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CarolynLawrence
Administrator
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | USA |
| Posts: | 3309 |
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Posted: Wed Jul 30th, 2008 07:55 pm |
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I just uploaded an interview with Kimberly Stezala, author of an excellent how to book on winning college scholarships, Scholarship 101. You won't find lists of scholarships in this book - there are other books and websites for that - but Stezala does an excellent job of leading students through all of the steps they need to take to boost their chances of winning college scholarships. I particularly like her emphasis on the importance of starting with self-knowlege, rather than jumping in and starting to apply for scholarships willy-nilly. It's a really great book!
Here's the link to the interview with Kimberly Stezala on my blog:
Boost Your Chances of Winning College Scholarships
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jocelynDAD
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Posted: Thu Jul 31st, 2008 03:43 pm |
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Carolyn:
Obviously getting a scholarship is a positive action.
For those families sho are going to be paying the full tariff, any scholarship is great and should be pursued with vigor.
Howsoever, if your family is going to be eligible for financial aid of any consequence, our experience is that it is almost always a dollar for dollar displacement where the Financial aid grant is reduced by the outside scholarship.
Now exceptions exist and may be will occur in the future, but unless there is something unique about the scholarship $ or the college/university has a policy of ignoring outside scholarships (which in our experience has never occurred) the outside scholarship just cancels out grant $ from the college.
So if finances are a major concern and FA is definitely needed then the outside scholarships efforts might be ultimately futile in the final analysis.
Now Merit Scholarships directly from the college will be conferred (granted) by the college and are not included in the category of 'outside scholarships' in the above comments.
Since some of these 'outside scholarships' require essays and other efforts to achieve, just a word of caution as to the ulimate overall benefit. 
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DesperateDad
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| Joined: | Tue Mar 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | California USA |
| Posts: | 846 |
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Posted: Thu Jul 31st, 2008 04:12 pm |
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j-dad:
Its my experience (albeit limited) that outside scholarships first replace student loan, then work study, and finally college grant. So in that sense, outside scholarships can help, but it all depends on the college.
carolyn: the advice about starting with self-knowledge is key, bcos many scholarship opportunities look beyond grades and test scores. Knowing what the benefactor is interested in supporting (for example, high level of community service) can reduce the $$ chase.
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CarolynLawrence
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | USA |
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Posted: Thu Jul 31st, 2008 05:31 pm |
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One of the reasons I recommend this book is that she is very upfront about the issues of displacement. Displacement policies do vary from school to school, but as DesperateDad notes, in my experience the first thing at many (not all) schools to be displaced is loans. Given the recent events in the student loan market, that might make going after scholarships more attractive for some families. And, I have had students who are attending public institutions get enough scholarships to be able to "buy down" their family's EFC. Obviously, doing so for privates can be much harder to do.
DesperateDad, the emphasis on self-knowlege and planning is one of the book's strengths, in my opinion. She does a very good job of leading students through the process of thinking about scholarships from the SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE's point of view (i.e., Why should we give our money to you?). Although Stezala works with students, her "real" job is as a consultant to scholarship organizations and foundations, so she brings an interesting perspective that is sometimes lacking in other books on scholarships.
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