Tech Scholarships for College/University?

Mirkon asks: "I'm a potential high school graduate, and have been accepted to a four-year school for furthering my rather biased educational interests. The problem is that while I'm cheap, the school (predictably) isn't. It's still getting itself off the ground, and thus only offers the legal minimum of scholarships - for racial minorities and those with intense financial need, neither of which I qualify for. Tedious searching for third-party scholarships has revealed that there are very, very few that cater to the interests of a technologically-inclined student, and even fewer that don't give a paltry one-time prize of $500 or less. While there's certainly no shortage of 'write an essay about us/you and we might give you a scholarship' offerings, I find it hard to swallow that there aren't more and more valuable scholarships to encourage growth in the tech sector. Are there?"

Comments

Local Resources

[Taboo]

In addition to the many national and regional organizations out there, you might find that there are local financial charities in your area that have a surprisingly rich portfolio of grants and scholarships. Here in northern California we have the Humboldt Area Foundation which provides scholarships on behalf of members in the community who have setup over 100 memorial endowments totalling more than $50 million. When looking for financial aid, be sure to not to overlook your local resources.

Re:Local Resources

[Cycomast]

Bottom line, forget all the scholarships from big companies like Target, Best Buy, etc. They usually give out between 10-50 scholarships, but have in excess of 10000 or 20000 applicants. Look for local companies, rotary clubs, and any scholarships specifically offered at your school. The latter are often available due to memorial funds set up for deceased students. I ran into this very problem as the poster when looking for scholarships to fund my education at an expensive private university. While I did not qualify for financial aid, my parents have two more kids to send through college, and scholarships would certainly have helped to ease the financial burden. I too was unable to find any scholarships that were specifically for tech/engineering. There were actually a few, but they were all for women or minorities. I guess there just isn't much out there for WMEs (white male engineers). However, don't overlook local scholarships - there are plenty that aren't specifically geared toward any one type of person, that are granted to 1/5 or 1/10 applicants.

write those essays

[RevDobbs]

No one actually applies for most of the schoolarships out there... I have a nephew that has won a ton of money by virtue of being the only entrant.

Write a generic, flexible essay and, well, crap-flood it everywhere. You'll be amazed at the checks you'll be cashing at the end of the semester, after all of your tuition, housing, and books have been paid by other people...

Re:OT but can someone fill me in...

[Keighvin]

It's the same - "Student Loans" is a term here which quite frequency make people in their 30's cringe from the sting they still feel in trying to relieve the debt.

I am willing to help

[dexterpexter]

The short answer is that, yes, there are scholarships out there for the technologically-inclined. You can sign up for FastWeb, a free scholarship-search service that allows you to fill out your information and they notify you when a scholarship you qualify for comes up. There are other sources as well, most of which are online. I would suggest you go talk to your guidance counselor, who has more resources for you then they are probably openly offering. Keep in mind, however, that they are limited in what they can do and to find the real jackpot scholarships, you will have to do some searching on your own.

It would be helpful if you could provide more information to us.

1) What major are you considering?
2) Which school are you considering?
3) Are you parents alumni of that school?
4) Do you have any interesting quirks?
Such as, are you left-handed? You might be suprised to know that there are scholarships out there for even that. If your parents are members of unions, they work at large corporations, if you're the first to go to college, etc., then there is probably a scholarship out there for you.
5) How were your grades, and what within what percentage of your graduating class were you ranked? You don't have to answer this one, but believe me, external-based academic scholarships are out there.
6) Are you a member of any organizations?
7) What kind of "technologically-inclined" abilities do you have?

Feel free to contact me and I would be happy to help you through this oftentimes confusing and scary process. I will set up a temporary entry in my journal that you can post to. I just graduated from a private college (after 3.5 years), so it wasn't too long ago that I was in your shoes. Now, after having seen the admission process, I can give you an idea of what they are looking for, and exactly what you were told all along would count for something but really counts for jack squat.

Re:army

[Samari711]

if you go the ROTC route, you also will have to take some extra courses, pass physicals, and fitness tests throughout your time at school. then after you graduate you've obligated yourself to service for something like 5 years in exchange for the government footing the bill for your education. you'll also start with a higher rank then if you just enlisted and if you're tech inclined you'd most likely not see the front lines as your skills would make you more valuable elsewhere.

(note:i'm not in ROTC myself but a lot of my friends are)

Re:Two solutions

[provolt]

Getting the "small" $50, $100, or $250 scholarships helped my sister and I out a lot. If I got a $500 dollar scholarship I thought it was great. When all was said and done, I didn't pay for a thing my first year and had some for my second year. Co-op's and part-time jobs paid for it after that.

However, filling out "small" scholarship applications paid way better. I made about $100/hour doing it. My sister made more (mostly because she worked harder at it). I didn't qualify for any of the minority/need scholarships, but there are other ones out there. Check your local clubs and businesses (rotary, optimists, VFW, AmVets, etc). Avoid anything that makes you pay for a list or pay to apply.

Re:How about a job?

[Moebius Loop]

Student loans are another way to go - there's nothing wrong with getting one either.

Except the ridiculous interest and the fact that it takes years and years and years to pay it off.
Item one in college: DO NOT BORROW EVEN ONE DOLLAR UNLESS IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

While I'll agree that most college students are well-served to stay away from credit cards, and other high-interest rate loans, you can't apply the same logic to college loans.

Specifically, the Stafford (even Unsubsidized) loans have very low interest that you can even pay off monthly if you want to keep that under control. Compared to your average credit card/etc loan, they are very reasonable. (of course, that is presuming you live in the US, i'm not sure about availability elsewhere)

Additionally, there's the fact that Stafford gives you a grace period of six months once you graduate, and then gives you the option to defer payment (for up to 36 months, IIRC) in the event that you become unemployed, or are not yet making enough money to pay them. (i can say this from personal experience)