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: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.