Finding and Applying to Scholarships

Webinar Transcription

2023-12-21 – Finding and Applying to Scholarships

Lonnie: Hello, everyone. Welcome to CollegeAdvisors webinar, “Finding and Applying to Scholarships.” To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we will first begin with our presentation, and then we’ll have the opportunity to answer your questions in a live Q& A. You can also download our slides by visiting the handout tab, and you can begin asking your questions now in the Q& A tab, and we will take care of those when we get to the live Q& A.

Before we jump into our content, let’s first meet our panelists.

Ashly: Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. My name is Ashly Cargle-Thompson, and I am the team lead for the financial aid team here at CollegeAdvisor. Uh, so if you are one of our families and this presentation, uh, Brushes up some additional questions, then you can book appointments with us on your student portal. If you are not one of our CollegeAdvisor families yet, we have a ton of webinars and resources available to everyone. So, if you have any questions or want to know more, there’s resources for you.

Lonnie: Great. Okay. So, with that, we’re going to begin with a poll. We would like to get a sense of what grade you are in. So please let us know.

Okay. Sometime there’s a slight delay. Alright, here we go. They all come in at the same time. So, um, for our webinar today, we have 11 grade audience, um, for you. So I know, um, you know, we have 11 graders that are here tonight, but I definitely know, you know, with the replay, we’ll have, um, even other, you know, more great levels, but just for tonight we have 11 grades. So that’s really unique and special.

Ashly: Yeah. It’s never happened to me where I have all one grade. Yeah, me neither. Well, the good news is, is that as 11th graders, you’re actually watching this at a perfect time. You are neither behind or too far ahead. So everything that I go over is going to be helpful for you.

Uh, and you’re, you’ve got a great time to kind of, you know, Get your feet wet with the whole idea and actually start getting things done in the next few months. So, uh, to jump into this presentation, I just want to make sure that everyone understands sort of the basics of financial aid full stop before we get into scholarship specifically.

And that’s largely because. I think there’s a lot of misunderstandings about the terminology, what does what, who decides what, what you apply to, who you apply to, all of that. So I want to clarify that, and then we’ll get more into talking about scholarships specifically. So first, uh, for domestic students, for U.

S. students, the FAFSA really, is sort of the cornerstone of financial aid and all of the programs and resources you have available to fund your education. Uh, the FAFSA is, it stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, and it’s just that. It’s an application where The student and their guardians, so parents, step parents, whoever, uh, helps cover the student’s expenses, um, complete a document that has financial information, information to help them determine whether or not the student should be classified as an independent or dependent.

student, um, and they will take all of that information and compile it to determine your eligibility for federal grants and loans. And sometimes institutions will also look at your FAFSA and determine whether or not you’re eligible for their need based loans. But the big thing that you should know about the FAFSA is that it’s about need based funding and federal student loans.

Those are the two things that the FAFSA helps determine. So merit is never what the FAFSA is looking at, and it won’t tell anyone anything about a student’s merit. There are different terms, uh, for all of the components of financial aid. So financial aid itself, that term, I hear it get misused a lot.

Financial aid is an umbrella term for every aspect of, uh, every possible way that you could cover your, uh, education in college. So that includes grants, scholarships, work study, loans, your family’s, um, personal contribution, all of that falls under that financial aid umbrella. But when we’re talking about those components, there are differences within them.

So scholarships usually mean merit based. And what I mean by merit based is not necessarily academic strength. A lot of times we associate scholarships with academic strength, GPA, class rank, uh, test scores, that type of thing. There are plenty of scholarships that do prioritize academics, but really what merit based means is that you fulfill.

As a person, as a student, as an athlete, you fulfill some criteria, um, exceptional criteria that makes you eligible for that award. And there is no financial need component to those requirements. Grants. tend to be need based. You will find some programs that use those two terms independently, or I’m sorry, not independently.

Well, you’ll find that, but you’ll also find programs that use those two terms interchangeably, um, where one could mean either thing. But traditionally, scholarships are merit based, grants are need based. So your financial, um, background, your family’s income, the number of people in your family, all types of things, all those things are going to be relevant to a grant application.

Either way, both of them are money you don’t have to pay back. So they’re free money and that’s what you want to try and get as much of. You want to secure as much free money as you can to cover your college expenses. So scholarships can be an overwhelming, um, animal, right? There’s different ways that you can get merit scholarships, even.

You can get merit scholarships from the universities that you’re applying to themselves. They will fund your scholarships. There’s external scholarships from different organizations. Um, there are also scholarships that can be attached to summer jobs or internships or things like that. So, there’s almost any corner you can imagine, you could probably find a scholarship program associated with it.

So, it’s important that you know where to look. You understand how to find out about scholarships. So the first place that you can look and that you should look is your is institutional financial aid website. So when you’re looking at your college list, when you’re developing your college list, um, the schools that you’re interested in.

Read their websites and read them closely, understand what their financial aid, uh, program looks like. Uh, also understand how much they cost. A lot of times we’ll just look at the tuition and fees and we won’t look at room and board. You want to understand the entire cost of attendance and every school has to, uh, has to, uh, post the cost of attendance for that school.

And the cost of attendance is. tuition fees, room and board, and then, um, things like cost of insurance, incidentals, travel, um, books and supplies, anything that they could imagine that would be an expense during a nine to 10 month semester for a single student enrolled full time. They try to calculate and pull that all together.

And that’s the cost of attendance. So know what that is, know whether the school’s financial aid program is need blind, full need, zero debt, all of these things will tell you. One, what your admissions process will look like or so need blind is actually need blindness is actually an admissions policy.

It’s not financial aid policy, but what it’s saying is that they want decisions based on your financial profile. Most need blind schools, the people who are making the decision about who gets in. Don’t even see your financial information. Um, schools that say that they will meet your full will fully meet your demonstrated need are going to determine themselves what your financial need is using things like the FAFSA, but they have their own formulas, and they’re basically saying that once we determine what your financial need is, We will fill in the gap between what you should be able to pay out of pocket and the cost of attendance.

So if we determine that your family can afford to pay 10,000 a year out of pocket, and our cost of attendance is 83,000, then that school is, um, guaranteeing that they will cover the other 73,000. Uh, now they might cover it in all scholarships and grants. They might cover it in scholarships, grants, and then offer you some student loans that you can take or refuse.

So you want to make sure that you understand how All of that works. There’s also some good questions to ask yourself or to be able to kind of keep yourself on track to make sure that you’re, uh, looking for the right things when you go to a financial aid website, they’re listed on this slide, but for the sake of getting your questions and answers, I’m going to move through them.

You have access to this slide deck. You can download it, uh, in the handouts tab. So please download this slide because there’s way more information on this slide deck than what you’ll be able to retain, uh, and I want you to be able to get back to it. So, we’ve talked about our get deeper to it. Like I said, they could be external or institutional.

Uh, they could be, they usually are need blind. So they’re not going to ask about your finances and it’s about excellence and achievement. Sometimes it’s not even necessarily about excellence and achievement. Sometimes it’s just based on some demographic, uh, requirement that you, that you fulfill. So schools might have a fund donated to them by an alum for students who attended high school, Admitted students who attended high school in a certain school district.

It has nothing to do with your GPA. It has nothing to do with what your interests are. You just happen to have gone to school in that school district and been admitted into that college. And so, You are eligible for that scholarship. You don’t always know what the criteria are or all of the discrete scholarships that an institution has available.

So know that, um, it’s really important to put your best foot forward in your, um, application for admission because a lot of these decisions are made based on the strength of your application. So your application for admission is not just going to get you in the door at that school. A lot of times it dictates how much you get in merit scholarships and having a strong GPA and test scores is not enough.

So really, really make sure you’re putting everything that you can and giving them a full picture of who you are in your application. Since we have all 11th graders, let’s talk about some of the things that you should be thinking about right now. Um, you want to identify the merit eligibility criteria at the schools, uh, that are kind of starting to populate your college list.

Uh, you want to register for classes, exams, competitions, anything that highlights your skill. So if you are, um, if you are in a Latin club or if you are in a math fleet or academic decathlon or something like that, this is the year to really lean into those activities and to start to secure, um, tangible awards and successes.

If you aren’t able to, that’s fine. But this is the year to do that. You won’t be able to use much that you’ve done in your senior year for your senior year applications. You also want to start setting up this summer between your junior and senior year. So that could mean seeking mentorships with faculty.

You want to make sure that when those Letters of recommendation are required that you have a faculty member who knows you and who has mentored you. This is a good time to really talk to your coaches or any other program administrators. This is the time to establish yourself so that senior year You’re not scrambling to sort of set your footprint.

You know what it is, and you actually have some, some information behind it. Also, take the PSAT. Uh, the PSAT is a requirement, um, of taking, of, um, the National Merit Program. So you want to take the PSAT, and you want to make sure, if you haven’t taken the SAT, do that as well. Um, Usually it’s a good idea to try and take it at least once by your, by your, um, spring of your junior year, the different types of merit scholarships, just to give you a better idea of the things that they’re looking for, uh, for academic scholarships.

I’m sure you’re all really familiar with those. They’re looking for your GPA. test scores. They’re looking for AP/IB/Honors course credits and test scores. They’re looking at the strength of your curriculum. So if you’re dual enrollment and you’re getting your, um, associates degree at the same time that you’re finishing your high school diploma, that’s great.

If you are taking courses that are aligned with what you want to study, uh, in college, all of those things are things that they’re looking at. So, um, again, if you’re somebody who has room for a lot of electives because you’ve taken care of your graduation requirements, even though it’s tempting to take all easy kind of fun electives, if you can’t make those make sense when you’re applying for a scholarship, uh, when you’re applying for admission to a school, then consider taking some meatier, Um, courses so that again, you’re showing that academic seriousness if you want to get academic scholarships.

Also, athletic scholarships are sport specific and usually you are recruited by the institution to play sports at their school. Um, you can talk to, there are plenty of resources out there for students who haven’t been recruited and want to. But there’s not a whole lot of athletic scholarships that you physically apply to.

Same thing with artistic scholarships. That might be, uh, if you’re in the fine arts, so that might be if you’re a musician, if you’re an artist, if you’re a filmmaker, um, you might apply and they would ask for you to do an audition. Sometimes, sometimes they want a portfolio or samples of your work. So make sure that you’re also compiling those things.

Uh, other scholarships that you’ll see are scholarships about leadership. Um, so that would be anything from, uh, people who have participated in school government, um, um, People who have non profits and things like that. Um, but what you want to be able to show is that you’re somehow affecting change. You want to be able to give them quantifiable evidence of what you’ve done in terms of leadership.

So if you have spearheaded a project, tell them what the goal of that project was, how much of that goal you met or by how much you exceeded it, right? give them actual quantifiable evidence. For community and volunteerism, you want to make sure that you’re building a relationship somewhere, um, with someone there who can write you a letter of recommendation.

Um, you want that core cause or issue to be something that You can somehow weave into your academic interests or in things that you want to pursue in college. Uh, and again, you want to have quantifiable evidence there, too. So, whether it’s how long you’ve been doing things, how many hours you’ve done volunteer work, um, how much money you raised or, you know, how successful a drive was, make sure that you’re actually noting those things.

Um, and then again, there’s those special interests. So being in a demographic group, which is beyond your control, um, having specific major or career interests, and then also non athletic, non arts club participation. So things like Eagle Scouts, Robotics Club, Debate, um, Mathletes, Academic Decathlon, all of those things.

In terms of the requirements for qualifying for a merit scholarship, the big thing that you need to know is that you need to read the application very, very, very carefully. Usually, if you’re applying for, usually all merit scholarships are going to reward or not necessarily prioritize, but it definitely won’t hurt you to have strong academics to be able to show a depth and breadth for a specific passion, uh, to again, be able to provide tangible, evidence of the work or your participation in something and your ability to articulate your personal mission.

So when you’re writing in a scholarship application specifically, they’re going to ask in a lot of ways, maybe directly, sometimes indirectly, what is your personal mission? And when you’re trying to answer that question, you’re basically needing to tell that organization or that donor or whoever is giving you the money, um, Why, how you came to whatever point of interest it is.

So say it’s a scholarship for, um, students who have done medical internships. worked in cancer wards or something like that. So you would want to tell the story of why that particular interest, like what is your personal connection? You would want to tell them how their funding can, like how you’re going to use their funding in order to further that interest and in order to make the world around you a better place.

And then you want to be able to say, how overall having this college, um, education would improve the world around you. So that’s broken up into pieces. That’s basically kind of what your personal mission is. Um, some merit scholarships, not all, again, will require things like tryouts or auditions, a portfolio of prior work, uh, interviews, Or in some cases, like things like Eagle Scouts or certain, uh, religious organizations, they’ll, they’ll want proof of membership.

Finding merit scholarships, we already talked about, uh, where you would find them, uh, institutionally on the financial aid website. You might also find them on your prospective student portal. So once you’ve submitted your application, uh, then you kind of get a little portal with a log in, um, that where they give you updates.

And that’s where you’ll go to see what your admissions decision was. Sometimes they’ll have a link to if they have. Posted scholarships that you apply to, they’ll have a link there. Also, the admissions office is a good place to start. Just ask them, um, if they can direct you to, any institutional merit scholarships, if there’s any scholarships you should know about.

And that’s a good question to ask before you start crafting your application, because if you know of a scholarship, uh, that’s well suited for you, you can craft that application to really speak to, uh, the values of that particular scholarship. External scholarships can be a little bit trickier. I think that’s where they get really overwhelming.

I really like for students to find, um, a scholarship search or scholarship matching app. I prefer matching apps, uh, and to start there before you go into the big, big world of Google. Google is helpful, uh, and there are, um, there are absolutely strategies that can make it easier to use Google and also make, um, it more successful to find, to find kind of hidden money on Google.

Um, but the matching apps really help you get at a big swath of scholarships, and they also help you start to really understand what scholarships, um, what applications look like, what the expectations are, and build a searching and applying strategy. So some of the scholarship, uh, apps that I like, Going Merry is my favorite one.

Scholly is really good. Scholarship Owl. Uh, there are a ton out there and there’s a ton of overlap in terms of the scholarships that they are representing. So start with one, get comfortable with it, and then you can start adding in other resources to your search strategy. Other places to look, ask a group program activity leader.

So again, if you’re an Eagle Scout, ask your group leader how to connect you with that application. Um, if you are in a robotics club, ask the, um, faculty leader, you know, have, have you had any students who have gotten scholarships for robotics? Who were they? Where did they go? Just, you know, Keep your ear to the ground in that way.

Your high school college counselor, uh, is a good resource, but I don’t recommend ever asking, do you know any scholarships that would be good for me? Uh, largely because they will tell you to go to the internet, uh, where they can be really helpful is asking them if they know, if they have a list of scholarships that recent graduates from your high school have been able to secure.

Most of them do. because the schools like to collect that data, uh, for different reasons. And what that list does for you is it gives you kind of a short list of school of, of scholarship opportunities where kids who probably had a pretty similar profile to you were good fits. So you know that if a kid graduated from your high school, it’s likely that they had a similar curriculum.

It’s likely that they’re from. Sort of the same place. Especially if you’re in public school, uh, it’s likely that they’re from kind of the same area. It’s likely that, um, they have, they had, you know, access to the same extracurricular resources or similar extracurricular resources. So, you know, that you are not going up against people who are vastly different from you.

You also know that. your high school is going to have some name recognition. So if they see your application come across the desk, they’ll also know, Oh, we have a recipient from that high school right now. And just that little subliminal messaging can go a long way for you. Uh, and then finally alumni networks.

Looking at the alumni networks of both the colleges that you’re applying to because a lot of alums will um alumni clubs and networks will fund scholarships, but also looking at alumni networks from your high school. Um, there are a lot of high schools out there that have very active alumni networks and even if they don’t fund a scholarship specifically networking with former students can be a really helpful way to find funding and support, uh, while you’re in college.

The big thing in terms of once you find an application and you’re looking at it, is doing that, uh, cost benefit analysis of whether or not that application is really worth your time. So, the criteria for the application are included on the application. Those, those instructions are usually there. Uh, so make sure that you’re reading through them.

And while you’re reading through them, ask yourself, you know, one, Is this enough money for what I need and for the amount of time it’s going to take me, what are they asking me to do? How much bandwidth do I have to do it? And is it worth the amount of money? So if you see an application that is giving you 500 and you estimate that it’s going to take you.

two or three hours to do that application. And then you see another one that’s going to take you about an hour because you have an essay that already have an essay that nearly meets all of the conditions that they’ve asked in the essay question. Uh, and it’s for 1,200, then the 500 one would have to wait, right?

So ask yourself, is it, do I have the bandwidth and is it worth it money wise for me to use my time on this application? Um, When you’re looking at the criteria of who is a good candidate, uh, you want to make sure that you’re reading and framing those criteria in a way that you can understand that you can be most successful.

So I see a lot of students read the criteria, and if they are not a perfect match, they’re moving on to the next one. All applications, or most applications, have inflexible criteria and flexible criteria and knowing how to frame those criteria. Uh, can be really helpful. So inflexible criteria are things that you just, you can’t argue your way out of.

You can’t make a case for it. So are you a citizen of. You know, whatever country, were you born in the year? Whatever. Um, those are things that just are what they are. So if you don’t meet those criteria, keep moving if and if those are required, keep moving. But then there’s flexible criteria, things like experience, um, coursework, academic, or career interest.

So for instance, say, uh, you are really interested in business, right? But you see a really interesting scholarship that wants students who are interested in studying fashion. And everything else matches up, but you’re interested in business. They’re about fashion. And while you’re interested in fashion, you’re not necessarily interested in design, but you do like fashion.

So instead of saying, Oh no, they’re looking for people who are going to design school. They’re looking for people who are interested in fashion and that way or on the creative side, make a case for yourself. And write an, write an application that talks about fashion merchandising and where those two things intersect.

So, a lot of times making a case for yourself with flexible criteria, if you do it well and you’re creative and you make a strong connection between the things, can be so helpful because as the application readers, we are reading. the same thing over and over and over again. A lot of students with the same criteria and somebody who thinks outside of the box and says, well, wait a minute, you’re asking for this, but isn’t this a part of that too?

Really stands out. And with applications standing out for being creative and thoughtful is always a good thing. One of the most frustrating things about scholarships is, and applying for scholarships, especially external scholarships, is that they don’t function in the same way as admissions. Uh, the application might look relatively similar.

They might ask you for the same documents and materials, but the way that the organizations engage with you is very different than the way that colleges and universities are going to engage with you, uh, during your admissions journey. So I always say that you need to have a goldfish memory, uh, with application, with scholarship applications, because a lot of times, um, if you don’t get it, you won’t hear anything.

You will not get the email saying, we regret to inform you, blah, blah, blah. You just won’t, they just kind of ghost. Um, so, Having a goldfish memory kind of allows you to, um, move on to the next scholarship, forget about the one that you submitted. And then that way, a couple months down the road, if you get that email that says congratulations, you haven’t been fretting about it.

You haven’t been checking. You know, your emails incessantly and, you know, calling them and just forget about it, put it out there and forget about it. Um, if you don’t know when the decision deadline is, it is always good to know when the decisions are going to be released, when they’re going to, um, pick their recipients.

Um, if you don’t know when that is, if that’s not posted, then you can always contact. the organization, but I would say wait for about six to eight weeks after the application submission deadline to do that. Um, don’t, don’t contact them the next week. They’re, they’re busy. Staying organized is a huge part of being able to keep track of your process.

That’s one of the reasons why I really like, um, matching apps, why I like to going Mary so much is because you can track and keep all that information organized within the app using kind of favorites, uh, the favorites feature. If you are applying to a number of scholarships that don’t live in a single place, don’t live in an app, don’t live on a website that you can’t favorite and kind of have your own profile, then I really recommend creating a scholarship matrix.

And so, while you’re searching for scholarships, you can just, if you see one that’s a good fit, copy and paste into there the scholarship name. the organization that’s sponsoring it, their name, how much is the award, when is the deadline, a link to the application or website itself, and then any kind of notes that you need.

So, uh, telling you about the application requirements. So are there essays? What’s the prompt? Do they require recommendations? Is it a video submission? Anything that you might need to remind yourself. That way you can keep everything, um, organized and you can also kind of log what your progress has been.

I also think, I also recommend that while you’re searching for scholarships, go ahead and put scholarships where you missed the deadline on there, especially if it doesn’t say that only incoming freshmen can apply for it. If you can come back the next year and apply, You want to make sure that you have that information available to you.

So to sum all this up, I know it’s a lot like drinking out of a fire hose, but to sum everything up, um, when you’re looking at scholarships, when you’re trying to find scholarships and apply for scholarships, one, play the long game. And what I mean by that is kind of what you guys are doing here. Don’t wait until the last minute, uh, until after you’ve got all of your applications in, and now you’re wondering how you’re going to pay for school to start thinking about it.

Yeah. Do that ahead of time. Make sure that your college list is considerate of the funding that you need. Make sure you’re applying to schools that have financial aid programs that are going to benefit you, especially if you feel like you’re not going to get any need based aid. Knowing what scholarships, what merit scholarships are available from the schools that you’re applying to is going to be a critical part of funding your education.

Um, Knowing, you know, where to look and how to look and building out a strategy is going to be a critical part of this entire process. So play the long game. Y’all are all doing that now. So just keep at it. Just start building your process up from here. Um, document your achievements. So again, if you feel like, Oh, I don’t really have a ton of stuff to report on this.

I’m not, I don’t have a lot of leadership opportunities. I don’t have a lot of, you know, places where I can show impact. I don’t have a lot of quote unquote wins that I can really document. Start finding opportunities to do that now. So enter essay contests, or if you’re a photographer, enter photography contests, things like that.

Apply for grants. If you’re interested in doing nonprofit work or have a passion project, look for grants for, you know, young artists or young entrepreneurs or things like that. Create a website run for leadership roles. All of the things that are going to make you an attractive. applicant for admission are going to make you an attractive applicant for scholarships.

So make sure that you are doing those things as soon as possible. Uh, curate to the criteria. So again, know what those flexible criteria are and think about different ways that your interests might overlap. So a lot of times high school students have a hard time Finding that link between things that feel like disparate interests, right thing, finding that link between Oh, I’m, I’m a classically trained musician, but I’m also an athlete.

And those things seem to exist on opposite ends of the spectrum, but there is some place where they overlap. I promise you. So start thinking about those things. I also recommend, um, your junior year to start keeping sort of a journal. Um, not anything super precious, but having an oper having some place where you go and you write down how you were feeling after big things happen.

Like when you’re having big feelings, Write a paragraph describing that. That will be a really helpful tool for you to come back to when you’re writing your essays. And then finally, apply, apply, apply, apply, apply to as many scholarships and funding sources as you can and as are appropriate in terms of the criteria.

Uh, at the end of the day, searching and applying for external scholarships is a numbers game. The more applications you put out there, the more likely you are to secure some funds. I usually tell students to aim for submitting four applications per week. So, um, 16 to 20 per month until your entire cost of attendance is covered by renewable scholarship or grant funds.

And what I mean by renewable is that It will you will continue to get those funds every year until you graduate versus, um, you know, I got a 10,000 scholarship, but it’s only one time. And so my sophomore year, I’m gonna have to figure out how to make up for that 10,000. So you want all renewable and then you can stop with the with your scholarship search.

Um, CollegeAdvisor, uh, actually can also be a really great strategy. So if you’re one of our families, um, like I said, our financial aid team can help you develop a search and application strategy. We can walk you through what that looks like and all the different steps. Um, we can help you define your narrative and your fit for scholarships and schools, uh, both the financial aid.

Team and, uh, advisors and missions advisors can help with that. Um, we can help you prep for interviews and we also can review and advise on financial aid forms, deadlines, and scholarships. So, uh, if you are a CollegeAdvisor family, then that is definitely a resource that I recommend that you take advantage of.

And now we have time for Q and A.

Lonnie: Yes, we do. We do. Um, but before we move into our live questions and answers, I’m going to give our audience time to write their place, their questions in the Q and a tab. So, speaking of CollegeAdvisor, I want to just, um, share more about the work that we do. So, Ashly just shared. The work that we do in the areas of financial aid and scholarship support.

Um, but for those who are in the room who aren’t working with us, um, we know how overwhelming the admission process can be. And our team of over 300 former admission officers and admission experts are ready to help you and your family navigate it all in one on one advising sessions. Take the next step in your college admission journey by signing up for a free consultation using the QR code on the screen.

During the consultation, a member of our team will review your current extracurricular list. This is a great way for us to discuss how it lines up with your college goals and help you find growth or help you find opportunities for growth and leadership. After scanning the QR code, you’ll be able to select a date and time for a phone conversation with a member of our team.

Okay, so with that, I am going to jump into our first question. Um, and the question reads, when should one start applying to scholarships? So,

Ashly: There are scholarships, college scholarships available to students as early as 7th, 8th grade, um, depending on what the contest is, what the curriculum, what the, um, criteria are.

So, as a junior or as a high school student, there are scholarships that you can apply for, or programs that are attached to scholarships that you can participate in. Uh, so you can start looking for those opportunities now. 1 of the, like, the websites that I plugged earlier, going Mary’s scholarship owl, any of those, um, anything that is a kind of scholarship search website usually allows you to filter based on your graduation year.

Um, the year you graduate from high school. So you can start looking for those things now and start applying.

Lonnie: Okay. Um, so the next question, um, is does fine. Does receiving scholarships negatively impact your financial aid? That’s a good question. So

Ashly: mathematically, yes, but. In reality, no. Uh, there’s a rule in financial aid at college that your financial aid package cannot exceed the cost of attendance.

So I described what the cost of attendance is. That’s tuition and fees, uh, room and board, and then all of the other sort of incidental costs associated with being a full time student for an academic year. So the cost of attendance is always going to be higher than tuition fees plus room and board because there’s some extra cushioning in there.

So the rule is that Your financial aid package can never exceed the cost of attendance. So, if you go to a school and the school says, we’re going to give you the cost of attendance at that school is 80,000 and the school says, we’re going to give you 20,000. You need to figure out the other 60,000. You can take loans, you can do whatever, but we’re going to give you 20,000.

And then you go out and you get a scholarship for 70,000 for that year. Then now you have a financial aid package at 90,000. So what the school is going to do is that they’re going to take your full 70,000 that you’re giving them, and they’re going to reduce their piece to 10,000 to keep you at the cost of attendance.

That doesn’t mean that they’re reducing their pledge to that 20, 000. So the next year, if that financial aid offer is renewable, they’re still gonna give you the 20, 000. So it’s just an adjustment to keep you under that. So they will never They should never take the institutional portion of your financial aid away and leave a gap.

Lonnie: Great. Thank you. Thank you. Well, well explained, Ashly. Um, our next question is, do some scholarships require acceptance to college first?

Ashly: Not, yes, obviously institutional scholarships do. Um, they, you can’t apply, uh, or they, they apply for you. Um, once you’re admitted basically, or they offer it once you’re admitted.

Uh, there are some external scholarships that don’t necessarily require, require you to be accepted, but your intention should be to attend a specific school. And if you don’t attend that school, you will not be able to get those scholarships funded. So there are definitely scholarships that are Tied to specific schools, there are not as many as you would think that require you to be accepted already.

Uh, you usually scholarship kind of prime time to look for scholarships is, uh, between July and March. For the academic year prior to the year that you want to be funded. So right now is a good time for you to be looking for scholarships, which means that you couldn’t possibly be admitted yet in order to apply for it.

Lonnie: Absolutely. Okay. So I think that was. The last question that we have for our webinar, I am now going to close the Q and A. So with that, thank you, Ashly, for providing this in depth information for our audience and as Ashly shared, You can download the handout tab, which I would say would definitely serve as a resource and information that you can go back over.

Um, so with that, I do want to let our audience know that we have a good list of webinars that are coming up for the new year. And so all of our webinars are geared towards supporting you through the application process, as well as through the financial aid and scholarship process too. So with that, everyone, thank you, Ashly.

And thank you audience for your participation. Have a great night. Hey.