Scholarships for Gifted People Who've Always Been Dirt Poor
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I find this difficult to believe. How were you notified your financial aid was rescinded. Have you talked to the Financial Aid department at your school?
If you are as low income as you are implying you should of been offered some combination of grants and loan options.
I'm almost certain if you go to the Financial Aid office they can examine it all to you and get it sorted out.
I was offered loans many times, all of them I turned down, one grant offered. I was only notified that the Dpt of edu didn't have an application on record, even though I had already completed an application. It wasn't actually officially rescinded. Talked to fin. aid. dpt., they told me to make new application and resubmit it....that was all they could think of.
Last edited by Timemachineman; 10-03-2016 at 04:34 PM..
The bolded doesn't make sense in relation to the title. Scholarships, a word that literally has the word scholar in it, is for students who earn good grades. And how exactly does someone EARN good grades through luck?
Being in situations where there's an opportunity to focus on school work, that's how. One of the reasons that poor students often aren't as successful as others is the lack of fulfillment of some of life's other needs (based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs), eg no light to study by(no electricity), back problems from not having a bed to sleep on (a cot or the ground instead), medical problems (such as migraines or repeated distracting ticks in the head), having to worry about getting "jumped" or harassed by punk kids if you go outside your house and aren't paying attention to your surroundings, insomnia, and noisy neighbors, some of whom liked to smoke pot frequently, with the smell getting in your apartment, to name a few.
Why would you need the internet for the vast majority of school work? Are you claiming your school doesn't have computers for you to use at lunch?
A large portion of my classes have used services from "McGraw-Hill Connect." Basically, you buy an online textbook, a set of online worksheets, and a student profile. Your professors have access to your profile, and grade these online assignments.
My school has plenty of computers. But I prefer to use the public library's computers, since my school has a lot of connection and hardware problems. If I need to have something printed, I'll have a working printer 15ft away. Whereas I'd often end up having to walk from building to building to find a working printer at school, for example.
I have two things to say and I'm going to be a bit blunt about it:
1) Colleges don't care if you're gifted or not. They really don't. No one takes an IQ test when applying to college because colleges don't really care about where you fall on the scale.
They care if you can do the work, if you can pass the tests, keep up in class, and go one to do big, grand things that will earn you enough money/esteem that it will come back to them via alum donations and credit. Being gifted only counts if you can parley that into a spot at a good high school (especially the sort of schools that are considered "feeder school" for the Ivies) or it shows through your high school GPA, test scores, and other activities (e.g., how many instruments can you play, how many languages do you know, etc).
As germaine pointed out, there is no shortage of gifted, talented students living a hardknock life who still manage to keep their grades up. These kids end up in the news when they get accepted to all the Ivies or win nearly $1 million in scholarships. Being gifted and have a tough life is one thing; being gifted, having a tough life, and excelling despite the odds is clearly another and the rub is, it's the latter sort of students that get the big bucks.
That's the other rub: the big bucks are often dangled in front of freshmen students in order to get them in the door. Once you're an actual college student, most financial aid comes from loans, grants (including government grants), outside scholarships, and internal scholarships. Internal scholarships tend to be small, rarely more than $5K/semester (more often <$3K/semester).
Brocco brings up a very good point. What is the financial health of your school? What about your state? For example, when I was in undergrad, Illinois had a MAP grant that gave Pell grant recipients extra money. From what I hear, the MAP grant isn't an option anymore as IL continues to grapple with its budget.
You may have to consider transferring to a different school, or even moving to a different state, if your school or state doesn't have the money. Funny thing is, with many cities and states struggling to balance budgets, somethings a private school is cheaper than a public, state run school (I know that I was paying less money and getting more financial aid going to my private college than people I knew going to UIC, a public school). I know that may cause other issues with housing and work, but it's something to maybe consider. Get your GPA above 3.5, get on the good side of some professors in your major and hope they can give you a LoR, and try checking out some other schools.
Careful: it may end up costing you more money to go to school PT than as a FT student. Most of the aid out there is only for FT students. Also, many schools offer a discount for FT students that can translate into a few class (e.g., tuition is the same either you take 12 credits or 16 credits), making it possible to graduate in 3 years, or even pick up a valuable/fun minor. If it takes you longer to complete your degree, you'll end up paying more money in the end, especially if tuition takes a hike.
Yup, you have to be the one to apply for jobs, they aren't given to you just because you qualify for work-study. Check into your school's tutoring center and see if you can work as a math tutor (note: some schools require you take and pass an additional course to become a tutor. My school did, but we also got paid a bit more than other work-study students).
Honestly, I don't understand the reliance on getting a work-study job when you're already working over 40 hours/week. You work schedule may be the reason why your financial aid packet is different. Add in the fact that it sounds like you're applying as a dependent student, and I'm surprised you got a Pell Grant at all last semester. If you're a dependent student (and no, it doesn't matter if your parents can't afford to help you, unless you fall under very specific conditions, you're considered a dependent student) and you're working full time hours, schools will not see you as being poor enough to qualify for most aid and I can't imagine how you could get an EFC low enough to even qualify for a Pell Grant.
You would be better off cutting back on hours at work than dropping down to PT status at school. Otherwise, you may as well drop out of college entirely, work as much as possible for a couple of years, quit work, and pay for school out of pocket while devoting 100% of your energy to your studies to keep your GPA high.
The work-study program was something I signed up for when I lost one my previous jobs, and I'm being promoted at work in 1 week... Yet again I have access to many more resources than ever before, since I'm working a steady job now, so I could probably handle 12 credit hours for a while, then quit my job and take more classes after I've gotten a lot of money saved.
After I mailed a parent-signature sheet, I was sent a letter from the Dpt of Edu stating that there was no application for the Pell Grant on record.
Honey, this situation gets more confusing every time you reply. There is NO application for the Pell Grant, so how could one be on record? Pell Grant eligibility is determined via your FAFSA (FAFSA is connected but separate from FSA). At this point I can't tell if you even filled out and submitted a FAFSA or if information was missing or if there's something else going on entirely.
I'm not sure why your father is so involved in the situation here (granted, I always applied as an independent student, so I never had to include my parent's tax forms), but I don't think he's helping here (no reason for them to continuously hang up on him unless he's lying to you or he's being hostile/incoherent over the phone) and I would try to do this yourself. Get any tax information needed. A copy must exist somewhere, even if he filed them in person somewhere. And for future reference, either use a trusted online tax program like TurboTax or scan and save physical papers if you go somewhere like H&R Block. No one should just be losing important tax papers, especially while trying to apply for federal financial aid.
I think at this point, you would be FAR better off getting help from a legitimate financial aid advisor to walk you through the process than asking questions here on this forum. Your situation is crazy complicated at this point and I doubt anywhere here can give proper advice with the information given.
Is there any scholarship(s) that a "gifted" person who's always been really poor , and always dealt with adversity would be likely to get? If so, please share. It seems that pretty much all scholarships that go to poor people go to someone who's from a "racial minority" and/or someone who was lucky enough to have the opportunity to earn good grades in high school, and I don't meet either of those criteria.
Check on campus with the TRIO program. They may be able to point you in the right direction. I cannot emphasize TRIO enough!
Check also for grants and repayment programs specific to your field of study. There are lots of programs available for instance for teaching and nursing, especially in less populated rural areas. If you live in either rural, or urban or search using those terms while looking for grants too.
A large portion of my classes have used services from "McGraw-Hill Connect." Basically, you buy an online textbook, a set of online worksheets, and a student profile. Your professors have access to your profile, and grade these online assignments.
My school has plenty of computers. But I prefer to use the public library's computers, since my school has a lot of connection and hardware problems. If I need to have something printed, I'll have a working printer 15ft away. Whereas I'd often end up having to walk from building to building to find a working printer at school, for example.
Are you claiming your public high school required you to buy textbooks? I call BS.
If it is college, textbooks are included in cost of attendance.
At some point you need to take responsibility for your grades.
Being in situations where there's an opportunity to focus on school work, that's how. One of the reasons that poor students often aren't as successful as others is the lack of fulfillment of some of life's other needs (based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs), eg no light to study by(no electricity), back problems from not having a bed to sleep on (a cot or the ground instead), medical problems (such as migraines or repeated distracting ticks in the head), having to worry about getting "jumped" or harassed by punk kids if you go outside your house and aren't paying attention to your surroundings, insomnia, and noisy neighbors, some of whom liked to smoke pot frequently, with the smell getting in your apartment, to name a few.
You seem to be switching from excuses from high school to college interchangeably.
If you have no electricity, no bed, no safety, no whatever, in high school, than you should speak to a the school social worker. As an aside, I taught in one of the worst Abbott districts in the nation for two years, kids were living in conditions that made what you describe seem paradise. Many, particularly the "gifted" ones still got homework done, still made studying a priority, and so on. For the rest, even the kids didn't have the endless excuses for why their grades were poor, and these weren't even adults.
As an adult you are responsible for your grades. Adults are expected to do their best even in less than ideal circumstances. If you cannot get good grades, than you do not deserve a scholarship, which by definition is based on grades. But ultimately, you really need to look at why you shift all the blame for everything in your life to someone else. It will not end well for you.
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