im a mom of 17 yr old son and i want to help my son look for scholarship here. I dont know what to doHELP ME?

Question

My son will go to college next year but up to now we havent applied yet for a scholarship to any college or university closeby. THis is my ist time to apply since he's my eldest.. We've been here only for 7 yearS.. mY SON DONT HAVE ALL As in his report card but majority of them are, If someone could guide me or help me w/ these problem I would be very greatful. My son might take Pharmacy or Nursing..Is it very hard to go to UCLA or USC . WE live near LA. SAn Fernando Valley to be specific. 91343 is our zipcode.. thanx

Answer 1

The best advice I once read regarding college scholarships is to utilize more than one approach in locating them. I also recommend applying for as many scholarships as he qualifies for no matter the amount. Also, he needs to start searching for college scholarships because deadlines happen throughout the year. I will include some free resources to locate college tuition money.

First, complete the FAFSA after January 1 but well before the earliest financial aid deadline. The form needs to be completed every year until he graduates from college. It will provide need based government and college help. It uses a percentage formula of family income and savings along with his income and savings (at a higher percentage rate). It also takes into consideration family size.

Second, his high school guidance office has a list of local college scholarships. These are the easiest to get compared to nationally based scholarships programs.

Third, the local public library has a book listing scholarships with some not even listed on the web.

Fourth, check with the college's financial aid office. They have a list of college scholarships.

Finally, join several free membership scholarship search websites. You enter a profile with them, and it will search for scholarships that he qualifies for consideration. There is a scholarship for almost anything including wearing duct tape to the senior prom.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Your son should start picking out schools, many schools have their own scholarships so if he knows a couple places he wants to go you can start applying for those. If he goes for pharmacy or nursing there should be a ton of scholarships for him because both of those careers are short on employees. If he's willing to go out of state and major in nursing it's possible you could even find a company who will pay for his entire college education if he signs a contract to work for them for maybe 3 or 4 years after graduation. Aside from that if you or your sons father work in certain industries or for certain companies there's a lot of scholarsihps. For example children of cops and firemen often have many specialty scholarships available to them. Finally, what ethnicity are you guys? I got a scholarship from an Italian organization. Also, if your son has any disorders such as add or anything like that there's also many scholarships out there for kids with add or asthma or soemthing else for example. Another thing to think about is going to a juinor college for a few semesters. I went to a juinor college, pumped up my grades since the school was pretty easy and wound up making national honor society and presidents list and got some money from that. There's also lots of books at teh library that give you organizations that offers scholarships and how to apply for them. Hope that helps.

Answer 3

I found a book over at barnes and noble that listed over a couple hundred pages of scholarships available. This book was great because it listed the scholarships, awards and grants based on a characteristic your child might have. Such as an athlete, volunteer, a major, life experience, family employers, heritage. It is a great resource.

Answer 4

Hi Marilou,

I'm just up the road from you in Valencia.

Looks like you already got some good answers, but I wanted to touch on the UCLA and USC thing.

You and I have a lot of great community colleges in our area. Community colleges offer the first 2 years of a 4 year education. They are much, much cheaper than a university (especially a private school like USC), but the classes are EXACTLY the same.

Not only that, but after you finish your 2 years at comm. college, it is much easier to transfer into a school like UCLA or USC. And in the end, your son's degree will say the name of the university ONLY on it. It won't say (**went to CC first) or anything like that.

And lastly, I've heard time and time again people say "if I had to go back, I would have gone to community college first". And that after transferring to the university from a CC, the students already there always want to be in groups with and study with the community college transfers...because "they know what they're doing, and are serious about being here."

So...going to CC first has only good advantages, where as going straight from high school to university has no advantages over the community college route whatsoever.

UCLA has roughly 30% of all of its students being transfers. UC Berkeley has roughly 28%.

So as you can see, it is definitely something you want to look into and consider.

-$20 per unit at CC, versus hunderds per unit at University (which has to all be paid back one day)

- Much higher transfer rates from CC to University, versus high school to University

- Gives students extra time to grow and mature, instead of being thrown right into a University setting which is much more stressful at 18/19, than 20/21 years old

Good luck in whatever you decide!

Answer 5

UCLA is 15 mins away from the san fernado valley,, I live in the san fernado valley...and usc is about 30 mins away Apply for the FASA,, Which .. He can apply to cal state nothridge , he must have a 2.5,, for UCLA he must have a 3.2 or higher UCLA is very competitive,,, What your son can do is go to CSUN,, for one year and apply to UCLA,, that is one option... you can go to the nearest community college look for scholrships there... Or you can have your son go to a Community college for one year,, the school will help you with transfer information..... There is a lot of options out there.. Again Apply for FASA,, and what schools has he applied to,, dead lines r coming up for Cal states, (NOV 30), and UC's dead lines have past

Answer 6

I would look at churches and other local places to see if they offer any scholarships. On the net you should go to websites such as Fastweb.com, collegeboard.com, or just type in Pharmacy major scholarships. The schools also offer scholarships to certain majors.

Answer 7

Pharmacy is a great field. You might want to visit the these articles to get to know a little bit more about pharmacy.

Answer 8

your best best is to ask counselors at your son's school and at the schools he wants to apply to. Also, check out fastweb.com. It'll show you a bunch of scholarships your son is qualified to apply for. It's great.

Answer 9

There are SO MANY scholorships that people don't even know about. Google "scholorships" add in the state he's going to school and there will be websites to guide you.

Good luck!!!

Answer 10

You have to apply for programs by going to the school and asking if there are any available.
All he needs is his high school transcripts, not his report card.