Merit scholarship opportunities

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi everybody,</p>

<p>I’m new to the site and had a question regarding scholarship/financial aid opportunities to students based on non-academic merit (possibly with a basic prerequisite for academic achievement). My SAT score is 2100 and my GPA is 4.1. As I’ve been extremely active in both my school community and the arts community outside of my school (I have won many significant awards from recognized institutions during the course of my high school career), I’ve been looking like crazy for scholarship opportunities that are based on a student’s ability to excel outside the classroom, particularly in the area of artistic potential. My family is in the section of the middle class where sending me to college is going to definitely be a strain; however, because our income is higher than most financial aid barriers, we are not eligible for most packages. </p>

<p>I’m wondering if there are merit scholarship opportunities I haven’t heard of, or if there are certain programs at colleges that are more accommodating to this sort of unconventional academic achievement. </p>

<p>Also, can anyone recommend credible arts/essay contests?</p>

<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Ben Kaplan has a couple of scholarship books out that seem to be fairly comprehensive. The one I am looking at is called The Scholarship Scouting Report. Another one is called something like How to go to college for free–or something similar. Good luck.</p>