Yes, she was awarded $ in 2022, and her original award letter in June last year said she was selected to receive a scholarship between $500 and $5000. Didn’t find out the amount until late November.
Her July 2023 letter was almost identical, but it left out the line about “selected to receive a scholarship” and replaced it with “Finally, should funds be available, you are eligible to receive a scholarship based on your demonstrated financial need.”
Kind of wish they would give the students a chance to address that demonstrated financial need part - because FAFSA hasn’t updated cost of living numbers in years and my daughter’s school has unrealistic expectations of what middle class families can afford on top of that.
Thank you for sharing! Do you recall the date she was informed she received a monetary award? I’m hearing maybe by Dec.15th? I have not heard of anyone ever getting more than $500 so we have measured expectations IF my son even gets ANY money. Our EFC was about $18k last year so not sure that would show enough need. Good luck!
So last year, her June award letter indicated she would be getting an award between $500-$5000, then there were all the rounds of submitting transcripts and stuff. I believe on November 28th she received an email saying roughly: “thank you for submitting all your verification items - to confirm your scholar designation and receive your 2022-2023 (Sponsor)/HSF Scholarship Program scholarship in the amount of $500 complete the acceptance form by December date.” I think it was like the 2nd or 3rd.
Thanks for giving me an idea of timing. Let me know if your daughter gets an email stating her award amount soon. I wonder if they will let everyone know, even if they don’t get an award, or if it’s only if they receive an award.
My son just received his email. He has completed all phases of the competition and gets the benefits of being a scholar but did not receive $. Looks like he is on a waitlist for merit, but does not seem likely. He did the remote Career Connection Day event but I haven’t had a chance to ask how it went. Good luck to all your HSF students-hope they are awarded a scholarship!
“…Finally, while all current funding has been exhausted, should additional funding become available before March 31, 2024, you will be notified to complete an HSF scholarship acceptance form to receive funding.”
I’m sorry to hear he didn’t get funding, but there is still a possibility. I had thought it was over this year for my daughter and late yesterday afternoon she sent a text that she received a scholarship from HSF. She has less than 2 days to complete the final step (due tomorrow by 5:00) to accept the scholarship, but until she sent that text, I was sure the opportunity had passed. It was the lowest amount, but tuition is so high any little bit helps some. So, my daughter was waitlisted for merit and it came through yesterday. I do recall reading about waitlisted people receiving merit after December in a previous year, but people post so little on this topic, we don’t have a lot of data.
Thanks for the encouragement. He did say the workshop was helpful and will apply to some of the conferences they offer in the future. If he doesn’t get merit, not sure he’ll apply again but might be worth a shot. Congrats on your daughter receiving merit both years! Every little bit counts for sure!
My daughter received a scholarship both years. She just uploaded the thank you note to the HSF site (due in half an hour today, Monday, December 11, 2023, 5:00 PM PT). Last year it was $500 but we don’t know yet how much it’s this year.
Update: the scholarship is $500 again, the email was sent Dec 9.
Just for historical purposes because it is always hard to find info and people always want to know timing - my daughter received an email yesterday that her check is in the mail. Same for my daughter too, $500 both years.
Side note, this year the email said they would receive a certificate via email. Has anybody received that yet? Last year they did not.
My college freshman son received an email to reapply, but since he also received the designation (but no money), he probably won’t reapply. I don’t think it’s worth his time to reapply. He’s going to focus on other things.
I agree with you. This process was extremely tedious and confusing for a measly pay-off. My son lost interest after a while–he had so much else going on and didn’t send in the proof of enrollment. I was annoyed with him at the time but then realized that he wouldn’t have gotten any money. Our income is too high to receive money from any scholarships but too low to pay for Cornell’s full rate. He had zero success applying to about a dozen outside scholarships–even some that said they were intended for Latinos or URMs only and were only based on merit. Eventually we had huge success appealing our financial aid with Cornell and they were extremely generous and a scholarship he applied to at my husband’s company awarded him $3000 for a fraction of the work involved.
I used to defend this scholarship before because a few years ago my nephew received $5000 from them and another $3000 his first year in college. I’m not seeing those numbers any more. They must have too many students applying now and a smaller fund to distribute.
My daughter will be attending Cornell in the fall and we just submitted a financial aid appeal. I would love to know your tactic for success with the appeal because I’ve read it can be hard to do successfully!!
Did any of your HSF scholars apply for the National Leadership Conference which takes place in LA in August 2024? My son applied but sounds like thousands apply for they only select around 200. I think they hear if they are selected in early May. He ended up applying for HSF recognition again for 2024-25 even though he did not get a monetary award this past year. He figured it doesn’t hurt to try.
There are three companies that have careers in my daughter’s field of study that are partners with HSF. I’ve wondered how they can capitalize on this. They have a list of corporate partners on their website but no info on how to connect with these companies as an HSF scholar. Well, via one of the HSF emails she learned that one of the companies (Disney) had an info session via zoom regarding how to get an internship with them and my daughter registered and attended today. They provided info on the application process and they had everyone in attendance submit their resume! So my daughter submitted her resume. Here’s hoping this will help. She had applied to several internships for this summer and didn’t land any. Neither did most of her friends. Internships in animation, gaming, and graphic design are slim pickings in the current market. So here’s hoping she will be more successful getting an internship for next summer!
I agree that HSF should have links to the sponsors to apply for scholarships, internships or even just info sessions. Since many scholars don’t get monetary awards, the “connections” are supposed to be a major perk of being an HSF scholar.
I know there will be company reps at the National Leadership Conference my son will attend in August. Having said that, he is a Psychology major with a goal of getting a PhD in Clinical Psych so not sure how he will fit in since it’s mainly big companies likes Wells Fargo ( I feel HSF seems to cater more to STEM & business majors.) I think the conference does address graduate school applications, interviews, etc. so that will be very beneficial.
