I graduated from high school in 2005 with a 4.0 GPA ranking high in the top ten percent of my class. I was active in Class council all four years as Secretary and Vice President. I was also Captain of the lacrosse team, member of the Latin Dance Club, Green and White Spirit Club, PALS club, JROTC Colorguard, JROTC Honorguard, and JROTC Choir. I also graduated as a member of the National Honors Society, Rhode Island Honors Society, and Spanish National Honors Society...
I would say that I have been a well rounded and hard working student... After high school, financial aid and scholarships didn't even pay for half my of my tuition...I applied to numerous scholarships and received ONE $3000 scholarship...
Scholarship organizations and the government claim that they would award and aid the outstanding students, the financially needy students, and the ones active in their schools. I fit in all those categories and I did EVERYTHING my parents, teachers, and everyone told me to do.... So why did I get "shafted"
Paint youself black.
When I first went to college, my parents made too much to get any goverment loans, they had to get private loans. Now that I'm on my own and going back to college, I can claim myself, but I still only have half of my tuition paid for by loans. Luckily, my job pays me back for school, so that's a HUGE help.
Academics are more for enrolling in the college you want to attend and get accepted. Colleges look at that more than anything.
Scholarships are usually just the luck of the draw, you can do everything that you've done and still not get any.
My sister did great in high school and participated in a lot of things. She got into Baylor but didn't get any scholarships. Once again, my parents took out loans to pay for it. She did pretty good in college, and now she's off to med school. This time its her turn to get the loans, and no scholarships again.
Because I still needed help for my tuition and living at my school, even though FAFSA helped a little bit, my grandmother decided to help me with it. Really nice, eh? But this last year, she told me she couldn't help me (due to several reasons) and so I couldn't blame her for it. BUT WHAT'S REALLY SCREWED UP is because she helped pay my tuition, it really screwed up my financial aid for good. This next year I only get half of what FAFSA gave me last year, I think I may have lost an opportunity at getting part of my tuition paid by scholarship, and they won't even consider what my parents' income is (which is literally $35G lately). All this because my grandma helped me out. I think that's bullshit! Right now, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to be able to work, practically, full time and still be able to stay at this school. I LOVE this school too much to let financial aid screw e out of going. And not to mention I'm entering my third year and dont want to think I wasted my last 2 years going.
So remember, either don't let your family members pay for you tuition or figure something out where it won't dramatically decrease your financial aid in the future.
Go into the military man, after 4 years you have a chance to goto college and they pay for your college tuition. That's what im doing. I'm not quite as smart as you are, but I'm sure i'll get accepted somewhere.
That's what im doing. I'm not quite as smart as you are, but I'm sure i'll get accepted somewhere.
Plus, if you go into the military already with a degree, then you're fully capable of making Officer right after Basic training, or if you're able to take ROTC courses while enrolled somewhere, then you'd definitely be able to make it through.
However, I applied to schools anyway and got a $30,000 grant from my college. Granted, that still leaves more than my family's yearly income to pay for the rest, but just see what your colleges give you.
I know thats how the top in my class got most of her scholarships. Also, she made it a big deal to do so many apps a week- which in the end worked out for her. She ended up getting up to about $300,000 in scholarships, in which she had to turn down over half of them due to them being in a certain school, program, and/or state. I thought I had applied to a lot myself, but I also realized that the more you do, the better. I personally applied to about 50 different ones... and received 5 of them totaling $5,000.
To guitarist451 : My school IS very well respected. We had one of the top JROTC in the NATION, we had math winners, science winners, track, drill, basketball... you name it. It was a public school one of the best in the state.
To Rastafarian: That's because we start everything earlier and we skip middle school... in the Philippines we started doing division and multiplication in 1st grade....
To freshness : Um... obviously not since it's not the way I planned...and there was no bragging in my post... but I'm PERFECTLY content.. thank you very much..
To Jrmy590: I was ----- <---- that close to going to West Point. My grades would have given me a free ride... but physically... I don't think I could have handled it... plus I was in JROTC four years and I know what goes on.... they tell you 4 years in the army and then you're free... what they don't tell you is about mandatory enlistment.... which 4 years can become 5,6,7,8,9... I'm all set with that.
And to the rest... thanks for the replies!