<p>for all those people who hav a great deal of potential, but didn’t really focus in high school, scholarship is unlikely as ther resume will be lackluster.</p>
<p>however, if they firmly decide to focus in college which they will, is it advisable for them to write to their college of choice and give the college some norms on which to give them scholarship. such as they get A grades, or they will score highly in honors programs, maintain a certain GPA, or as for sports - become one of 3 top seeds in the team.</p>
<p>will the colleges consider these conditions, and add some of their own, and provide the conditional scholarship? - because after all, the only reason they give scholarship is because they want high potential students in their college who will excel in their respective fields, and thus improve the college’s rating and popularity. there is no risk for the college - if conditions not met, they can take away scholarship.</p>
<p>–just want to know if this is advisable, and what are the chances?–</p>
<p>The single best indicator for success in college whether measured by first year GPA, continuing studies in the second year, four year GPA, four year graduation rate, graduate school admissions, etc., etc. is the high school transcript. In other words, the first thing (and often the only thing) that college admissions officers look at is your transcript which lists the courses you have taken and the grades you have earned in those courses.</p>
<p>Even perfect SAT scores aren’t enough to trump a really ugly HS transcript.</p>
<p>If you have a bad HS record, your best hope for financial aid is need based aid. As an international student, you are simply not going to get that at a US college or university. It would be better for you to seek admission at the best local university that will admit you, and apply this firm focus that you believe you are capable of so that you earn absolutely stellar grades at that university. Then, come to the US for graduate school.</p>
<p>A US student with an academic history like yours would be best advised to study at a community college, or an inexpensive local university, earn the best grades possible, and apply for transfer after demonstrating that he/she is truly capable of college level work.</p>
It is highly unlikely that colleges will offer a merit scholarship to someone with a poor High School record (relative to the college’s average statistics for incoming freshmen) based on a promise that the student plans to focus more in college. They would have to give them to everyone if that was the case because everyone could make those promises. The best merit scholarships are usually awarded to students that are in the top few % points stats wise of the incoming pool. Part of the reason schools offer scholarships is to attract students with higher statistics as they are more desirable students, and in order to increase those reportable average statistics. Higher scholarships are offered to those students with well above average statistics in an attempt to attract them to the school. What reason would the school have to offer those scholarships to students with below average statistics? Also some scholarships may be automatic based on certain statistical data such as SAT/ACT/GPA scores. Others may be more competitive and not even offered to all those that meet the minimum criteria. If there is not enough scholarship money to award to all those that do meet the minimum requirements they are unlikely to deprive a qualifying student of a scholarship in order to award it to someone who does not qualify. </p>
<p>As far as setting conditions - scholarships nearly always do have conditions such as GPA requirements anyway. Students who already meet the criteria for being offered a scholarship are expected to meet the conditions to continue getting it, so making promises and setting those conditions is not likely to make them offer the scholarship to a student who does not meet the initial requirements.</p>
<p>If you need merit scholarships you need to look at schools where your statistics put you in the top of the school’s statistical pool.</p>