Scholarship advice for high school senior

[friscopaint]

high school counselors are not the place to look for scholarships, they are already overwhelmed. Pick colleges early and start speaking with their financial aid depts they are well versed in what is or isn't available at their school.

[N.DaWoods]

high school counselors are not the place to look for scholarships, they are already overwhelmed. Pick colleges early and start speaking with their financial aid depts they are well versed in what is or isn't available at their school.

This!

[sv2100]

Look for scholarships at the schools he wants to attend. Once accepted apply for any and everything. Seriously consider out of state schools. Our daughter went to Bama on a presidential scholarship due to grades & SAT scores. Son went to Mississippi State on scholarships as well. His grades weren't quite as good but his ACT score helped out. He also got a number of scholarships from the school including for being an Eagle Scout.

Both schools waived out of state tuition. We figured they recruited and offered so much for out of state to get folks in hoping to keep them in state after graduation.

Also consider a local community college to start with - especially if he has 36 hours of credit already.

[dhall1414]

get FAFSA finished ASAP. most universities will withhold their various scholarship offers until after you've been delegated any federal money. UTD's transfer office told me that when i transferred there.

there used to be a website that aggregated scholarships and made them searchable. i don't know if it's still around or what it was called but i'd bet there's something like that now.

[HogHunter34]

best advice? Start college funds when they're little, not hope for scholarships.

Kind of difficult to turn the clock back & do things different
At this point the OP is asking for guidance on scholarship info

[Lone_Wolf]

Live in Abbott, Tx. Been hustling applying for everything, helping him write essays. He’s put the video games away, and I think the penny has dropped. Yup, full time job, applying for scholarships, and keeping the grades up. Thanks for all the advice. Just sitting down at work, will read through all this more thoroughly with my son tonight. Yet another paper due to tomorrow. Really proud of the kid, he’s taking an A&P class and and he had to learn like 400 terms. Made a 99. I think it was the highest grade in his class. Again. Very much appreciate the info.

[220swift]

https://www.grantinterface.com/Home/Logon?urlkey=wacos

I would look here.

Live in Abbott, Tx. Been hustling applying for everything, helping him write essays. He’s put the video games away, and I think the penny has dropped. Yup, full time job, applying for scholarships, and keeping the grades up. Thanks for all the advice. Just sitting down at work, will read through all this more thoroughly with my son tonight. Yet another paper due to tomorrow. Really proud of the kid, he’s taking an A&P class and and he had to learn like 400 terms. Made a 99. I think it was the highest grade in his class. Again. Very much appreciate the info.

[Big Lee]

Have him live in the counselors office and apply for everything they have to offer. Even if it doesn't fit him. Many scholarships do not receive 1 application. So if the scholarship for people who have purple and green hair recieve zero applications. Sometimes they will give to the one person who did apply.

Nothing wrong with students loans. No reason for you to pull from retirement. Whatever his passion is go get it. Then find a company willing to repay the loans after X time given.

[lars]

Look into the Clifford Foundation, it might be for Navarro county residents only though. My daughter got $20k per year for 4 years from them. It is a lengthy and in depth process. Have him contact his guidance counselor, they should have a ton of information. Also, he should resign himself to the fact that he is about to write a lot of essays.

[junior]

grant inter face

https://www.grantinterface.com/Home/Logon?urlkey=wacos

I would look here.

220swift, what is that link for? grants?

[jlptexashunter]

I cannot recommend highly enough the Air Force ROTC program or hell, just the good ol' US Air Force. Took most of my college while I was still in (6 years) and got a job in Cyber Security directly because of my USAF experience. There is a ton of Scholarship money out there if you want to apply and write a ton of essays.

https://www.careeronestop.org/toolkit/training/find-scholarships.aspx

[BarBBar]

If your son scored high enough on his PSAT, he may be eligible for a National Merit Scholarship, which is not income based, but not all schools provide money for it. Some colleges give non-income based scholarships based on the ACT, rather than SAT, so he should take both. A & M, Baylor, Southwestern, and Texas Tech have lots of academic scholarships, based on SAT/ACT, and also music scholarships. Most important thing is choosing the best major/field of study for him, but that is hard for a seventeen year old. He might change his major, and sometimes that lengthens the period of study. Visit each campus where he is admitted in his senior year before he makes his choice.

[Goodfellah]

I’ve had three kids come through this household, 2 valedictorians and 1 salutatorian. 2 received academic full rides, the other took a Presidential. Test scores are very important for scholarships, if the kid is impressive enough, it doesn’t matter their parents AGI. Also, when the kid picks a scholarship to apply for, and gets chosen for an interview, utilize every online resource available for “college scholarship interview” to study. Also study up on that particular scholarship, seems like my kids were asked what they knew about the benefactors for each of their respective scholarships. We just did a parent/student meet and greet with benefactors, university personnel, even our congressman was there, the president of this particular foundation pulled me aside to tell me how good my son interviewed.

[220swift]

220swift, what is that link for? grants?

It’s to the Waco Community Foundation link for scholarships

[Lone_Wolf]

Look into the Clifford Foundation, it might be for Navarro county residents only though. My daughter got $20k per year for 4 years from them. It is a lengthy and in depth process. Have him contact his guidance counselor, they should have a ton of information. Also, he should resign himself to the fact that he is about to write a lot of essays.

Oh, he's writing every night. LOL