College Academic Scholarships

The school doesn't have a college counselor?

There may be online services that help students find and apply to multiple scholarships through a centralized system.

Perhaps contact a prospective university's financial aid office to inquire about the best way to start the process; I imagine their offices would be happy to provide insight.

I think having a well-written, concise yet thoughtful essay is a great way to increase the chances of whether scholarships are awarded. Making sure there are no typographical or grammatical errors can go a long way.

Best of luck.

My oldest graduated in 2024 with great grades, great extracurriculars, and a good sACT score (31 - good, but not Harvard level). Since she was looking at a degree that most schools have, we chose to focus on smaller, private schools that would appreciate her academic record. She was offered multiple full-tuiton scholarships. We are in TN so she had TN Hope on top of that and some other small scholarships. Last year, we only had to pay to cover part of her room and board that wasn't covered by scholarships. She is in the school's honors program which she loves and helps her feel challenged.

If she hadn't received those offers, she would have done 4 years at a local university and since it is basically free for locals. Our goal was to make sure she doesn't graduate with debt so we talked through everything, let her know how much we had saved, etc., so she has realistic expectations.

Our youngest just started her senior year so we are about to start the process again. She is interested in a directional state school that has a good reputation for her major. She already qualifies for a decent amount of merit based an ACT and GPA, but she will also be applying for a ton of scholarships because they have a lot of endowed scholarships available. We have already had the same conversation with her about what we can afford.

We also told both of our girls we would give them whatever is left over from their college fund when they graduate so that has been a big incentive for them to do well and apply for scholarships.

A lot of smaller schools have automatic merit scholarships (basically coupons ??), but they usually have a handful of full-tuition and/or full ride based on ACT, resume, and GPA. My daughter was invited to scholarship weekends for 5 or 6 different schools where the top students competed for scholarships. She got a large amount of money from three of them. She wanted to attend a smaller school so it worked out well.

If your son is considering LA Tech, they give out scholarships automatically based on GPA and ACT score.

Some of the SEC schools like Ole Miss and Alabama offer a good amount of aid based on GPA and ACT.

My kids who also did well with that high school shite got my scholarship.

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Some of the SEC schools like Ole Miss and Alabama offer a good amount of aid based on GPA and ACT.

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correct, both of mine went to AU. got Pres Scholly I assume it was based strictly on those 2 things. I don't even remember if they had to "apply" for the scholarships. they were just awarded.

hahahahahah. My daughter graduated high school two years ago.

1. If your household income is >$80,000.00, you'll only qualify for like 15% of scholarships.
2. Use tops if in Louisiana and staying in Louisiana
3. Try to search out some local types like rotary club, chamber of commerce.
4. Try to search out local memorial foundation ones.
5. If your student is in key club, 4-H, etc. things like that, they have some you can apply for
6. Most of the national scholarships from corporate companies are financial need based (aka $80K thing from above)
7. If in Louisiana LOFSA and if they want to go to trade school, there are some options there
8. LSU and most other big colleges decide a student's scholarship based on how much they receive for TOPS and based on their financial need, then they come to a number. (BS if you ask me. The student should be deserving of scholarship based on merit and extra curricular activities (sports, clubs, etc.).
9. My daughter wasn't interested, but joining the Army/National Guard GI Bill would be a good option. I'm not sure of the particulars here though.
10. Don't pay to join a scholarship company like Scholarship Owl, Scholarship America, Big Future, etc.
11. Find a school that has a good program for what your student wants (ie. Nursing school program is good and may be better at UL and Nicholls than LSU). That would keep cost down.
Good luck. College tuition is an absolute joke and so inflated nowadays.

Alabama and Ole Miss have hovered around 70% OOS because of their scholarship programs.

Those schools have bet big on getting the kids of “rich parents” becoming part of their national network for a decade and a half has worked quite well.

The footprint, including places like NYC, is impressive. Alabama’s investment banking academy is annually placing 20+ kids a year on Wall Street.