Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware 18: Grades Matter with Scholarships

Saturdays we share a tip or cautions to facilitate getting scholarships or avoiding problems

Sam attended one of our scholarship workshops when he was in 9th grade. He decided he wanted to attend a very good state university to study mechanical engineering—and he did not want to live at home. Sam only had a 3.1 GPA, but didn’t let that stop him. He went home that night and made a chart tracking how much money he would need for tuition, books, and housing for each semester of five years of school. He worked with a friend of his mother’s to coach him for twelve months. Four years later, when he graduated from high school, he still had a 3.1 GPA. He also had enough scholarship money to pay for all but the last 3 months of college.

Students Fail to Apply Because of Doubt

Grades matter a great deal to many scholarships. They recognize achievement and merit. We get a lot of students who do not apply for scholarships because they doubt their grades will qualify. As a result, they fail to get the money they deserve. We’ve met many students who had great grades, but never applied for anything.

Sometimes, they cannot discern between grants that are awarded based on need and scholarships based on merit and achievement. So, they apply for grants which they cannot win because of income. The rejection of the grant confirms their worry that they do not deserve to win.

Some Waste Time Applying for Money They Cannot Win

We also coach a lot of students who have very low grade point averages who apply for a lot of scholarships. Unfortunately, they waste a lot of time applying for things they will never earn. A few scholarships try to reward and motivate students who try hard, but cannot bring grades up. Students should continue to try for those.

Most scholarship committees, however, require at least a GPA of 2.9 or more to merit the award. Students should carefully check the requirements before applying.

Tuesday we spotlight the funding source CollegeXpress, aka Careers and Colleges

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