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A few months ago I saw a piece on the news that spoke about college scholarships and their availability even to the middle grades.

 

When it comes to paying for college, what creative ways do you know of or have obtained?

 

Please spell out the details first, and use acronyms later. It will make this post very searchable for others!

 

I'm all ears! :bigear:

 

ML

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This isn't very creative, but I highly recommend students preparing for taking the PSAT, or Preliminary SAT test put out by the College Board. The year it counts is in the student's Junior year in high school. Eligibility for competition is based upon scores, and the upper levels of competition also require an application process. Many, but not all, colleges give scholarships for becoming a semifinalist or finalist. Some colleges give student's a "full ride" scholarship for becoming a finalist.

 

We didn't consider the PSAT for our oldest, but after learning about it we're having our other children try taking it.

 

Another scholarship resource is Fastweb. It's available online, it's rather commercial, and it hasn't produced anything concrete for us, but maybe someone on this board has found a good scholarship with this search service.

 

HTH,

GardenMom

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Our scholarships came through VERY uncreative channels -- the colleges themselves, with a little help from the National Merit folks and the company my husband works for.

 

I'm sorry if that sounds boring, but I think that often the aid available through individual colleges is overlooked or underappreciated.

 

1) Some colleges have very generous merit aid. One child of ours is receiving 37K from the college; the other is receiving 54K per year. They received this by applying to the merit aid program, being selected to attend an honors scholarship weekend, and then interviewing well.

 

2) The PSAT is very useful for providing small amounts of aid. My dd received $2500. If your child is a finalist and chooses his college correctly, he can even receive a full-ride.

 

3) My husband works for a large company that gives VERY small amounts of aid to college students. Hey, every $1000 counts!

 

4) If receiving merit aid is really important to your family, do NOT have your child set his heart upon a dream school, because that dream school may not provide enough aid. Talk about schools, but also talk about aid and its importance to your family.

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A few months ago I saw a piece on the news that spoke about college scholarships and their availability even to the middle grades.

 

When it comes to paying for college, what creative ways do you know of or have obtained?

 

Please spell out the details first, and use acronyms later. It will make this post very searchable for others!

 

I'm all ears! :bigear:

 

ML

 

We found that many of the colleges our twins looked at offered scholarships based on a combination of SAT scores and GPA. That worked for my dd - she's at a private school with a full-tuition scholarship. Her twin attends a college that currently costs $47 K per year - out of our range, lol. However, the college really, really liked him. He's done some unusual stuff (spends summers in Canada wilderness canoe tripping) and this peaked their interest, esp. during the interview. Anyway, although his grades/SATs were excellent (higher than his twin's), this is a *highly* competitive school and his scores were average there, lol...nowhere near scholarship range. BUT - as I said, the college wanted him, so they offered him a 1/2 tuition grant. The grant, what we have saved, and student loans are letting him attend his dream school.

 

Where there's a will there's often a way. Schools want to know that a student really wants to attend, and if they want that student they'll often help to make it possible. Well, this is how the private schools work, anyway. As for state schools, my dd did apply to one, never interviewed or even looked at the school, but was offered a substantial scholarship there based on grades/SATs. I'm not sure how most state schools work, though.

 

Ria

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Some state schools also offer generous scholarships, though I have heard that for the most part they are more stingy than private schools with merit aid.

 

My kids received one full-ride and one full-tuition scholarship from state schools. (Both were out-of-state for my kids.) Even UVA, one of the top state schools in the country, offers ten full-ride scholarships.

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