<p>My third one who is currently in college, got a bit of a windfall also. He applied for a small special interest group scholarship that did not get many apps. He may have been the only app. The group decided to close up shop, and gave him all of their money instead of keeping it for future years. Not a huge amount, but far more than we had expected. In fact, the only reason we are in the dollar amounts for hours expended is because of this particular award. And he had to survive cancer to get it.</p>
<p>I too was the mean mom monitoring the multi-page excel spreadsheet with deadlines. I believe the effort was worth it and even my son has thanked me since! Received $12,000 from total of 4 scholarships and his school doesn’t reduce aid package at all! The local competitions seemed more fruitful.</p>
<p>D knew we were trying to figure out whether we could afford NYU for her when the deadline for local scholarships was approaching. I made it clear that if she would accept our effort on her behalf, that I expected effort on her behalf. I strongly “suggested” that she not leave the house for social plans until all her scholarship applications and essays were completed for the Monday deadline.</p>
<p>She spent the weekend plugging away at them. Most of her friends who were top students in leadership positions went to the movies, hung out etc. They would have been her competition for scholarship money, but they never bothered to apply.</p>
<p>Fast forward to award night. D raked in $12,750 in local/ state scholarships (all merit based.) Pretty return for missing a lousy movie.</p>
<p>I agree that it is a huge myth about unused scholarships sitting out there, which should be apparent to anyone who’s ever looked to apply for as many of these as possible. It’s also clear that local scholarships are much easier to win than national ones. This doesn’t mean the national ones are impossible, just that they’re truly a crap-shoot, IMO even tougher than getting into the most elite schools. Why was I awarded A and B national scholarships, but didn’t make it past the first round in Y and Z? I have absolutely no idea, but when they’re evaluating 70,000 applications, it’s tough to make yourself stand out.</p>