Any good scolarship websites?

There are websites like fastweb and cappex and zinch, but to be honest with you, I don’t know how useful they are. I never won a dollar from any website like that (although I didn’t apply as much as I should have), even though I was a really good student in high school. I think it’s great that you’re already looking into this, and do go ahead and look at some sites like fastweb – maybe you’ll have better luck than I had – but also consider this. Websites like that have a national or maybe even international reach, and damn, it is stiff competition! I won the majority of my scholarship money through my college directly and through local scholarships.

You already have your sights set on some colleges – great! Now check out their websites very thoroughly. Very important – do they offer merit scholarships? And what for? Most of the colleges I applied to offered big scholarships for things like being in National Honor Society, being valedictorian or salutatorian, being an AP scholar, and more. Keep in mind that most colleges will not combine these scholarships or give you every one you qualify for, they will only give you the one with the highest value. But they can be very hefty! My college gave me a scholarship of $22,500 per year just for getting good grades in high school, and this is the only reason I can afford to attend a school that costs over 50K per year.

Local scholarships will not be worth as much, only $500 or maybe $1000 here and there, but the thing about them is you’re only competing against a few hundred other kids rather than thousands and thousands of kids, and if you’re a good student you can count on getting some. I think I got about $5000 in local scholarships, but they were one time only scholarships – just for the first year, not for all four years.

You’ll take a PSAT – practice SAT – during your sophomore year of highschool. No one will probably mention how important it is, but take it from me, it is. If you do really, really well on your PSAT, you might get a National Merit scholarship – mine is worth $2000 per year.

Unfortunately there’s not much you can do now. Your guidance office should alert you to local scholarships during your junior and senior years, and you’ll get awarded college scholarships in your financial aid package after you get accepted in your senior year. But it’s great that you’re already aware, because this stuff won’t sneak up on you. The most important thing you can do is take hard classes and get good grades in high school to help you qualify for scholarships, and continue doing extracurricular activities that you enjoy, because those just might earn you specialty scholarships as well. Keep researching colleges you’re interested in and see what they award scholarships for, and try and meet those criteria.

Also keep in mind that colleges will help you out based on your need as well.

I agree with @Mariah about the significance of the PSAT, but it’s actually better than she indicates. If you do well enough and make it to be a National Merit finalist, they give you a list of schools that support them. If you attend any from that list, you’ll get a couple thousand dollars a year.

However, you can do so much better than that. When I made it as a National Merit finalist, I called about 30 schools who were not on the list. Many of them offered me free tuition for four years, and three of them offered me free tuition, room, and board. The only stipulation was that I had to be in their honors program. The school I attended gave a full ride to National Merit finalists, and gave free tuition to National Merit semifinalists. So even if you just make semifinalist, you should still call around to find out what deals you can get.

All that to say, National Merit is worth a lot more if you don’t limit yourself to the list of schools they provide. Those schools provide comparatively puny scholarships. It’s worth taking a couple days to find out what else you can get from other schools. Just be persistent, because a lot of people at the school won’t know what you’re talking about, even if they do offer a full ride.

Zinch, Fastweb, and College Prowler.

They are awesome.