Here’s a shocker — college scholarships don’t always reduce your cost!

Imagine you get a $5,000 private scholarship. Logically, you think, “Great! I just saved myself $5,000!”

But wait. Some schools stack scholarships, meaning the money is in addition to your financial aid award and applied towards what you owe.

But other schools collapse the money into an already existing financial aid package, i.e. ”We will use that scholarship in place of the $5,000 institutional grant we gave you in your financial aid package.”

It means you still pay the same price despite your extra efforts. If you receive private scholarships, ask colleges how they affect financial aid before committing.  

The best part about scholarships is they are free money you don’t have to pay back. Need-based scholarships cover demonstrated need as determined by the financial aid forms. They can come from the government or the school.

Merit-based scholarships are any money awarded above and beyond need-based aid, and are usually offered by individual colleges or private organizations.

Generally, private colleges offer much more merit aid than public schools, but the ultra-competitive schools rarely offer any at all. They don’t need to entice anyone to attend.

Tip: Most students wait until the spring of their senior year to start applying for scholarships, and deadlines may have passed. Start searching as early as 9th grade! 

Scholarships come from three sources.

The first is national scholarship clearinghouses. Reputable sites include Fastweb.com, Scholarship.com, or CollegeBoard.org. They range from a few hundred dollars to $40,000+ and cover all kinds of circumstances, from the child of an incarcerated guardian to a Minecraft player.

Fill out the profile for potential matches. Not all scholarships require high GPAs, either. However, they are usually judged on a national level and receive many entries. 

The second source is local organizations that give specifically to local kids. We are extremely fortunate to have the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara as part of our community.

Open to seniors (and even graduate students!) who graduate from a high school in Santa Barbara County you can find eligibility information and deadlines on their website. 

The final and most common source of scholarships is the colleges themselves. Some automatically consider you when you apply, while others require separate applications or have different deadlines.

Then there are athletic scholarships based on talent. That deserves its own column.

The bottom line is to scour each college’s financial aid website for specific details on potential scholarships. You may be surprised to discover scholarships at some private colleges are full-ride tuition scholarships (Illinois Institute of Technology, for example) offering a different and possibly cheaper experience! 

The Western University Exchange is another option that may make it cheaper to attend college out-of-state than in-state.

About 160 institutions in 15 western states participate. How about a civil engineering degree or computer science degree from Boise State for $8,912/year? Or forensic science at Eastern New Mexico University for $6,174?

Explore the options and possibly save a bundle.

Scholarships can play an important role in affording college, but you can’t bank on them. If your goal is to graduate with little or no debt, there are ways to do that, but it likely won’t include the big brand schools.

Look for private colleges where you exceed the stats of their typical applicant. If you can raise their average GPA and test score, your odds of a merit scholarship increase dramatically.

The SBCC Promise is also worth considering. More on that soon.