How to Find $30K/year in Scholarships

Imagine your student earns a $30,000-per-year scholarship to a university you hadn't previously considered.

They graduate with a 4.0, with little or no debt, and are admitted to their top-choice graduate program.

This is a very real college outcome, and one that families sometimes overlook when they focus only on the most prestigious universities.

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When deciding upon which colleges to apply to, I’ve noticed many students initially choose to apply only to highly selective universities as their reaches and an in-state public as their likely option.

This thinking makes total sense. The sticker cost of college has skyrocketed to more than $90,000 (including tuition, room, board, fees, and travel expenses) for the most expensive private universities. However, what if I were to tell you that many colleges would award your student merit scholarships?

Arizona State University, which has one of the nation’s top honors colleges, has a scholarship estimator on its website. You enter your student’s GPA, test scores, how many years of core subjects (math, English, etc.), and state of residence, and it will estimate your student’s cost of attendance for the first year.

The University of Alabama automatically awards out-of-state freshmen scholarships between $6,000 and full tuition based on GPA and test scores alone; they publish a table outlining how much by GPA and test scores on their website. These scholarships are renewable over 4 years.

Private universities can also award generous scholarships. I’ve seen students win $40,000 per year from the University of San Diego, for example, or $20,000 per year from Lafayette College. That’s $80,000 to $160,000 over four years – money that could instead go towards the student’s graduate education, a home, helping them start their post-college lives, or other goals instead.

Why do these universities offer merit scholarships? One reason is to attract and enroll strong students who may also have attractive offers from more selective universities.

Your student can also apply to outside scholarships (e.g. scholarships awarded by organizations aside from the university). Generally speaking, these scholarships range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, so these applications can require a fair amount of effort for uncertain payoff.

What does this mean for my student?

1. Your student should cast a wide net when applying to universities. Their college list should include reaches, targets, and safeties, or schools that range from least likely to admit your student to most likely to admit your student. Choose a list of colleges that includes institutions that might award merit scholarships to your student.

2. Every college is required to include a Net Price Calculator on its website. This allows you to input financial information about your family, such as income and assets, to estimate your student’s cost of attendance at that university. To find this, Google search “Net Price Calculator” and the university’s name. Note that this is different from a merit scholarship estimator: the Net Price Calculator focuses on your family's financial circumstances, while merit scholarships are generally based on the student's qualifications.