I’m hoping to attend NYU Tisch, which is very expensive. I was talking to my brother, and he said a friend of his from high school wrote four to five essays a week with questions and topics her mother provided for her. She did this for four years throughout high school and sent them to different sponsors. Though I’m not certain which college she’s at now, she did get into a a very expensive college, and got a full-ride because she got so many scholarships. I was thinking I could do the same thing as her, and hopefully achieve the same outcome. I was just hoping somebody out there could help me out a bit. Does anyone know any frequently asked or just any good examples of essay questions or topics? Or any reliable websites that have a lot of information about this topic? Also, any great scholarship or financial aid programs out there? Any advice you could give, at all, could really help. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this, even if you can’t help me.
I’m going to be blunt. TIsch costs well in excess of $70,000 a year. You will not be able to fund that with outside scholarships…sorry…it’s not going to happen.
You do NOT know why this friend got a full ride…sorry…you don’t.
ETA…if you get outside scholarships, NYU TISCH will REDUCE any need based aid theyngove you…because your need will be less. They will first reduce loans, and work study…then grants.
Oh…and NYU does not guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students. For TISCH, you will need an outstanding audition to garner significant aid.
There are three kinds of aid.
1- Need based aid. This will depend on your family’s income, assets, number of family members, etc. If you are low income you may be eligible for a grant from the government; other need based aid comes directly from the college itself.
2- Merit aid. This comes from the college and will depend on having great grades, scores, and potentially in your case- talent via a portfolio or audition. You need to be at the top of the applicant pool in most cases to get merit aid.
3- Outside scholarships. These can range from $500 from the local garden club because you wrote a great essay on gardening, to half or more tuition from NMS if your SAT scores are high enough for you to become a National Merit Scholar.
Are you a junior? If so, your time would be better spent sitting down with your parents to find out what you guys can afford out of pocket, what the Net Price Calculators for various schools tell you your need based aid might be, AND studying hard in your classes so you have the strongest possible application when the time comes. And then investigating a wide range of affordable schools with programs in your area of interest-- fine to have Tisch on your wish list but it is a very expensive school, NYU will not meet full need even if they accept you, AND getting accepted is extremely tough.
The “writing lots of essays” strategy is undoubtedly an oversimplification of what this girl did. Nobody can come up with 70K to pay for Tisch by adding up $500 here and $1200 there. Plus- most of these outside awards are JUST for Freshman year. So then what happens???
@blossom I think she’s an 8th grader. 14 yrs. old.
@blossom This post was really helpful, thank you! And @Fishnlines29 yes, I’m in the eight grade.
@thumper1 You’re right, I’m not 100% sure she got a full-ride because of her essays. I didn’t mean to imply that she did, or anything like that. I just know it helped her, because she told my brother it did. I know she probably had a lot of things tying into her being able to afford college, I just meant to say that she felt her scholarships really helped her out, according to my brother. Sorry.
@isitjustme. Don’t apologize, you are in the 8th grade and already trying to help figure out ways to help your family pay for it, that’s wonderful and you are to be commended! You are also researching and taking control of your education & of your future! I am. I am very with you & know you will go on to go great things!
@cloudsymom wow, thank you!
There are a few other types of aid blossom didn’t mention.
Athletic scholarships
Military - either for being the child of a military member (GI Bill, Yellow Ribbon schools, scholarships given by civic organizations like American Legion to local military families) or for joining the military yourself either before you go to college and then using your own GI credits or getting an ROTC scholarship while you are in school
Local/state scholarships for merit or need, which often have to be used instate
I see nothing wrong - and everything right - with dedicating a little time every week writing essays. Just write about topics of interest to you, interesting things that happened to you, observations about the world around you.
At the end of this process you will become a more interesting, accomplished, provocative writer.
That’s never a bad thing.
It may or may not earn you merit awards for college, so don’t do it for this reason. But - it could earn you higher grades in English classes and better scores on standardized tests. And compelling writing could end up making your college applications much more unique and attractive to adcoms.