DD applied for (and was awarded) a few of those, btw. The amount of work involved in applying to those is enormous. Full dossier/resume, and additional idiosyncratic material on top of it. An essay, or something else... sometimes an interview too.
High school kids who are in the high achiever ranks get there and stay there by being incredibly BUSY people. There aren't enough hours in the day, basically.
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.
Well, I am sure that the competition is usually fierce enough that you would want to do a cost-benefit analysis accounting for probability as well. Perhaps the odds are somewhat improved for the applicants due to the many kids opting out of applying.
Since we are not currently undergoing this process, I really don't have an opinion as to the feasibility of gaining a significant contribution from these miscellaneous sources. Interestingly, one of the upcoming DYS seminars is about scholarship funds and will be conducted by a recent graduate who received significant scholarship funding. I didn't sign up as my kids are still so young and spaces are limited but perhaps I will go read some of it when Davidson opens it after the seminar concludes.
