<p>Anyone know how competitive it is to get a scholarship posted on FastWeb or any other scholarship web site?</p>
<p>From my two-year experience trying scholarships from Fastweb, I found it very difficult, especially for contests that are national only and have only a couple prizes. The prizes that had levels of awards (local, region, state, national) I did have some success with. In the end though, I found my school to be much more effective… Just my experience.</p>
<p>Waste of time</p>
<p>Most large scholarships comes directly from colleges. Look for “scholarships and financial aid” on the websites of colleges that interest you.</p>
<p>Never known anyone personally who got any money…</p>
<p>atomom is correct; something like 95% of all the scholarship dollars available are granted by the colleges themselves. Rather than spending hours and hours applying for those nickel-and-dime scholarships, invest your time in finding colleges which are known for generous aid (there are several stickied threads here), and then concentrate on turning in fantastic apps to those schools.</p>
<p>D. has applied to lots and lots of them, got zero.
On the other hand, her whole tuition and most of R&B are covered by numerous Merit Scholarships (around 10) that she got at her college. Tons of efforst were wasted applying for FastWeb Scholarships. Almost no effort applying to some in college while others were automatic/renewable for 4 years.</p>
<p>It is up to you to draw conclusion.</p>
<p>All 3 of my kids got the Robert Byrd scholarship, which is listed on FastWeb (though it was not how we found out about it). It was the easiest application I’ve ever seen (basically based entirely on ACT scores and GPA)</p>
<p>S was an honorable mention for a national art scholarship we found on fastweb. There was only one winner and 5 h.m.s but it was, perhaps, helpful on his application since there were 1,000s of apps. When he applied to OSU, Fastweb alerted him to a minority scholarship he did not know about and he did get a moderate award that way. </p>
<p>He did win a very very good scholarship as a 9th grader that we learned about through the public school (take home friday folder had a little brochure)–our state 529 plan had a poster/art contest to win a 4 year prepaid plan. Someone told me later that it was advertised on fastweb but only state residents were eligible. I made both kids do the posters and S was one of 12 winners. Scholarship was transferable to out of state or private school (cash) or even can be used for grad school.</p>
<p>I agree that fastweb can be a waste of time, but if you already have an eligible essay or, are an aspiring artist, fastweb scholarships don’t have to take a lot of time. Also, try to identify scholarship apps that can help with other tasks during college application time. I tried to save S time by filtering and printing out the ones that looked good and/or fun and let him decide whether to do it or not. Some of the artwork scholarship requirements resulted in material to be used for portfolio or, conversely, was taken directly from his portfolio. He used his art school application essays with tweeks to provide any essay or personal statements required for the scholarships and at least one scholarship essay turned into an college app essay. The goal is to identify scholarships that require little effort and mesh well with your interests because the chances are little…leverage stuff you already have (essays/papers, artwork, community service) or do the slam dunk easy applicationss. Fastweb is good for letting you know about specific scholarships at schools you are interested in also and is excellent for minority scholarship information (generally financial need based).</p>
<p>"All 3 of my kids got the Robert Byrd scholarship, which is listed on FastWeb "</p>
<p>-D. got it also. She did not apply to this one. She got it because #1 ranked kid at each HS in our state gets it automatically. She also got another one from our state for the same reason - this one is applicable at every in-state college incluing privates.</p>
<p>Our 2 Ds brought in lots of them - Coca-Cola, Elks, Hadden Scholars, etc. They had very high stats and good resumes, though. I have a sense that the same limited cohort of HS graduates probably land most of those outside scholarships.</p>
<p>“Outside scholarships” usually reduce the amount of grant money a college will give you dollar for dollar, depending on the college. Sometimes they will reduce the amount of your loans with an outside scholarship student has won. It just depends on the school’s policy. </p>
<p>So I am not a big fan of these “outside scholarships” because they usually benefit the college, not the student, and do not lower your COA. Two of my children have won book scholarships which were used for books only & so they did not affect the financial aid package. </p>
<p>I recommend checking the school’s outside scholarship policy on their financial aid pages before your child knocks themselves out over these essay type scholarship competitions. There is no sense in winning $1000 (for example) then you must tell the FA Office about it, then they reduce the child’s grant by $1000! Who benefits? The college, of course.</p>
<p>^^Unless you are just welloff enough not qualifying for any financial aid base on need.</p>
<p>“Outside scholarships” usually reduce the amount of grant money a college will give you dollar for dollar, depending on the college."</p>
<p>-Did not happen to my D. Shh was given more actually after she indicated her plans to attend. She had $2700 x 4 year renewable from our state (combo of R. Bird + state Merit for #1 ranked), her school gave her many more to cover full tuition. Then package was increased after freshman year, after she applied for returning student Merit scholarships - these are for 1 year at her school. She had to apply every year for Returning students and Departmentals (primarily for juniors and more for seniors). These additional 1 year Merit scholarships at her school are very significant. They require high college GPA (3.8+)</p>
<p>Dang it, DS would have qualified for R. Byrd. I wish I would have known.</p>
<p>Each state has its own methodology for the Byrd. For example, I think California pools all the applicants (submitted by the school & can be more than one per school) and then does its own ranking.</p>
<p>"Dang it, DS would have qualified for R. Byrd. I wish I would have known. "</p>
<p>-It would make no diff. In our state at least, kids are selected automatically, no application. We had no idea about it before D. received it.</p>