has no interest. A lot of them look for clubs/activities, but she has none. I can't see her being a good candidate for any scholarships outside of those that are based solely on test scores. Even there she needs to do more work. Her scores are 570/680/590. That's not bad, but it probably isn't high enough for scholarships.

 

She is looking for a job, but most places aren't interested in hiring 16yo kids now. They can easily get adults to work at McDonald's, Whataburger, Subway, ..., so kids just aren't as hireable as they used to be. She has had 4 interviews over the past year, but only one of those places was actually hiring when she was interviewed. She's supposed to hear back from them in 1.5 weeks.

[creekland]

My oldest has yet to win any outside scholarships, but also has yet to finish his application for our credit union where he probably has the greatest chance. He MIGHT also have a chance for Dollars for Scholars through our local public school since I work there. It'll depend on how open they truly are to homeschoolers (he was encouraged to apply).

 

My middle son won our local American Legion 10th grade scholarship competition (only $50 in a bond so far) out of 300 competitors (so we were told) and goes to the dinner later next month to compete for higher levels. He enjoyed writing the essay, so I don't know if it is considered work or not. The only way we KNEW about the competition is because oldest son picked up the info at our local high school two days before it was due. The lady notifying us of middle son's win told us she'd love to have more homeschoolers compete, but she doesn't know how to notify them.

 

Oldest son has looked through online sites such as Zinch and Fastweb, but has yet to come up with anything through either of them. He has applied to a few. My thought was since his weakness is writing, he's unlikely to win many of these... Middle son shows that a student with excellent writing capabilities definitely has an edge. Oldest is far more talented with math, but has yet to find math scholarships. Those he is more competitive for might come about due to his planned major. Time will tell. Our personal economy is hurting. He's going to keep trying.

Edited March 17, 2010 by creekland

[Samuel]

The scholarships one has the best chance at are local scholarships-church, local chapter of X, volunteer organization, etc. Also, the common scholarship application that some states have is really useful, something like 20 for the price of one. Credit unions etc are sometimes helpful. Ask at all the organizations you are a member of. My church, for example, has a scholarship fund, but until recently, this wasn't well publicized. We don't give out lots of money, but $500 or $1,000 here and there adds up. Also, the local sports referee association gives out scholarships. Lots of such groups give small amounts of money.

 

Also, ask your department (not the admissions people) if there are major/subject area specific scholarships for the state, or the university, or the department. Especially when framed with the "I'd really like to major in your dept, but funds are a little tight."

 

So, the moral, ask a lot of people locally, and try to do common applications that let you apply for a lot of scholarships. In the end, I think I won something in the 3-4K year from outside scholarships, which made a significant different.

[74Heaven]

It actually underscores what I always thought but I was starting to get my head turned by the "urban myth" (jk) status of the statment "there are thousands of dollars in scholarships that go unclaimed".

 

OTOH, a friend used to be an admissions counselor or some similar job 20-30 years ago and she says there is some truth to that statement for kids who are already enrolled in a college - iow, kids who are sophomores , juniors, etc.

 

Still, time is at such a premium for my high schoolers and scholarship applications do usually take a lot of time for my like-pulling-teeth writer.

 

Lisaj, thanks

[Miss Marple]

Ds received significant scholarships through the Honors college as well as his department. However, the biggest scholarship he received is from a professional organization in his field. Between the 3 he more than pays for his tuition - we pay for room and board.

 

I honestly think that if he had chosen a different profession, the scholarships would not have been as great. This particular profession is looking to fill vacancies and needs high performing students. If he could spend a lot more time on scholarships, he could probably pay for everything, but some of the scholarships are smaller but require a lot of writing, letters of recommendation, etc. So we are focusing on those that have more easily met criteria.

 

One problem he has had is getting letters of recommendation from professors. This was especially true in the earlier years when he was taking some basic freshman classes. He was one of many students and most of the time those professors don't spend time with the students. He lucked out in being one of the top 5 students in a particular class so even though the professor didn't *know* him, she saw his work and was able to write about that. As time has progressed, he is spending more time with the professors (via work weekends, etc.) and the classes are smaller so getting the letters is easier.

 

He doesn't meet the criteria for many of the scholarships out there...but I have been surprised at the amount of money available in his particular field.

 

Another thing we have noticed is that the groups that provide scholarships want to see that the student is giving back to the community through volunteerism (of some sort). They are also looking for students who go beyond the academics and get involved in clubs or organizations *and* hold positions of responsibility. Ds was heavily involved in our youth group at church and was able to show that he did a lot of volunteering, ministry, and help positions of responsibility - that helped him tremendously. And now at the university level, he is helping with blood drives, campus beautification, community outreach, etc. and working with the campus branch of a professional organization. It does cut into his time, but the payback has been well worth it.

 

He recently received a scholarship called a "personal development award" in which the company paid him $750 to do something that ministered to a community as well as helped him grow professionally. Since he is minoring in Spanish, he was able to travel to Honduras during the Christmas break and work with friends (missionaries) there as well as practice his Spanish. The award almost paid for his airfare. When he told his friends, they were shocked that he had received it - none of them even thought to apply for it. Ds was 3 weeks late with his application, but (mean mommy that I am) I made him apply anyways - and he got it! So the moral is always apply esp. if the application isn't onerous.

Edited March 31, 2010 by CynthiaOK

[Chris in VA]

It's been hard for us to even find a scholarship for ds--he's not into the tip-top classes, has a lower GPA, no real work experience, no volunteer experience, and spent years in treatment.

 

Thank God, his probation officer said there's a court scholarship he can apply for--of course, it's only in the very low hundreds, but hey, that will buy books.

 

IME, if you are not an outstanding student, are not poor, are not a minority, have parents that are not part of an "organization," etc., it is a lot harder to find true scholarships. Lots are "essay" based, but they are really contests, not scholarships. I don't like when those are called scholarships.

[Miss Marple]

IME, if you are not an outstanding student, are not poor, are not a minority, have parents that are not part of an "organization," etc., it is a lot harder to find true scholarships

:iagree: