big2013

I need to obtain as many scholarships as possible so that I am able to attend the university of my choice. The amount of scholarship money they are willing to provide isn't going to be enough. I have accounts on virtually every online scholarship finder but millions of kids see the same scholarships. Does anyone know of any solid scholarships that I might have an easier time securing?

TitoMorito

You'll want to look at the scholarships that schools themselves offer. You may need to adjust your list of colleges to include ones where your GPA + SAT/ACT will get you more money.

mom2collegekids

It's very doubtful that you'd get much/enough money for college for ALL FOUR years from private sources. Those are usually for ONLY freshman year...so no money for the other 3 years.

You need to apply to the COLLEGES that give merit for your stats.

What are your test scores and GPA?

How much will your family pay? WE need to know this so that we can know how much merit you need.

Erin's Dad

You need to work through the advice given on your other thread: Out of State Tuition Dilemma

cptofthehouse

Also look at the old archived thread that MomfromTexas started about full ride scholarships. Your test scores and grades, but with a huge emphasis on test scores are what determines your chances for a merit award. It is very difficult to get large scholarships that are for 4 years. THere are very few out there for large amounts of money that are independent outside scholarships. The vast majority of big dollar scholarships come from the schools themselves who "buy" select students that they most want. That means those students have a very highly desired attribute. Your test scores have to be way up there to get most of those awards especially big amounts. My son who had very high SATs, got a whole lot of little scholarships that averaged out at about $5K and only that high because he did get one $30K award and another full ride. This was with nearly perfect test scores and these were at schools where he would have been one of the best students, maybe even the very best in terms of stats. So big time money is hard to find, and to get it, one will do better looking at schools that do not have high name recognition. That is what MomfromTexas did and she did find some candidates. You won't be finding flagship schools on that list unless your stats are way up there.

dodgersmom

The problem here isn't the lack of scholarships . . . it's the fixation on the "university of your choice"!

Think about it . . . the "car of my choice" might be a Ferrari, but that doesn't mean I'll be driving one anytime soon!

Your college list should start with the colleges (a) that you can afford or (b) that will give you enough merit money to make them affordable! If you really can't afford the college of your dreams, there's almost no outside scholarship that's going to make a difference.