Are there any scholarships for the average student to apply to? my niece likes to dance and has competed competitively for many years. She’s an average B student. Thanks in advance.
Scholarships are not the biggest source of college funding.
The biggest source of funding is the federal government, so make sure to fill out the FAFSA. Run the FAFSA4Caster at FAFSA.ed.gov to see if there is any change of qualifying for a Pell grant. Every student qualifies for direct unsubsidized student loans and some qualify for subsidies.
The next biggest source of funding is the colleges themselves. This means selecting schools that offer merit aid for her stats. B students with average scores are not the top applicants at the small, high ranking schools, but they are the bread and butter of state campuses that need to fill larger freshmen classes and schools lower in the rankings. Look for schools where her stats put her in the top 25 to 50% of the typical freshman class and read the scholarship section of the school website.
Is she a minority? Do her parents make little money?
Let me be honest with you from experience:
My daughter won $8,000 in outside scholarships, including Carson, Comcast, Simon Youth and several local only ones. She was very organized and applied to over 100. Her qualifications included raising 3 guide dog puppies, editor of high school newspaper, 3.7 unweighted/4.0 weighted and 1260/1600 SAT.
She got much more money (11,500 a year from Rowan University in NJ) in merit aid from the school she attended. Because of AP transfer of 29 credits and lots of effort, she will graduate in 3 years. Currently has a 3.9 GPA and enters her junior year in the fall. She did not qualify for any ethnic or low income based scholarships.
She did win a $1,000 scholarship from the college in addition to the merit aid this spring.
I would strongly disagree with the idea to set expectations on winning scholarships easily to pay for schools. I would advise you to concentrate on finding affordable schools and not to waste money applying to expensive schools you realistically won’t be able to attend. One or two dream applications, fine, but don’t drop $1,000 applying to 10 places instead of focusing on the schools you can afford (and will enjoy especially coming out with low debt!).
I also have a foster son who won Gates Millennium. There were 57000 applicants, 1,000 winners. That is a huge amount of competition. Nothing is easy money. He had phenomenal grades, activities, leadership, volunteerism and letters of recommendation.