College Scholarships for Middle School Students

scholarship money for middle school students

Did you know that your child can start getting scholarships for college before they even get to high school?

It’s true. There are more scholarships available to middle school students than ever before!

I didn’t know this until recently either—I was working with an 11th grade student to find outside scholarships for college, and we were doing some independent research.

We had a meeting set up to review our findings together, which revealed some very surprising results.

Can middle schoolers get college scholarships?

I was amazed at the opportunities available to younger students, long before they even started applying to college.

I realized that (as someone who is fully immersed in the college application and admission processes) if even I didn’t know there were so many excellent scholarships available for middle school students, how could the students and their families know?

I began sharing several of the scholarship opportunities I found with families who had younger children.

While we’re on the topic, you won’t want to miss this post, with tips for preparing your ninth-grader for college. 

What I’ve found is while most people wanted to know about these scholarships as soon as their child was eligible to apply, only a small percentage actually followed through with the applications.

Can you guess what happened when other middle schoolers did take advantage of these scholarship opportunities?

Their road to college was a much smoother ride!

Of course, obtaining scholarships isn’t the only important part of the journey to getting into college.

Although it’s still a few years away, here are some tips for supporting your middle school-aged child during the college admissions process.

Scholarship opportunities for middle school students.

If you want to start garnering college scholarships early, check out these opportunities for middle schoolers:

  1. Doodle 4 Google—Contestants can apply for this scholarship as early as kindergarten through high school.
  2. Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes—This scholarship goes to young people aged 8 – 18 who have made a positive difference on people and the environment.
  3. Kohl’s Cares—Students are recognized for their volunteer service from 6 years and up to high school graduation with this scholarship that awards up to $10,000.
  4. MathMovesU—These scholarships go to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders and can be used for a summer camp or college.
  5. Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards—This scholarship is the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7 – 12. Students can submit art or writing across 28 categories.
  6. The Angela Award—The Angela Award is a scholarship awarded by the National Science Teachers Association to a girl in grade 5 – 8, who is involved in or connected to science.

This is just a short list of opportunities to help you get started.

I encourage you to do a very specific search on Google to find additional scholarships for your middle schooler. It takes time and diligence to find scholarships and apply for them, so don’t give up!

These efforts can pay off in more ways than one.

What other scholarships would you add to this list?

Need a little more guidance with finding scholarships, college applications, and admissions?

For one-on-one support and other resources to help you or your child get into (or pay) for college, click here.

If you’d like to learn more about preparing for college and the college application process, you’ll want to have a look at these articles too:

7 Ways to Support Your Child During the College Application Process
Get In and Get Money: 5 Tips for College-Bound Juniors
Where’s the Money for College? Case Studies of How Students Earned Big Scholarships

This article was originally published on June 29, 2015, and has been updated.

Where you can Go to College for FREE . . . Study Abroad

Lately, I’ve had several conversations with parents who are seeking ways to further reduce the cost of their college investment. An alternative to the high cost of tuition for US colleges is attending college in another country.

Here are 7 countries to consider:

  1. Germany
  2. Finland
  3. France
  4. Sweden
  5. Norway
  6. Slovenia
  7. Brazil

While it may sound great on paper (or during cocktail party conversations), there are several questions parents should ask to make sure that this option is viable for their teen. These 3 questions capture the overall fit that makes a difference in whether a student is successful in college, in the US or abroad:

  • Is studying abroad for college a good academic fit?
  • How will my teen fit in socially during their college years on a campus abroad?
  • What other financial costs will there be that may offset the tuition savings?

Then the flip-side of these questions will be those questions that the parents must ask themselves, like can they emotionally bear having their teen “so far” away from home. That’s a difficult question for many parents to answer whether they are sending their first or their last child off to college.

Why apply to Antioch College

Why apply to Antioch College interview with Cezar Mesquita

Several months ago on The Education Doctor Radio Show, we met with the Executive Director of Colleges that Change Lives, Marty O’Connell.  The Colleges that Change Lives is an esteemed group of 40 colleges around the US known for their life-changing success with students.

During that interview, one of our listeners emailed a question about Antioch College. Please check out that podcast to hear what Marty had to say about Antioch’s membership in Colleges that Change Lives. Our listener from Chicago may have asked her question based on some of the happenings at Antioch over the past couple of years.

Well, now in 2012, just a short time since then, there is a different story streaming from the Yellow Springs Ohio campus. Cezar Mesquita, who is Antioch’s Dean of Admissions, joined us for The Education Doctor Radio Show to provide some insight on why Antioch is such a hot application. His leadership appointment was announced in the summer of 2011 after a nationwide search. Prior to this role, Cezar had served at College of Wooster (where I first met him), at Doane College and the University of Denver. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Nebraska and his master’s degree from the University of Alabama. We were delighted to have him share all the buzz at Antioch over this past year.

Below are excerpts from our show or you may listen at the link above:

Antioch History:

Dr. Pamela:     . . . I wanted to start out because we may have some listeners that are unfamiliar with the news that was coming from Antioch prior to when you joined seven months ago and I think that just hearing a little bit about the history of the campus will help them appreciate what is happening today.  If you can please share with us a little capsule about what was happening at Antioch College two years ago.

Cezar Mesquita:  Absolutely, the news coming out of Yellow Springs back in 2008 was not good.  It was when the University has effectively managed the college.  I feel like I need to even go back a little bit prior to that.  Antioch College actually was the starting institution in the 1950s established by a group of Christian abolitionists.  Eventually, the Antioch College model changed when we incorporated the very widely known cooperative education piece. This is now in the 1940s or so when they decided to incorporate learning theory to practice where students from Antioch would go and have full time working experiences incorporated during their learning.  That model took a whole lot of interest nationally and we fast forward now to the 1960s and 1970s where it grew up to several satellite campuses around the country.  Folks thought, “Hey, let’s propagate this model nationally.” So there were nearly 40 campuses nationwide in its peak, in what was then known, Antioch University.  Throw a couple of law schools in there and some graduate programs.  What happened was that model became unsustainable, so a series of mismanagement issues along the way caused the university of the College, which is now managing the entire institution, to focus more on graduate programs, adult learner programs, and degree completion programs and invest less in the traditional liberal arts residential college here in Yellow Springs.  In 2008, the decision came from the University that they would cease operation of the college altogether.  Now you have a group of alumni who are absolutely fervently passionate about their institution and who absolutely refused to let their alma mater die.  Between the year of 2008 and 2009, the alumni went on a huge fundraising campaign to raise millions and millions of dollars to buy back the campus from the University.  So in 2009, an exciting announcement came where Antioch College reopened its doors with the goal of enrolling and recruiting a class for the starting term of Fall 2011.  Last year, we greeted our first new inaugural class, again an institution that is 162 years old, a new inaugural class of 35 students who joined Antioch College for the first time since the closure in 2008.  It has been a very, very exciting time indeed.

Antioch’s Current Freshman

Dr. Pamela:. .Tell us about this current freshman class.  You have 35 students there now?

Cezar Mesquita:  We have 35 students and last year’s application season was very, very unique as you can imagine.  The college is starting anew. We do not yet have an accreditation from the higher learning commission. We are in the process of a multi-year, multi-phase accreditation process right now, so in many ways, we needed to provide an incredible experience for students with incredible incentives. So what happened was, we decided to come out with this campaign, which has now been extended where every admitted student at Antioch College for the first four inaugural classes will be given a free tuition fellowship.  What happened last year is that these students applied from everywhere. We had students and adult learners, students in their late 20s, students from outside Ohio from as far away as Florida and Seattle.  35 students selected Antioch College.  We made sure that we selected students who could do the academic work as well as we’re a social fit with our institutional values.  This was very, very important, talking about the element of fit.  These 35 students joined us and started the class anew.  Six full-time faculty members and a cadre of several administrators who are helping deliver the experience for this new class.

Free Tuition at Antioch – So what?

Dr. Pamela:     I want you to talk a little bit more about fit. That is something I am very passionate about sharing with my families.  I talk about in terms of three key areas, which you describes, the academic fit, the social fit, and the financial fit.  I think the financial fit for you is the fact that it is free for those students who are there.  Can you talk a little bit about those different areas of fit for the students that are there in terms of what their experience is like?

 

Cezar Mesquita:  Again, those things are so incredibly intertwined as a student and his or her support system, parents, mentors and peers will be going through this process.  At some point, they need to talk about those three things as well as others, but those three things will probably rise to the very top.  What is the academic experience like, what is the community experience like, and what is the value that we will be associating with our resources in order to make this experience a reality for students and for the family unit?  So that is huge.  From the financial side, in many ways, it was relatively an easy call, if you will, where the college and again this has been extended now for the next three years, where the colleges are to invest a significant amount of its resources to take the financial consideration out of the question, i.e., we want students to be looking at Antioch and take the consideration of financial affordability out of it so they know they will be investing in you.  Each college and university out there will have different resources in order to extend to prospective students, and each student, again with his family unit, will have to be discussed, okay, what are the expectations as far as our investment during school, after graduation. What kind of choices are we talking about when you speak of, perhaps an average indebtedness of $25,000 a year, which is the national average right now of graduating from your institution.  So families need to have that very conversation.  And they will be having that conversation somewhere along the way.  So at Antioch, we decided, at least for that side, we decided to move that to a second plane and focus on the first two, which is so incredibly important.  Again, the students over here are coming to an academic experience where they will be working with a very small student to faculty ratio. They will be very, very well nurtured and cared for as well as the preparation in the classroom. And a high level of expectation in a rigorous liberal arts environment, but in true Antioch College fashion, we will be pushing the envelope.

How we are doing it this year is Antioch is delivering what we call the Global Seminars Series, where we are coming from the premise that the way in which we live in the world today is unsustainable and we will be prompting students and faculty members to take this five global seminar series, that will focus on the issues of food, water, energy, health, and government.  The idea here is to really propose that these students talk and discuss and break down misconceptions and barriers towards the designing of sustainable solutio0ns to address those five issues.  Again, Antioch has always been on the progressive front and now we decided to fast forward our element to the 21st century and again, having this cadre of students and professionals and teachers and professors to help devise the solutions. That is on the academic side.

College-bound families discover that Harvard is cheaper than UC, Cal State and other Public colleges

Harvard

In our recent posting on “Why Scholarships searches are a waste of time,” we mentioned that families shouldn’t fear the sticker shock of private colleges. The hidden truth is that many of these colleges have more scholarship support than other colleges, particularly your public colleges with a lower price tag.

In the last several years, college-bound families have discovered this fact in March of senior year. (March is the most popular month for admissions/financial award notifications.) When families compare award packages and calculate the figures, it’s been less expensive for their teen to enroll at a private college that offered merit aid than to attend an in-state college close to home.

This recent article confirms what college-bound families often discover too late in the process:

Top private schools, with their generous aid, have been among the most affordable options for students for a few years, but rising tuition has only recently sent California State University and University of California prices shooting past the Harvards and Yales for middle-class students.

The revelation comes as thousands of college and university students on Monday march to protest budget cuts in Sacramento that have forced up tuition and shaken campuses.

It’s almost unthinkable in a state that once practically gave away college educations.

“We are coming close to pricing out many of our middle-class students,” said Rhonda Johnson, Cal State East Bay’s financial-aid director. “Now we’re seeing a disadvantaged middle class.” . . . .

Consider a family of four — married parents, a high-school senior and a 14-year-old child — making $130,000 a year.

With typical aid, the family should expect to pay nearly $24,000 for a Cal State freshman’s tuition, on-campus room and board, supplies and other expenses. At Harvard? Just $17,000, even though its stated annual tuition is $36,305.

The same family would pay about $33,000 for a freshman year at UC Santa Cruz.

UC Berkeley, which recently followed the lead of private colleges by boosting aid for middle-class families, would cost $19,500. . . .

Add to the equation that students at smaller private colleges often can graduate sooner, saving thousands of dollars over California’s public universities, where cuts have made it difficult to get all required classes in four years.

via Believe it: Harvard cheaper than Cal State – San Jose Mercury News.

Again, college graduation in four years is a great way to save on college investment. However, families must remember that college graduation begins in high school preparation, and the application process proceeds with a focus on fit – academic, social, and financial – for each college on the list. Please contact us if you have more questions about “fit” and why it matters. We love talking (and writing) about it! 🙂

 

FAFSA questions? Get answers here!

When the Free Application for Financial Student Aid (FAFSA) was released on January 1, many families started scratching their heads about when and how to complete this all-important form for student aid. Families with a high school senior may be completing this form for their first time. Here are a few things you should know about FAFSA:

  • It’s FREE! – therefore, you have nothing to lose but an hour or two of your time.
  • The resulting calculations of FAFSA determine federal sources and institutional awards – Even if you think you will not qualify, there is no penalty for applying and you may be pleasantly surprised. (I’ve seen these surprises every year!)
  • FAFSA assumes no student contribution and calculation uses the federal standard of living guidelines

A state-wide initiative begun several years ago is the National College Goal Sunday event. In 2012, the event is being held on Sunday, February 12. Families of current high school seniors can visit this website to find out the locations near them. This event is an opportunity for students and families to get free, on-site professional assistance filling out the FAFSA. Again, many families do not complete the FAFSA because they believe they wouldn’t be approved for any assistance. Many colleges will determine institutional awards based on FAFSA. Therefore, if you do not qualify for the federal funds then the college may very well determine that they will offer an institutional award.

For more considerations on paying for college, please see our recent posting here on where to find the money for college!

Merit Aid: When you don’t Qualify for Need-based Aid

The key question on the minds of so many families is “How do I pay for college?” January 1 was the release date for the FAFSA which is Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Others think of FAFSA as the form to complete if you qualify for need-based aid. Each year, however, there are many colleges that require that families complete the FAFSA to be considered for merit aid as well. Another form that is sometimes required is the CSS Financial Aid Profile. The acronym stands for College Scholarship Service and they are a separate organization run by College Board (the SAT folks). This form requires different information from families although it is reviewed by colleges to qualify students for financial aid and merit aid awards as well. Please review each college’s website to determine the required form(s).

Joining The Education Doctor Radio Show today was Debbie Davis of Davis Education and Career Consultants, based in Ridgefield, CT. Debbie has over 30 years of professional experience and has served families throughout the New England region and nationally on college and career advising. In serving her client families, Debbie has established deep expertise in merit and financial aid. Please check our podcast here to learn what Debbie shared about the importance of completing the FAFSA and finding the value proposition in college selection.

If you’re taking the SAT this weekend: Read this

In the last week, I’ve received several calls from parents who are worried about their son’s or daughter’s preparation for the SAT. My first response is to allay their fears that this one test will doom their teen’s future admission to college. While it’s true that these standardized test are reviewed in the college admissions process, it is only one of several factors considered. (Sigh! Thank goodness it’s not the only one, right?)

There is a growing number of test-optional colleges. If you don’t test well but you do write well, those colleges should be considered.

If you’re still reading this post, you’re probably already registered for Saturday’s SAT exam, so I’d like to offer you this invitation:

Please join me on BlogTalkRadio this Thursday, December 1 at 9 pm EST

We’re hosting the first segment of our two-part series on standardized tests, which will focus on Last Minute Tips and Strategies for the SAT. My guest will be Jim Meany of Insight Tutors in Greenwich, CT. Jim has over 25 years of tutoring experience. He is a graduate of Stanford University and University of Southern California.

If you have any questions for Jim, you are welcomed to send those to radio at compasseducationstrategies.com.

 

P.S. Jim will join us again next week to discuss the ACT!

 

How Students Qualify for Merit Scholarships

As students are finalizing their list of colleges, I encourage their parents to avoid focusing too much on the tuition. A best-matched college is based on an academic, social, and financial fit. On the financial side, the fit isn’t really determined until the spring when the admission letters arrive. Think of the tuition costs as a sticker price. Similar to purchasing a car . . . many families do not pay the sticker price at colleges.

The other thing to note in terms of funding your college education is that the majority of scholarships come directly from the colleges. Corporate scholarships, i.e. those external funds that are portable to any college or university represent a fraction of all the monies available for college.

Here is some insight from the University of Rochester’s approach to how it awards merit scholarships:

While all schools will have their own criteria, this list will give you some sense of what matters beyond the obvious. Here’s how Rochester’s merit awards played out during the past admissions cycle:

• $3,000: The school typically rewarded candidates who reached out to it with an extra $3,000. These

 

were teenagers who had serious conversations with the admissions and financial aid office. Schools like to feel wanted, and reaching out to them with meaningful conversations can help.

• $2,000: That’s what teens who weren’t New Yorkers received. Sixty two percent of the freshmen class hails from somewhere else. While Burdick didn’t check, he suspects that students who lived farther away received an even fatter amount of money.Why would students benefit from being from distant states? Because college crave geographic diversity. They want to be able to brag that they have students from all 50 states or close to it. [Get tips on paying for college.]

• $62: Each “A” on a teen’s transcript generated $62 worth of merit aid.

• $400: Teenagers received roughly $400 for each tough course that they took. Courses that would qualify included Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and honors.

• $1,800: A student got this much more if the school considered his or her recommendations excellent.

• $115: Each 10-point improvement in the SAT above the average for Rochester freshmen garnered an extra $115. The average SAT score was 2040.[Explore the U.S. News college test prep guide.]

• $400: Observing deadlines matter. Students got an extra $400 for completing the application on time, as well as making sure mid-year grades were sent.

• $1.89: You got this much less every time a student was admitted with the same major. This clearly favored students with less popular majors such as philosophy and hurt students interested in such big majors as psychology, political science, and economics.

• $1,700: That’s how much the typical freshmen received in merit money if his or her parents completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid FAFSA. The school imposes a progressive tax on its merit awards. On average, $4 less in income boosts the merit award by one cent.

via How Colleges Determine Merit Scholarships – The College Solution usnews.com.

Therefore, instead of focusing solely on tuition in selecting a college, families should also look at the number of merit awards distributed annually.

The economics of visiting University of Cincinnati

University of Cincinnati

Graduation Rate: 54:9%

When I visited the University of Cincinnati today, it was my first visit since I interviewed for a faculty position several years ago. I got an offer but didn’t feel like academia was a fit for my personality and work/lifestyle. Although I toured the campus back then, it was still worth a visit this time around to get a sense of the changes and campus culture.

IMG_0087
This amazing structure houses the 4 floors of trophies, showcasing UCinn’s athletic achievements

Once I got over the fact that there were approximately 2,000+ other attendees at this Open House, it was time to absorb the presentations, tours, etc. I say that I had to get over it because it is a large, urban university with approximately 20,000 undergrads and just as many graduate students. With so many people there, attendees did not wear name tags, groups had different schedules, and I personally felt invisible. This experience is probably not a whole lot different from attending as a student. My student tour guide had only lived on campus for 1 year and lived off-campus for 3 years. She didn’t have a lot of answers about the campus, but she exuded pride in being a Bearcat. So UCinn can be a large university with tons of visitors at a time and . . . be a perfect fit for the students who attend there.

 

Throughout the presentations and campus tours, there was a lot of talk about costs. The morning presentation started with a discussion of financial aid. The next presenter highlighted all the “free” things on campus and emphasized all the off-campus activities galore . . . (it certainly made me wonder about the strength of the on-campus community).

 

When we started on the tour, the guide mentioned the cost of parking, how to save money on textbooks, and other services not

The lazy river and jacuzzi in Rec Center at University of Cincinnati are free to all students
The lazy river and jacuzzi in Rec Center at University of Cincinnati are free to all students

included in recreation center fees. (Massages and personal trainers are an additional fee, while the “lazy river” and jacuzzi are included.)  Perhaps it’s more a sign of the times in Ohio and nationally. . . . the cost of higher education is on the minds of families. I listen to a lot of admissions presentations and campus tours throughout the year. The consistent references to costs stood out. I definitely know that the application fee is $50 and nothing happens to your application without that fee! One other tip is that your application must be submitted by December 1, in order to be considered for Honors or scholarships.

 

Overall, the visit to the University of Cincinnati was well worth my time. After 2-1/2 hours, there was finally a presentation about academics. It was comforting to learn about those special programs that bring alive the intellectual engagement. The First-Year Experience includes learning communities that give freshmen a chance to form a community among their peers. That’s a plus on a large urban campus such as this. The Co-op Education program was also a highlight. Students in the College of Arts and Sciences must major in French, Spanish, Communications, or English though to participate. This is a great idea because it helps those students to be just as competitive in the job market after college. Also, the Co-Op Education program is 5 years, but you only pay for 4 years!UCincinnati

Graduation Rate: 54:9%

Bucknell Shapes Students to a “T”

Bucknell is no longer the home of the Toni Morrison Society but that’s OK because there are so many opportunities for writers at this university. Poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and the fact that English faculty publish regularly means that students have a host of options to flourish in their written works. The performing arts program, overall, is a well-kept secret on campus. Internationally recognized artists frequent campus which expands the curriculum, as well as enhance the quality of student life. Arts merit scholarships are offered, further promoting the draw for top student talent.

Engineering and Natural Sciences

The Bucknell campus is actually better known for its engineering and natural science colleges. Engineering majors have access to 7 disciplines, undergraduate research opportunities, and great faculty. During my visit, I was especially impressed with the introductory Engineering cour required for all majors. First of all, there are several faculty members involved in the course, students do 3 different hands-on team projects in design during the term, and there’s an ethics component. The hands-on design project is good because many programs don’t allow this type of experiential learning until the advanced courses. Perhaps if I could have engaged in a hands-on project freshman year, it would have kept me in the Engineering department. [More on that in another blog!] So, having the experiential project can help students decide rather quickly whether this is a major for them or NOT!

The “T” in Bucknell

During visits to several departments, the “T-student” concept was mentioned often.  The “T” in Bucknell refers to students experiencing depth in their major (vertical axis). Much of that depth is gained through research opportunities and strong connections with faculty.  The horizontal top of the “T” refers to students having access to a liberal arts breadth across the university. It’s not uncommon for an engineering student to graduate with classes in the humanities that complement the major requirements.

Bucknell University

Graduation rate: 89.5%