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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?"
The solution? Start a pyramid scheme. The way I did it was simple. There are tons of places online where people offering scholarships register. You can go there to find scholarships, then go to the scholarship's homepage and get information on how to submit. I never got any big scholarships, I just got several 500-2000 bucks hits, and it eventually added up.
I've worked for over 20 years in various tech roles, after getting advanced degrees in Physics from the biggest name skoolz in the US. The ability to solve problems quickly and efficiently is what matters, not how much acronymic crap you can pack into your resume. My general experience is that good people are those who can adapt, not ones who learned old-tech from profs in some academic environment. Direct academic training for entering the IT world is a total waste, and always has been so, even when the economy did not suck.
Have you thought about doing what most other people do, and get a job? Sure, you'll have to work your butt off, but if you do it this way, you'll certainly have more self esteem than had you paid for tuition and what-have-you with scholarships. Free money ain't, really. If you work for the cash, you'll know what it really cost you to get an education. You'll also realize that you're going to college to *work*, and not to screw around. I saw way too many people party away $1000s of scholarship dollars simply because it wasn't really their money.
Student loans are another way to go - there's nothing wrong with getting one either. I did it, and I paid it off too. Yes, it took a few years, but it was finally paid off.
It may even be the case that you'll have to put off going to college for a year or so until you have enough money. So be it.
Good luck!
i was a busboy/waiter all through high school and college and i can tell you that it teaches you valuable life skills like:
* how to manage your time and prioritize obligations
* how to make and save money; how to spend money wisely
* how to deal with work conditions, including low pay, long hours, bad bosses, evil customers, etc.
* eventually, how to appreciate a "better" job, having tasted first hand what some people have to do to earn a living
Maybe you should work more on ensuring you actually are more than a potential graduate first. Upcoming graduate? Future graduate?
;-)
I was a potential graduate and the last few months of my senior year really really sucked.
Though the current climate is a bit unusual in terms of action in the middle east, I recommend joining the Army, Navy, etc if you are inclined. After serving your country you can get about $8k a year (scholarship - ie not a loan that you have to pay back) towards a schoo of your choice. Granted you have to maintain a certain GPA, but it is still better than having $32k in debt after graduating.
PS Flamers: This is not for everyone, just a suggestion to those of us that don't want to pay an unreasonable amount for a college education.
In the US, standard procedure is to get a loan for the cost of your education; this loan is often sizeable, usually with a low rate of interest accrual, and is to be paid back after your graduation from the learning institution you've chosen to attend.
... my advice would really be to work on converting that "potential" into "actual", and then worry about college as you go. If you have to eat the cost of a loan, so be it -- you're no worse off than everybody else. Get into tech and make it pay for itself in a few years; you wouldn't be the first, and sure wouldn't be the last. :)
The author of this entry to "Please help me, Slashdot" has noted early on that he is cheap: The author does not want a loan. He is looking for a scholarship offer -- that is, he would like very much for someone else to pay for his expenses and send him to school for free. (Wouldn't we all have loved that?)
Unfortunately I have nothing useful to add on that front, as the only scholarship I ever took advantage of was a strictly academic one, and only that for going to a tiny, two-year state school. This hasn't prevented me from being in a computer-related field for the last eight years, nor has it prevented me from working as a senior network engineer, or as a field consultant, or down at the Pentagon, or etc.
The person who submitted the story noted that he is a potential high school graduate
Maybe you should consider schools that have a history, rather than a very new school. An older school will have a reputation, and more access to funds via it's financial aid offices.
You should also be careful about picking a school based on (as you put it) your "rather biased educational interests". As a someone who hasn't graduated from high school yet, your interests are very likely to change over the next few years of your life, as you set out into the world and see things that are different from where you grew up. Don't shortchange yourself by picking a school that is tailored to your current interests, and won't be able to support your future ones.
Also, don't shortchange yourself by isolating your interests into the tech sector. Make sure you can explore the full range of academic subjects that are available at a good school. You'll never get a chance like this again.
I understand that you probably have your heart set on a technology career but I would strongly encourage you to look elsewhere for your life's work. the technology career in the United States is fading. There is significant age discrimination and it is effectively a ten to fifteen year career.
/.comments of "I'm over X, and I still have a job by being technically hot shit" because they are exceptions that prove the rule. For the most part, your typical your career will be over by the time you are 35-40.
Try some informational interviews at technology companies and just look around and see how the people in the technology staff and first couple levels of management are above the age of 45. If the companies say they have a "dual career ladder", ask how many directors they have on the managerial side. Then ask how many they have on the technical side. if they give you a nonzero number, ask to be introduced to some of them. Another question on the same line is to ask what does it take to become a director for managerial and then ask for the technical. You'll frequently find that the technical rungs have significantly higher hurdles than the managerial side.
Don't be fooled by the typical
A technology career is also bad for you physically and mentally. Most companies use subtle or not so subtle psychological pressure to encourage staff to work all sorts of hours, usually in the name of teambuilding. It will cost you sleep, health by being increasingly sedentary and obese, and even possibly repetitive motion damages which leaves you with lifelong pain.
The psychological pressure to work long hours will reduce your ability to take time off to take vacations.
The hyper focus mindset it takes to get work done in a cube environment also will impact your ability to form healthy relationships with a partner. Important time off together (see above) will be impaired and nibbled away at by the inability to leave work at work.
So, leave the technology career for others. The smart move into something where you can have a long career and make good money without putting your physical and mental health at risk. take care of yourself. Because not only will nobody else do it, everybody else wants to eat you alive and not in a good way.
Also, go to a _state_ school! Your education will cost 1/10 to 1/3 as much money! You won't be burdened by student loans! Instead you'll buy a shiny new car and/or house with all the money yo'll save.
And "tech" workers, don't diss college. There is a demand for skilled engineering students, although curently many of those oppurtunities are in the defense industry.
-n
I got over 20 grand for school and was able to finish my first degree without any debt. All thanks to my uncle sam.
If getting blown up / shot worries you - I say go Navy or Air Force. Not to mention if you are smart and test well you could get into some very interesting technical work- say with UAVs or something else cool. There are other benefits as well- like being able to buy a house with no money down using a V.A. home loan. I had more out of pocket costs on my first car than I did on my first house.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
You wrote, "[i]t's still getting itself off the ground," and that worries me. First of all you want to attend a well established institution. This is not only because of the name recognition when you apply for employment after graduation. You want the school to be around long enough for you to be able to graduate and solvent enough to cover its expenses, or the staff and profs will leave. This is from personal experience. My wife's cousin attended a college that was just starting up, but I do not remember the name. He was studying music. A couple of years later the school declared bankruptcy and that was it. He lost all the tution he paid even for classes that he paid for but never took yet due to the bankruptcy. Later, since the school was a virtual unknown and there was no one there to contact, no other school offered him any credit for the work he did while there. In debt he had to get a job and only now, some years later, is he back in school at UIC and not studying music.
The $500 scholarships are worthless, do not bother. I won a handful and in two cases I never saw the money. Also, you have to list them when you apply for financial aid and each year the financial aid office calculate 54% (if I remember correctly) of that to reduce your award from the school. In the end I lost more money than I gained from that and I spent many weekends writing annoying essays about topics like the American Revolution and how I will make the world a better place after my college education.
I went through five years of school without any scholarships, and paid my own way.
If you're already technically inclinded, get a job. If you have even rudimentary programming skills, you should be able to work for at least $20 an hour.
Compare that to the usual philosophy major pulling in a whopping $5.35 an hour at the local grocery store.
Just hope that your uncle Sam doesn't want you to spend your vacation on his campsite in Iraq this year.
I find that when some people get out of high school they get this idea in their heads that if they don't go to this super snooty college than they will never be able to get a job and all of their hopes and dreams will be crushed. Another unusual thing I find is that high school students often times think that state schools are only cool if they in other states. This is ironic because although you may not think that colleges in your state are cool many people from other states probably do think they are cool. Now I am not going to tell you that there is NO difference between going to a super expensive school and going to a cheap school. However I have had some experience in this matter (undergrad at a cheap state school grad at a super expensive private school that you all have heard of) and I can tell you that the difference in education is very small. All schools use more or less the same text books and they have to meet certain standards in order to be able to keep giving out diplomas.
My point is that if you can't afford some super expensive school maybe you should think about going to a cheaper state school (one that is in YOUR state.) I think that you will find that when you get out the people who went to the cheap schools will for the most part being working at the same jobs and making the same amount of $$ as those who went for the expensive schools. The cost of state schools are going up much faster than inflation but I think most of the time you can still afford basic tuition by working in the summer and at part time jobs. For room and board I guess you will have to live off mommy and daddy or get student loans. My advice: try to stay for longer than 4 years (compared to college the real world sucks!! who graduates in 4 years anymore anyway?) and try to take as few student loans as possible; if you are lucky the mommy and daddy bank will pay for much of it -- even if that means you have to live in your parent's basement.
The University Student Panhandling Advisor
Seriously, a lot of schools will have staff whose sole professional purpose is to keep track of scholarships which students of that institution could compete for. Makes sense, the U doesn't care who pays the bills, just so long as they get paid, so helping economically disadvantaged students to find funding is a win-win.
My personal experience was that there were literally hundreds of scholarships available to me, once I stopped focusing on $DISCIPLINE.
So stop worrying about tech scholarships, start worrying about scholarships, period. If that youth-tap-dance-zealot scholarship pays the bills, put on those shoes baby, just put on those shoes...
"Talk minus action equals nothing" - Joey Shithead, D.O.A.
"Talk minus action equals
Stay away! Run as far and as fast as you can from IT. It's a totally losing proposition. And it's not getting better.
Yes. Stick with the real engineering positions instead of being a retarded IT monkeyboy.
I don't know if running away is a good solution. I cannot tell you how sick I am of people (who are incidentally successful computer scientists) telling me that I shouldn't study CS. Computer Science is the foundation for cutting edge (and rather new) fields like Biotechnology. While the field may be experiencing a bit of a slump now (especially with outsourcing to foreign counties), it has no where to go but up, especially as computing and technology becomes more prolific (think smart refrigerator).
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...
I think your nephew must have had more going for him than the fact that he was the only person applying for these scholarships. The idea that there are loads of unclaimed scholarships that are open to whomever turns in an essay, regardless of their merits, is nonsense, pure and simple.
Peterson's, which is an authoritative a source as any, explains:
There are lots of scholarships out there, but they're all fairly competitive.