I never heard of counting extracurricular hours - is that a thing for scholarships?
This is a long shot, but is it possible that the scholarship committees don’t believe you accomplished all of those things? It sounds impressive at first sure: 32 ACT, hundreds of volunteer hours, etc. I have to admit though when you said you were president of 2 clubs AND had the hundreds of volunteer hours plus a perfect GPA I didn’t believe you either. I’m a great intermediate length writer (1-4 pages) and all around a bright guy and I got a 25 on the ACT. You should know too that most 16-17 year old kids don’t have anywhere near that kind of time. The only other explanation is your volunteering was spread too thin and it implies indecisiveness to what you stand for. I have no other ideas to input here.
I’m pretty sure it isn’t that scholarship committees didn’t believe OP. Those kinds of stats are very standard among high school scholarship winners.
It just sounds like a case of bad luck to me. That, and/or some problem with essays.
Maybe the scholarship committees can tell your mom helped write the essays?
There are a lot of high schools out there who don’t know how to help a kid with high stats. People sometimes find us from typing random questions into Google and sometimes it’s late in the game that they do.
SavingSavy: You don’t have time to wonder about the scholarships you’ve already applied for. You need a game plan. At this point, you need to make a major push to find a school that will give you more merit aid, as suggested by @mom2collegekids and Thumper.
Please check out this thread:
And be sure to see the very final page, with Bob Wallace’s link: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
It does appear from his link that you can still get automatic full tuition for two campuses of Alabama.
OP: do your parents realize it’s no longer possible to “pay your own way”? 20 years ago it was - take on a loan, have a part time job, get scholarships. 10 years ago the most expensive colleges weren’t even 40K. The 2008 crippled the endowment at many private universities, which affected scholarship possibilities. Many States have cut the public universities’ budgets, and tuition has doubled, or even tripled. But scholarships haven’t doubled. Loans haven’t doubled. Minimum wage hasn’t doubled.
In addition, if your parents have money, I’m not sure why they* would take on loans rather than actually paying straight, since loans accrue interest and Parent PLUS loans have a high interest rate.
To boot, it sounds like you have a very high EFC (high expected family contribution, ie., your parents make 180+ a year) so you don’t qualify for need-based aid except for the $5,500 federal loans.
In short, either you apply by December 1st and win a guaranteed merit scholarship for your stats (which are remarkable and should have won you quite a few) or you apply by whatever deadline the university’s competitive scholarships are.
Local scholarships are usually small and wouldn’t help “pay your way”; they’re also extremely competitive and may include a need factor (ie., if your parents make a lot of money, someone whose parents are middle class would have priority). Sometimes they only require to be part of a group but it’d depend on how active you, your family or your school are wrt this group.
As of now, it sounds like you’ll have to take a gap year. Apply to CityYear or Americorps (national programs- deadlines are soon), or look for a job anywhere in town (if your mother or father works somewhere, they may be able to help you, but they may not be willing to?)
Small scholarships don’t cover much more than books and transportation anyway.
If your parents are low-income (65K or less), then you need to apply to 100% need colleges.
- YOU yourself can't take on more loans beside the $5,500 federal loans. So your parents would have to take them on your behalf. Which wouldn't make sense if they have the money. Why pay 32,000 to borrow 27,000 if you have 27,000 and can avoid wasting the $5,000 - unless they really really want to give money to the government.
OP it sounds like you are in the Milwaukee area? Saving on housing and some meals is great. What do you want to study? You may feel like you want a ‘fuller’ college experience by being on a campus living away from home,
After all the info is in for you to evaluate the best place for you to attend. How much will it cost for you to attend UW-Milwaukee, and how much for Marquette based on their FA package? You may want to check with both FA offices to see if there is anything else you can qualify for - Marquette may be more receptive. There are a lot of students that would love to have the opportunities based on your academic achievements and stats.
I grew up in WI, and I had higher stats than the local girl that won the local nursing scholarship - I went to a private WI college where I finished a double major (nursing and psychology) in 8 semesters. She ended up going to a state school where she didn’t make the nursing cut and then took longer to finish. So even local scholarships get swayed.
Hope something does come your way yet to cheer you up! However I have faith that if you apply yourself in college as you have in HS, you will do well!