Hello,
I’m totally unfamiliar with the process of applying for scholarships. Are there counselors that specialize in scholarship applications?
What form does one have to fill out for scholarships?
Thanks in advance.
Apply to colleges that offer merit aid.
Some have scholarship apps.
Most simply award based on your GPA and or SAT.
That’s the bulk.
If you mean outside scholarships, for most they are a time waste, but you can use a website like fastweb to identify them.
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You might also have a conversation with your high school guidance counselor about which schools offer automatic or competitive merit scholarships. I know that when my kids were in high school, their guidance counselors would not only be sources of information about good merit opportunities at colleges and universities; but the GCs would also be the gatekeepers for submitting applications to certain schools for competitive merit scholarships – such as the Morehead-Cain Scholarship at UNC-CH, the Jefferson Scholars at UVa, etc.
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From your previous post, your daughter is not a resident of any state so she will be paying out-of-state tuition if she is admitted to a public university. State taxpayers fund the public universities within their state. So the advantage of being a tax paying resident is that resident students are prioritized for admission and in-state tuition rates.
She can fill out the FAFSA, which is her advantage as a US citizen, and can access government subsidized loans, but that’s about it. She needs to rely on wherever she applies for any scholarships available.
Most scholarships, that will cover the majority of her costs, come directly from the universities.
Having family, in California, won’t give her in-state tuition. She has to be a resident or graduate from high school in California and have attended a California school for three years to qualify for in-state tuition. Otherwise she will be paying about $70K a year for a UC. The CSU’s are about $42,000 a year. She won’t qualify for California State funding because she doesn’t live nor go to school in California.
Her best bet would be to apply to private universities that have access to in-house funding.
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I would add to this - depending on stats - many public colleges heavily discount via merit scholarships. But not California ones.
Do we know the student’s stats and desires ? Is this a CA only search ?
The most substantial scholarships are generally offered by the university that accepts you. These may be need-based scholarships or merit scholarships or some combination of the two. This will be your financial aid package, which you should receive around the same time as your offer of admission. For need-based scholarships, they use the FAFSA. For merit scholarships, some you are automatically considered for based on your application, and some have separate applications (often a supplementary essay).
There are also a number of external scholarships. Some are based on your intended major, or as a result of an identity affiliation, or sometimes for leadership, etc. As a general rule, these scholarships tend to be fairly small (a few hundred to a few thousand dollars). They can help, but you won’t be able to pay for college on them. Your school guidance counselor will often have information about those.
This is what the OP wrote in April on the other thread linked above:
. She scored a 98.8% in her 10th grade board exam, standing 3 rd in her school and 6th in the nation. Her first term IB score dipped a little due to change of board, she got a 36/42, but the second term prospects look better. She scored a 1470 on her SAT (750 in english and 720 in math). She will appear once again in august.
AND in April, the parent stated they were not considering costs at that point.
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