The Bottom Line: How Much Can You Get?

You've probably seen the stories of lucky students who get a "full ride"—a scholarship that will get them through four years of college for "free." But those scholarships are rare. A more realistic goal is winning enough scholarship money to make a serious dent in the money you pay out of pocket or take out in loans. To reach this goal, you will need to make astute choices about how much time to devote to scholarship applications, which scholarships to apply for—and even which colleges to apply to. In other words, you need a scholarship strategy.

How Much Money Do You Really Need?

The first step in developing such a strategy is to estimate your funding gap—the amount you want scholarships to cover. If your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is high and you are applying to expensive private colleges, then this gap might be quite large. In this case, an extensive scholarship campaign may be worthwhile. But if you plan to attend an in-state public college, or your EFC is low, the amount you need may be smaller. Applying to a shorter list of well-targeted scholarships might make more sense.

A more specific way of estimating your funding gap is to estimate your net cost to attend each college on your application list. Net cost represents your actual cost to attend a college. It includes your EFC, any financial need the college does not meet, and any loans or work-study the college provides. CollegeData's Net Cost Calculator can estimate your net cost for any of 1,900 four-year colleges.

Determine Your "Best Shot" Private Scholarships

Once you figure out how much scholarship money you need, it's time to decide which private scholarships to go for. (Private scholarships are offered by sponsors outside the college.) The sponsors and goals of these scholarships are so diverse that there are nearly endless ways to qualify. So how do you determine which scholarships best fit your qualifications and are generous enough to be worth the time it takes to apply?

First, make a list of every private scholarship you are considering. (If you need some tips on searching for scholarships, see the article Finding Scholarships You Qualify For or use our Scholarship Finder.) Then answer the following questions about each scholarship:

• Are you eligible? For example, do you meet the GPA or fields of study required by the scholarship?
• Is the award renewable for every year you will be in college?
• Are you an excellent fit for the requirements?
• Is the deadline manageable?
• Is the scholarship not one everyone knows about? For example, scholarships offered by local sponsors are usually far less competitive than nationally known contests.
• Is the award size tempting?
• If applicants must be nominated, can you easily find a way to be nominated?

If you can answer "yes" to every question above, add the scholarship to your "best shot" list. Next, give the list a reality check. Is it too long? Too short? Can you meet the deadlines? Decide which scholarships are most worth your time in terms of a) the size of the award, b) your qualifications as a candidate, and c) your ability to produce an outstanding application. Make your final list, put the scholarships in order by deadline, and schedule time to work on those applications.

Apply to Colleges That Offer Generous Scholarship Aid

Almost all colleges offer their own "gift aid"—scholarships and grants. Your scholarship strategy should include applying to colleges that offer you the best chance of receiving this type of aid. These colleges meet two criteria: they highly value applicants with your qualifications and they provide generous gift aid.

You can determine a college's generosity with gift aid by looking up two types of data about its recently admitted or enrolled students:

1. The average percentage of applicants' need that was met. The higher this percentage, the more likely it is that at least some of that aid will be gift aid.
2. The average amount of gift aid awarded. Look at both need-based gift aid, which is offered based on your financial aid applications, and merit-based gift aid, which is offered based on your value to the college. If you combine these amounts and compare the total to the college's cost of attendance (COA), you can get a rough idea of how much of your cost the college might cover in scholarships and grants.

You should be able to find this information on the college's website, but you can also find it by looking up the college on CollegeData. See the Money Matters section of its College Profile. This section will also show a list of specific scholarships the college offers.

Find Out How Colleges Treat Private Scholarships

Many students and their families do not realize that a college may reduce or adjust a financial aid package by the amount of any private scholarships a student receives. Each college has its own private scholarship policy. Some will reduce loan aid. Others will reduce gift aid, or some combination of gift and loan aid.

If you are relying on private scholarships to cover some of your college costs, it will pay to investigate the private scholarship policy at each college on your application list. The results may change where you apply.

If a college reduces the gift aid portion of your financial aid package, you may ask the college to reconsider, particularly if your financial circumstances have recently changed. You can also appeal to the private scholarship sponsor to pay your scholarship in a different way—for example in computer equipment rather than money.

Bear in mind that you can only use financial aid, including private scholarship money, up to the college's cost of attendance. If your scholarship money and financial aid total more than the COA, your aid package may be adjusted or you may have to decline at least part of your scholarship money.

A scholarship search is almost always a good idea. But before you begin, make sure you understand how much money you'll need and how much gift aid you might get from the colleges on your list. Then use scholarships to help meet your college funding gap.