I’m a white girl, who’s parents make over 150,000 dollars a year. Yet they still want me to try to get some kind of aid because it is my education and I need to help pay for it. I’m completely clueless as how to go about applying for scholarships or any aid for that matter. I’m feeling quiet overwhelmed!
First, look at colleges that will give you aid for your stats. That is the best source because it is renewable for 4 years and you know you will get it when you enroll. At some colleges you would be eligible for need aid but at most not. Many colleges award merit aid which is regardless of family income.
There are thousands of outside scholarships with all sorts of various criteria. They are awarded by philanthropic organizations, associations from different national origin, like Polish American etc, professional associations related to your major and on and on. For different things like gpa and sat, or your community involvement, artistic ability, sports, science, leadership. It takes a great deal of time and effort to find and apply. You can pay a small fee to get a list to get you started here, I have had at least one student get a decent list to apply to:
http://www.courtneythurston.com/scholarship-consulting.html
Otherwise start googling and get on websites. Avoid crap ones that look too commercial.
Be aware, a great many have a ‘need’ component. So if your EFC is less than the COA you have need and may be eligible. If not, then you have no need and will have to rule out scholarships that have a need component. Also you and your parents should be aware that often scholarships are one time thing for one year only. As you go through college you can look for new ones. Also you can apply to ones your department at university may make available.
Sounds like you should get a summer job to help out. Also it may be easy to get a small hours student job on campus for 12 hours or so a week to earn pocket money. A lot of times, colleges list student job openings online. Some may be reserved for work-study awards, but others may be open to anyone.
150k/yr gross is not a lot of income when u consider that the cost of a private college is 65k/yr. You may still qualify for need-based financial aid, so make sure to apply for it.
You should also look at schools which offer merit scholarships that are independent of family income. Here is a useful list of schools which offer merit money:
Ask your parents HOW MUCH they will pay each year?
How much do they expect YOU to fund?
Looking for outside awards is a waste of time for your situation. Most of those awards are only for frosh year. So, your parents would be mad that sophomore year forward, you’d have no scholarship money.
Schools are the BEST source of scholarship money…based on YOUR stats. What are your stats??
I see that you want to go to UMinn TC and that your father is an alum.
Are you instate or out of state?
You won’t get any need based aid from UMinn either way. Depending on how high your stats are, you might get some merit. You don’t have test scores yet…you’re a junior.
find out how much your parents will pay each year. You need to know WHAT you’re dealing with.
How much do you have saved from your summer job?
You really need to work on upping your GPA, and take the ACT or SAT soon so that you can see if you can score will or need additional work to bring up your scores. Then you can start looking at schools posted on these threads to see where you can qualify for merit scholarships, which are not based on income.
You may need to forgo UMinn and look at private schoools which can afford to be more generous with financial and merit aid, especially if you do not live in Minnesota.