<p>I’m a freshmen in my first semester looking for scholarships for my spring semester.</p>
<p>My question is are there scholarships you can apply for during the fall semester and receive during the spring semester. Should I just go hunt for scholarships for my sophomore year?</p>
<p>btw. I’m an international student.</p>
<p>You’re going to be in an uphill battle finding money while in college - especially as an int’l student. Very few colleges give money to int’l students, and those that do typically give money to an incoming student.</p>
<p>Didn’t your family have to show proof that they could cover your education/living expenses in order for you to get an education visa?</p>
<p>yea, but my parents have nothing prepared for retirement. We’re paying off a mortgage for a house etc… I need money…</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but that should have been a consideration before you decided to come here, AND before your parents provided documentation (for your visa and school acceptance) that they would/could cover all of your expenses.</p>
<p>This is not a surprise situation for your parents. They knew what their situation was…they have a mortgage, and they want to retire at some point. They should have told you, “no,” when you asked for them to pay your expenses so that you could go to school here.</p>
<p>Everyone has a mortgage; everyone is trying to prepare for retirement. One of the reasons that many American kids don’t get to go to the school of their choice (or study abroad), is because their parents have mortgages to pay, and they don’t want to jeopardize their retirements. </p>
<p>Even for citizens and legal residents, schools do not like it when students state that they don’t need F/A, and then later come looking for aid (without some serious, major change - like the death of the primary income earner in the family). Many schools have policies specifically against asking for aid at a later time. </p>
<p>Some of the F/A experts here can chime in with more specific info.</p>
<p>You and your family have a choice to make; either they continue to pay for your expenses, or you’ll have to go to school in your home country.</p>
<p>Most large scholarships and the vast majority of all scholarships are for HS seniors who will be incoming freshman next year. And most scholarships applications are for the school year starting in the fall, not for next spring. There may be scholarships out there for continuing students but they are few and far between. I don’t know of any. But I would be very surprised if you can find any scholarships applications now (late October) for scholarships for the spring.</p>
<p>The best place for current college students to look for scholarships for next school year is their own college. Colleges often have scholarships for continuing students. They are generally quite competitive. You would need to check if your school offers such scholarships and if you are eligible for them.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>swimcat…</p>
<p>I agree that most scholarship money is for incoming freshmen. And most of that is for residents/citizens only. </p>
<p>Most/all scholarships for “continuing students” are very mediocre - such as $1000 or so per year. But, I suspect, many of those are for residents/citizens, not for int’ls.</p>
<p>he’s an international student whose parents provided documentation that they would provide for his expenses. This was done to secure his school admission and his visa. It’s not right that once he’s here, now he claims his parents need to spend their own money on their mortgage and future retirement.</p>
<p>what do you mean “it’s not right” </p>
<p>don’t pretend you understand every single situation. what were my parents doing to do? don’t sign the docs and send me to cc???</p>
<p>Yaganon - I read on one of your other threads that you have lived in the US most of your life and your dad works here but you are considered an International because your visa status is not a permanent resident. Any chance of getting a green card? That may help you by at least making you eligible for federal loans. Unfortunately it may be too late for any sizeable merit aid as you have already started college and, as mentioned before, the larger merit aid tends to be used to attract incoming freshmen. You really are in a difficult situation. Good luck.</p>
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Yes, in your/your parents circumstance, that would have been the sensible thing to do.</p>
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<p>don’t pretend you understand every single situation. what were my parents doing to do? don’t sign the docs and send me to cc??? </p>
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<p>No. I certainly don’t pretend to know every situation. But, I can believe that your parents knew their OWN situation. They knew that they couldn’t afford to pay for your education, but they signed that they could pay. </p>
<p>As for going to a CC…</p>
<p>What do you think many American families have to do when they can’t afford to pay for their kids’ college education even though they may have a good income? </p>
<p>Many families have to devote a good chunk of their income towards their mortgage and retirement, therefore little or no money for college. In such cases, their kids live at home and to to either the state pubic U or a cc. By doing so, the costs become more affordable.</p>
<p>Since it seems that your parents live in the US because of your father’s job…
Unless ISU is within commuting distance, I think you need to go to a local state or cc and commute, if your parents are not going to continue paying for you to go to ISU.</p>
<p>“Most/all scholarships for “continuing students” are very mediocre - such as $1000 or so per year.”</p>
<p>I am also interested in a scholarship for the spring semester.
Where exactly should I look for those?</p>
<p>sorry mom2collegekids.
It’s just that I’ve never encountered anyone with parents who can’t afford to pay instate tuition for the state university. Those who went to cc’s didn’t go because of the cheap tuition, but because they didn’t think college was a good fit for them. One of my friends went because he wanted to play D3 baseball… As for the rest of the poor families, they have the support of the FAFSA and/or some random pop up full ride scholarship for which they somehow qualify.</p>
<p>PS - mom2collegekids - you should put into consideration that not all parents make the best decisions. My parents don’t have the best perspective about what’s going on… in anything</p>
<p>yaganon,
I’m not sure where you live, within Iowa, but perhaps you’re in an unusually wealthy area. Our country is full of people who can’t have to go to cc because their parents can’t afford in-state tuition at their state universities. It’s in the news all the time – more and more kids going to cc because of massive tuition inflation. Odd that you haven’t encountered any of these people.</p>
<p>As you already know, I agree with mom2collegekids. It’s not right. Do you think American citizen’s parents don’t have to save for retirement or pay their mortgages?</p>
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<p>well, then, you need to expand your social circle because I know many middle class families that cannot afford to pay the costs of their instate public - even if the kid commutes to save money (costing about $7k-10k for tuition, fees, & books). And, I know many, many more midldle income families who can’t afford state colleges if their child needs to live on campus, because that generally costs about $20k+ per year.</p>
<p>Many middle class families are just living “paycheck to paycheck” and therefore finding such money for college is impossible.</p>
<p>Therefore, many middle-income families have to strategize. Some students have to go to CCs to save money for the remaining 2 years of college. Some students have to work a lot of hours during the summer and during the school year to help pay for college. Some parents take on 2nd jobs to help pay the costs.</p>
<p>And, yes, I know not all parents make the best decisions (I’ve made a lot of mistakes!!!), but that doesn’t change the point.</p>
<p>following your guys’ points, I do hang around mostly well educated kids. Most of them went to top private schools. For those poor families, I think it comes back to how hard the kid works as well as his ambition about his/her future. I mean there are a lot of scholarships out there for citizens. I almost find my situation easier in the way that I don’t have so many scholarships to choose from and apply, but that’s exactly what’s bringing me down.</p>