Currently a college freshman, but would like to know if I can still obtain a scholarship?

Question

Hi guys,

I am currently a college freshman in Miami. My question is...am I still eligible to receive scholarships, even though I am receiving financial aid at the moment. And if so, what type of gpa do I need to keep up in my freshman year to receive a scholarship.

Currently, I only have a C,A,A, but I am worried the C will hurt my chances of getting anything at all.

Answer 1

Eligibility for scholarships vary from scholarship to scholarship.  While one may want you to have a minimum 3.0 GPA, another one might only want you to have declared a certain major.  Check with the financial aid office at your college about applying for institutional scholarships.  You could also check out http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/ for other scholarship options.

Answer 2

I am pretty sure you can still receive scholarships even if you've already started attending college. You just need to talk to your academic advisor or someone in the office about it (I'm not sure who you should talk to, just ask someone who's an authority figure, they'll point you in the right direction). Pull that C up, and I'm sure you won't have a problem!

Answer 3

You can apply for scholarships throughout your college years. It doesn't matter if you're already getting financial aid. Not all scholarships are based on academic achievement and  There are also scholarships for people with a certain last name, who are left handed, etc.

If you're going to pursue this avenue, our free scholarship database contains more than 2.9 million scholarships worth more than $16 billion. It is expanded and updated daily. You answer some questions about yourself, and it automatically matches you with scholarships you're eligible for.

Good luck!

Answer 4

I'm not sure about it because each scholarship provider has different rules. Maybe you can try to go to

http://all-about-scholarship.com

it's about scholarships information.

Good luck

Answer 5

For alot of scholarships you HAVE to get financial aid... Because then they know you need money. if you're not getting financial aid, its because you have money already.. so you dont need more. I know this because I got about 5K in scholarships, and tons of cash saved up from working, enough from my whole first year, so I wasn't going to get a student loan (called osap here)..., but one of the conditions in all of them (this was 3 of 4 seperate scholarships) was that you must be recieving finanical aid. And here they calculate how much osap you recieve, so i ended up getting a 10k loan that I didnt need, but 5k free. So really only a 5k loan, I got it and paid it back the next week. It also helps if you don't have a car, or any other "assets" like that... if you own anything, property, anything insured, a car, a house, a boat, etc. and it adds up to over 5 grand (or whatever the limit is there), it will be counted as money you have, or an "asset". i know if you have a car over 5k here they see it as an extravegence and will subtract that money from your Need because you could sell the car and use the money from school. The alllowance is typically 5k though. If you own a house or expensive car you're pretty much screwed.

You CAN apply throughout the year, infact alot scholarships have weird conditions, such as... you must have completed your first year, you must be in your final year. you must be part of a club, you must have a part time job, you must be part of a visible minority, you must be the first one in your family to attend a post-secondary institution. Etc. There are also many program-specific ones. I qualified for one where the only condiotions were my program and you must be in financial need.

I lucked out on one of mine because they sometimes caluclate on many different criteria, so i got the max amount because my parents dont make much money (they consider "not much" to be under 70k combined in most cases), I am female, i'm in a male-dominated field (computer programming), living away from home, dont own a car, first one in my family to go to school, and on a varsity team.

So yes, actually, there are MORE scholarships out there for those who are past their first year, because it shows you are more likely to follow through rather than drop out and the money won't go to waste. There are even some scholarships available after you've graduated to help you pay off your loans. Also look up bursarys and grants, they are the same thing as scholarships but llook more at criteria like your finanical need and background rather than your grades. Another criteria that helps is if you have first aid or CPR training.

As for your grades, they usually say either no Fs on your transcript, and/or a B average (i'm not sure whetehr they mean a 70 or a 75...). Many of the ones i look at say at least a B avg with no fails. there may be some that say you need a B in ALL your courses, but those are rare... whoever is handing out the money can really set whatever rules they want, but those are pretty typical rules. The C shouldn't be a problem unless your average is under a 75.