Recall, also, that award amounts (even for "merit" aid) at someplace like UVA-- going with my earlier example-- only cut your "unmet need" by 10-50%, depending upon your actual household expenses and income.
There's also the possibility that awards will cut "need" aid. As a graduating senior, I got an award from a local foundation. When my college found out about it, they just cut my grant (NOT my loan). I called the foundation and told them not to give me the award again the next year, and why. They appreciated that.
Seriously, that is one obnoxious practice.
I don't mean to sound like Debbie Downer here, but I seriously caution anyone to think that a non-minority, non-2e, non-disadvantaged high school senior IS going to be able to count on much more than 1-2% coverage from sources like that. Not unless you're really LUCKY and you happen to stumble upon a corporate source or something. Those scholarship amounts haven't changed while tuition has quadrupled, and every year more students are vying for the dollars.
Yes. I remember looking for scholarship aid and being appalled at how specific it all was:
- This award is for residents of [insert county, state]
- This award is for people who are from [insert church/civic group]
- This award is for [insert sex or ethnic group] who have overcome [insert specific challenge that was overcome]
Etc. etc. Really, after a while, I was expecting to see grants for people with size 5 feet and toe syndactyly (left side only), as in,
The Bumelia Hallux Family Foundation has been giving back to the left-side-toe-syndactyly community since 1928. Almost everything I found was incredibly narrow (except for the toes, I guess), and HowlerKarma seems to be saying that nothing has changed.
