Students are eligible for different types of scholarships:
Financial Aid - Money offered by the college to students who are eligible for financial aid and is meant mainly for low income families whose gross total income is less than $150,000 per year.
Merit Scholarship - Merit scholarship is offered to bright students with high GPAs and/or high test scores. Good examples of colleges that openly offer merit scholarships to all students based on specific criteria are Arizona State University, University of South Florida, Tampa
Athletic Scholarship - Students who are athletes may be offered an athletic scholarship that pays a partial or full amount of the tuition and fees.
What can students do to get these scholarships?
1. Apply early to schools when the schools have enough funds to give out scholarship money to students. Usually most schools expect students to apply using Early Action and before December to be considered for many scholarships. Check each school's application and scholarship deadlines to understand when to apply and to apply specifically for scholarships within the college.
2. Net Price Calculator: US Citizens and Green card permanent residents are eligible for federal and state financial aid, and should use the net price calculator that is provided on each college's website to calculate the expected family contribution and net price that should be paid at each college. This calculator only works for US citizens and permanent residents who are currently residing in United States. Also, it is important to file FAFSA and CSS financial aid forms as needed with colleges by the specified deadlines to ensure that you are eligible for any kind of need based aid that the colleges provide.
3. Athletes should work with a sports college advisor before they get into their junior year of high school to build their athletic profile and reach out early to the colleges.
Tip:
Please note that 90% of scholarships are offered by the college itself. There are many fraudulent scholarship websites that are on the Internet with promising offers and scholarships, but most of these are not of much use and are trying to collect a student and parents information for other purposes. Be wary of providing any kind of personal information such as social security number and financial details as well as email and phone numbers since these could be misused to trick the family through fraudulent offers. The search for scholarship should be focused on the college scholarships or federal or state aid.