Please take some time to learn how outside scholarships are treated with regard to need based aid awards at your college application choices.
At many places, outside scholarships reduce your need based aid award usually starting with self help (work study and loans) and then grants.
Some places do allow stacking of outside scholarships with school awarded need based aid up to the cost of attendance.
So…check!!
As you’re only starting your sophomore year, it’s a bit early to be picking schools. However, if you are a potential athletic recruit, it is a good idea to starting building a very large list of schools. Athletic recruiting moves the timeline up. If you are considering this, start by casting a wide net at schools that would be a fit athletically, academically, and financially. You mentioned track and field so you need to be aware that there typically isn’t a lot of athletic scholarship money in that sport to be found at most schools. And D3 schools can not offer athletic scholarships at all.
And the competitive landscape for track and field in the types of schools you’d consider is getting and will continue to get brutal. The NCAA ruling will cascade into the Ivys and NESCACs such that the quality will go up a lot, meaning you’ll need to be quite good for it to make a difference.
Did I mention that Trinity and Conn College give merit scholarships?
Kudos to you for thinking ahead. At least you’ll be able to formulate an early stage plan. You don’t want to be that kid who is scrambling Senior year.
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