Earning College Scholarships!

Your child is homeschooling high school and the college years are fast approaching! College tuition seems to be climbing exponentially and earning those college scholarships is even more important than ever! The first thing that you can do to put your children into position for merit based scholarships is to seek a rigorous curriculum for the high school years.

Most colleges want to see four years of English, three to four years of math, three to four years of social studies, three years of science, two to three years of the same foreign language, two years of P.E., one year of fine art, and electives to add up to 24 credits.

This course outline will get you into college. What about how to get big college scholarships to help you through college? The basic, 24 credits plan is NOT your plan for big scholarships. In order to get a big scholarship, you have to exceed this strategy.

Make sure that you meet the highest possible criteria in every single area, and exceed for some of them. In your student’s area of interest, you may exceed it by far. I have helped clients that have four credits of music per year because that’s their area of strength. Make sure that you meet the minimum in each of these areas, but also that you have penetrated those areas of strength to get more than the colleges are looking for and earn those college scholarships.

It’s not uncommon for students (whether public, private, or homeschooled) to have 35 or more credits. The 24 is your bare minimum if you need a big scholarship. Keep in mind that it’s a win-win situation; what could possibly go wrong if you do more than enough? Your children might come out better educated and better prepared for adulthood, but nothing bad is going to happen if they have more than enough credits. Be prepared and get those big scholarships! For more tips and tricks, check out my book, "The HomeScholar Guide to College Admission and Scholarships: Homeschool Secrets to Getting Ready, Getting In and Getting Paid".

Plan Ahead For College Scholarships

If your child wants to attend college after graduating from homeschool high school, money is probably one of the chief things on your mind. How do people pay for college?!  It’s not unusual for a private school to cost $40,000 a year or more, and public universities aren’t a lot cheaper because, unlike private schools, they don’t typically award as much scholarship money, so the final costs can be comparable. The best way to get college money is to plan ahead, and use a variety of different methods to meet your needs.

       

In addition to scholarships that individual universities award, there are private scholarships that you can apply for. These scholarships are often available all the way through the summer, so if you have a senior, they can still look for private scholarship money during the summer before they go off to college. Not all private scholarships are merit-based; some are awarded based on personal attributes.  For instance, our son won a scholarship for Italian Americans, just by being part Italian American!  There are scholarships specifically for girls, scholarships for students who are into the arts, and scholarships for students who want to travel overseas. If you look hard enough, you’ll probably find a scholarship for just about anything!

How do you find these scholarships?  The best way to search is to use college scholarship search engines.  Fastweb.com is one of the largest, and both of my sons found some excellent scholarships on this site.  Other sites you can try include Scholarships.com, finaid.com, and fastaid.com. 

In addition to searching for private scholarships, you can also ask a college for more money.  Sometimes they will give you information about other scholarships you can apply for, and sometimes they will have undesignated funds available for students who ask.  Most schools require incoming students to declare their intentions to attend by May 1^st, so if you contact the financial aid office after this date, they might have financial aid funds that are available because someone else turned that school down and didn’t accept the scholarships aid.  Another good time to ask for more financial aid is in August or September, when some students drop out of school at the last minute. That might free up more financial aid, and asking at this time of year might result in more aid for your child. Of course, a school won’t just give you more money because you ask them. You might have to demonstrate your need, and even then they may not have any more funds left, but it is worth asking. As with so many other things in life, if you don’t ask, you won’t know!

Planning ahead, especially during your child’s junior year of high school, is the best way to maximize your financial aid. Sometimes consulting your financial planner is worthwhile too, just to make sure you are not doing anything financially that will jeopardize your federal financial aid chances. Whatever you do, don’t wait until your child’s senior year to start thinking about paying for college! Plan ahead for success.