Hi,
Wanted to start this thread to discuss any and all scholarships for the “ above average average students”, for those of us that won’t qualify for financial aid but can’t afford college without going into lots of debt and want to avoid it at all costs
GPA: 3.55 uw, 4.16 w
Sat: 1240 ( I had a lot of trouble)
Act: 26
I have always taken all honors in every class and a rigorous ap schedule and never gotten lower than a B
I go to a competitive public school in the northeast with no class rank
Don’t want to go through the liberty of all my ec’s for privacy reasons but I have several leadership roles in my school along with jobs and internships outside of school. I have also participated lab studies at a university near Boston studying neuroscience and pursued several “ non teenager” activities within that field. I confounded a vital program to my school and brought FBLA in to win competitions. I also have great relationships with my teachers and guidance counselor and great recs.
I would like to study cognitive neuroscience and minor in something related to business.
I live near a prominent New England city I have already worked in and can continue getting internships during breaks and summers no matter where I attend school.
I am a very hard worker and despite my lower scores, have always been in the highest levels of classes.
I have no sob story and I’m pretty good at interviews
I was raised Jewish and consider myself that although my dad is not so I am technically half, if that matters in any scholarship consideration
I am open to any school, anywhere, that can foster a good education for a cheap price and allow me to meet new people and grow to ultimately get into a good graduate school program for eithier a doctorate or business school.
I am also a good writer and would like to say I can write pretty good essays!
Feel free to post any thoughts and/or your own considerations down below and I’ll try to help you out based on what I know too!
I recommend seeing if your High School offers a booklet of local scholarships, and if they do, apply to as many as possible. Even if the scholarship requires you to be going into a certain major (for example, the scholarship says it is for engineers), APPLY ANYWAYS. For all you know, there may be only 3 people that apply and then you could end up winning. I did this with my local scholarships because I was applying undecided so I could technically say I had an interest in anything that the scholarship wanted me to be interested in. For example, I ended up winning the Garden Club scholarships in my town, even though I have no interest in gardening, simply because I was the best candidate out of the very few applicants.
Also, if you have the opportunity to, I would recommend re-taking the SAT or ACT (whichever you prefer). The more you take it, the more you become familiar with the test and can score higher. Also, keep in mind that most colleges take your highest score from each part of the exam, even if they weren’t done on the same testing day. So, if you do worse overall on the test but score higher in, say, the math section, that will help you when you apply because your highest score on each section will be higher.
Are your local university options for your stats affordable? Are there any commutable options? Do you have CC’s with transfer agreements?
Are your parents helping you? What apps have you completed and submitted? What budget have your parents given you? As you are a senior, the ACT/SAT retesting options are time sensitive. Frankly small one time scholarships are nice but usually not much help.
It seems to me that this is very late to be at this point, unless you already have a local commutable option lined up. As it is your UW GPA of 3.5 and your test scores means that scholarships of real $$ value won’t be a thing. Define your budget and your local options.
You will get more money if you leave New England. At Wyoming you’d get $6k (off ~$18k in tuition), but if you can get your ACT up 3 points or the SAT up to 1330 you’d pay 150% of instate tuition (about $10k award, would pay about $7k in tuition). South Dakota schools are even cheaper. Utah has a lot of scholarships.
Some southern schools also have good financial aid.
Not for OPS stats. 3.5/26. There are not a lot of real money scholarships anywhere for OPs stats. Pandering little $$ here and there maybe at non U of Utah/USU school, a chance at instate rates even, but not real money.