Where to find good scholarships? Help

Financial Aid & Scholarships
#1

<p>Hi,
Financial aid is a big part of my decision. I'm choosing between an out of state school Umich Ann Arbor, and a local california state school. I'm set on Umich but my family can't afford it. </p>

<p>I've been applying to all the scholarships I can on fastweb.com with no luck so far.</p>

<p>Does anyone know any other resources for scholarships or how i can get more financial aid?</p>

<p>Anyone know of any "guaranteed" scholarships which if you meet the requirements for, you get the scholarship?</p>

<p>All your help is appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

#2

<p>I got a huge book out of the library and read every single scholarship..We found that very few applied to her. There were many "specific" scholarships she did not meet the requirements for , for example the national association for fat acceptance has one, so do the steel workers, and their were many for gay students etc..There were not alot we found that she fit ..</p>

<p>Anyway not to leave any stone unturned we kept looking and eventually applied for ones that we thought she had a chance at..</p>

<p>We almost didnt do the ones from the senator and delegate in the area because we just didnt think she would get one..(too complicated and probably based on who you knew) but she went for it anyway and ended up getting one from each..One renews automatically and the other you have to apply for again but they said it was likely. So we are thrilled with that!!</p>

<p>Plus she won an Elks scholarship (they have lots of these in different categories..need based and non need based) and she won several small local scholarships also. But she spent alot of time and work on them. </p>

<p>At this time of year I think the number of scholarships is limited also. Most of hers were done in Feb/Mar if I recall..with results in June. </p>

<p>If you look at your personal qualities and have something unusual you may be able to match it up with something in the scholarship books..Otherwise I would look at scholarships like Elks that offer a number of them.
I say take a chance on all you can but they are a lot of work..with Poppa Johns giving only ONE for a big community they get a lot of publicity but most kids will wind up empty handed. Ditto a few others..so take a look at how many they give and how much competition there is. I mean one of the ones she won was only 1 scholarship but it was local and not a ton of kids entered.</p>

<p>Also look and see if you qualify based on your grades..some scholarships are looking for scholars and others for the average kid.
My D. had stellar grades and that actually hurt her in the Pappa Johns contest (they look for average grades)</p>

<p>So you just have to persist and keep looking! Good luck!</p>

#3

<p>PS I have never heard of any guaranteed scholarships if you meet the requirements except for say in high school where there has been a benefactor who promises to send kids to school if they get a certain grade point and /or a company that will do the same.</p>

#4

<p>guaranteedscholarships.com I do believe. A lot of it is private schools. I know this one girl who just got into college and they gave her 3K a year.</p>

#5

<p><a href="http://www.guaranteed-scholarships.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.guaranteed-scholarships.com/&lt;/a> my bad. not a fact checker.</p>

#6

<p>Isnt that really just a fake discount off the ticket price though..its not like a real scholarship or is it?</p>

#7

<p>I've seen that guaranteed scholarships site before. Only thing is all those scholarships are from schools, and they require you to go to their school. Not good for me since I'm not going to those schools, but good for anyone who is.</p>

#8

<p>They are mostly private schools, and I guess they do get overlooked by people with high stats (would rather go to a cheap state school then an expensive private one). They make the expensive school more desirable to the smart kids, so yeah decent is going on.
thebean, what schools are you thinking of? I did have a friend who applied and then just got a random scholarship from them. Like 3K a year out of 11K needed.</p>

#9

<p>indiece.
I'm looking at University of michigan Ann Arbor, or a local school like San Jose State.</p>

<p>I'd like to go to michigan but the costs are holding me back. The financial report was based on a budget of about 38k. I get about 30k including 6.6k in federal loans from financial aid. Of the remaining 8k, I think 4k of is estimated costs for books and stuff, only 4k is actual money needed to pay to the school. SJSU is close by and would be almost free in terms of tuition, and I can live at home.</p>

#10

<p>Yes, but consider that UMich has tons more opportunities than SJSU. Better ranked (although that's all relative) and a closer knit community, IMHO.</p>