All right welcome everyone welcome to tonight’s webinar how to pay for college ask the expert experts this is our scholarship panel part two of a two-part series um if you’re looking for information and tips to have greater success earning uh scholarships that’ll help you pay for college then this hour
Is for you I’m your host Jenny Johnson the manager for college access and FAFSA Outreach initiatives with the North Carolina State education assistance Authority we have a wonderful pair of presenters lined up to speak with you about State and institutional scholarships we’ll end the evening by hearing from two students who are very
Successful in their local and Collegiate scholarship process I’ll introduce them as we go along also joining us are two NCAA colleagues Kathy Hastings director of Outreach and Communications and Neal cabales FAFSA Outreach coordinator and April query the co um from the college Foundation they’ll be assisting with Q&A during our
Session so a few housekeeping items to get us started number one ask all the questions that you want please use the question box to let us know what you want to know we’ve turned off the chat feature for now so if you have questions please list them in the question in the
Q&A Box share what you’re learning with us on social media help your friends learn about ways to pay for college too use the hash cfnc in your post so that we can find you and lastly we we we are recording tonight’s session excuse me we’ll post the session
Um for you to listen to later on you can find it at cfnc.org pay and on CFN C’s YouTube page tonight’s session is brought to you by the North Carolina Ina State education assistance Authority the State education that helps North Carolina students plan and pay for their
Education we are pleased to bring you the cfnc.org website where you can go for everything you need to know about the college goinging process at cfnc.org you can find college applications to colleges in North Carolina you can send your transcripts to colleges in North Carolina as well there are faster
Resources there’s a wonderful scholarship portal which we’ll talk about tonight um you can create or excuse me you can submit your residency determination service paperwork through cfnc.org there’s information about career exploration the 529 savings plan and the State education loan servicing so please if you’re not familiar with the cfnc.org website check us
Out so last week we talked about the three main ways to pay for college in the first part of our how to pay for college series we discussed family funds federal state and College financial aid and we also talked about Gap funds today’s focus is on state institutional or college
Scholarships and local scholarships but before we get started let’s see who we have with us tonight well that didn’t work out so anyway we’ll bypass that and we’ll jump right into talking about local scholarships many times students eye the big fish the national and prestigious scholarships but our advice at the
Agency and with cfnc is to think local local scholarships are usually better because you aren’t competing with students from all across the country you’re only competing against local students the applicant pool is smaller and communities want to see their own students succeed so there’s more of a commitment to support students at this
Local level there are few scholarship resources that we’ll talk talk about tonight when you’re thinking about local and Community scholarships the first obviously is the cfnc.org scholarship portal at cfnc.org scholarships you’ll find more than 100 local scholarships which can be searched by County award amount deadline date and even citizenship there are scholarships
For residents of specific counties scholarships for students attending community colleges and four-year institutions there are also scholarships for individuals with special needs military scholarships and even more I highly encourage you to check out the cfnc.org scholarship portal another wonderful local resource is the North Carolina Community Foundation the foundation has a
Scholarship cortal of nearly 150 scholarships again you can search by North Carolina county or you can view scholarships that are available to all students throughout the entire State another wonderful source for local scholarships are community and Civic organizations think rotary clubs sororities and fraternities other community-based or Civic based
Organizations like that these types of scholarships are usually available through your school counselor college counselor or College advisor many times they’re not available un the spring but you should start asking now many students think oh I’ll just wait until I’m done with my college app ations to start applying for scholarships but the
Time to apply for scholarships is now whether they’re local or whether they’re National this is the time to get it done or at least the time to start the process additionally local chapters of professional organizations offer scholarships as well if you think that you’re interested in going into
Marketing or maybe even engineering look to local professional associations to see if they offer scholarships for example if you’re a young African-American student do a Google search find the local chapter of the National Society of black engineers and find the chapter that offers scholarships that are specific to North
Carolina finally many local communities have an Education Foundation that provides support for public schools in the area and some also offer scholarships for the students that are going to college that are from their district for example if you’re in Guilford County check out the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro if
You’re in Winston Salem check out the Winston Salem Foundation talk with your school counselor college counselor or College advisor to learn if there is an Education Foundation in your community that’s looking to support students who are going to college many of the above examples are available to North Carolina students
Whether they are planning to attend college in state or out of State organizations like these local scholarships don’t typically restrict you to only instate colleges lastly I’d like to share with you the US Department of Labor you can find scholarships that are specific to North Carolina at the website listed
There again a copy of the slides will be sent out but if you don’t want to wait for that feel free to take a picture of the screen and visit the resource um ahead of time so let’s shift ears and move into talking about institutional or college-based scholarships according to the College
Board colleges and universities themselves are the largest source of financial aid let’s take a look at this chart here which lists the total undergraduate student aid in 2020 by source and type so this is in billions okay if you take a look at the dark blue
Section of the chart it shows that part it shows what part of Financial Aid comes from institutions of higher education the dark gray section shows federal student loans so over the last 10 years as the use of federal student loans has shrunk institutional Aid has
Made up some of that Gap the use of federal student loans has gotten smaller but the amount of Aid institutional grants that have come from colleges has gotten larger for families who think they may not qualify for federal aid like the pel grant you should still consider completing a FAFSA because many colleges
And universities will use the FAFSA to determine if a family or a student qualifies for Aid at that institution itself when you start to look at free money like grants and scholarships which we covered at last week’s section this is free money that doesn’t need to be paid back colleges and universities are
Still the largest source of that type of financial aid many colleges and universities will raise money for scholarships that they administer so if you look at the peach bar again you can see that the biggest chunk of Aid is offered at institutional grants which is great news here to talk more about that
Institutional Aid and to help you better understand what’s available through the college you may plan to attend I’m thrilled to welcome kin Fick senior assistant director of scholarships at North Carolina State University good evening everybody glad to be here and to share with you some of the knowledge that I have from over
Three decades of financial aid uh work at various colleges and SC uh universities both in North Carolina and new New York uh if you’re looking for scholarships from your particular colleges that you’re looking at you have to realize every school is different every school is is going to have a
Different procedure for how you apply for their scholarships what types of scholarships and grants they may offer you and the timeline that they require you to meet certain deadlines uh or priority dates uh for that if you’re interested in specific schools look at their website to look up their financial aid information call
Their financial aid offices call their admission office find out uh what the procedure is for their particular scholarships um make sure you have the deadlines the dates uh written out for yourself particularly for the schools that you’re really set on attending uh when you make it through the admission
Process uh if you miss a deadline unfortunately very often that means you’re not going to be able to get a particular scholarship that you were hoping for uh so make sure you do that uh as you prepare your plans as you go through these this process of applying
Into college and then for the financial aid scholarships and such uh if you’re looking at certain schools like NC State uh we highly recommended that students apply for admission by the early admission deadline which was actually yesterday for us uh that gives you the best chance of being considered for all
Of the available scholarships uh that an institution may have versus if you go through the regular or late admission process you may be cut off because certain of the funds have already been awarded uh to students we have a finite budget for for many of the scholarships that colleges
Offer make sure if that you need a recommendation or a nomination that you give the per person who’s going to be your reference plenty of time to get that done uh and then also make sure you’re looking for specific criteria that a donor of a scholarship to the
University may have set up uh in one case you know are you specifically going to be a nuclear engineer uh as your major uh that could be a unique criteria or did you come from uh Clayton High School uh yeah that might be a specific criteria even for an Institutional scholarship next slide
Please there are six colleges and universities in the state of North Carolina that in addition to the FAFSA require the CSS profile uh it’s a separate uh much more uh intense financial aid form application uh they will use this to determine how whether you qualify for any need-based grants and scholarships
From their institutions uh and it may replace I’m not 100% I haven’t contacted all of them uh it may replace having a separate institutional application uh whereas here at NC State uh we have a separate our own institutional application this form the the profile comes from college board same company
That tortures you with the SATs uh but uh it does charge a fee uh for the initial application and then for each additional school that you want to share that information with uh it’s not limited to just North Carolina colleges many of the northeastern private ivys
Also use profile uh so similar to the Common App in that sense that you fill it out once there’ll be some specific questions uh geared towards any particular College uh but you’ll be able to uh apply to several institutions at once uh if you meet certain uh income
Family income uh thresholds uh you may not be charged uh for the initial application but they can still charge a minor fee for each additional uh report that you want to have sent out next as I mentioned here at NC State we have our separate institutional uh General scholarship
Application we callip Pac assist uh other universities across the US have a similar product uh or application uh portal uh here at NC State you actually have to be accepted as a student first before you can apply for any of our scholarships uh you would log in to pack
Assist fill out the General application you’d be autom matched across all of the scholarships that are offered at the institution and then if any of them have addition questions that need to be answered those will pop up in your portal you complete those questions and then sometime in the spring our review
Committees would go through select who they want to have received those scholarships and then notify you that you’ve been approved uh many universities and colleges uh particularly among the privates have a guaranteed minimum scholarship if you meet certain uh academic standards or Merit talents that they are looking for and it doesn’t
Matter uh how many students are coming they’re all going to get that same promise uh others like NC State because all of our scholarships are donor-based uh we cannot make a guarantee so even if you have a 4.0 or valid Victorian and scored 1,400 or on the SAT or 38 uh on the
Acts we can’t promise you a minimum scholarship you actually have to apply and the Review Committee has to actually pick you so next screen please again know the details when are the deadlines is it a drop dead deadline meaning that’s it you’re completely cut off from any chance or is it a priority
Filing date uh like the February 15th date that NC state has uh in order to be considered for everything have your application in by then but if you apply afterwards you’ll still be considered for any funds that are still available make sure you read and follow the instructions that are on any the
Applications that you’re filling out uh you don’t want to be disqualified just because you fail to answer in the the way that you’re supposed to uh essays write them before you submit them and have somebody proof them for you uh just to make sure that there aren’t any silly
Typos or spelling errors you know that that you could avoid uh and make a better impression uh than not transcripts uh High School grades uh usually those will be received through the admission office by the various colleges they won’t rely on you to submit it but sometimes they will ask
You to submit particularly if you’re coming in from a community college uh and transferring in you want to make sure uh you can print out an unofficial transcript and submit that uh in addition to whatever the admission office receives again with the recommendations make sure you speak with
The person that you’d like to have write a recommendation for you uh make sure they’re willing to uh make sure you pick somebody who really does support your efforts uh don’t think just because you like that teacher that they actually know enough about you to be able to give
A good recommendation for you that’s another thing too uh make sure you provide some key points that you’d like them to touch on uh if they feel comfortable doing that and when you submit your application make sure you try to keep a copy of that if they don’t automatically save it for
You touched on the recommendations a couple of times already uh just the key thing is make sure you give your person plenty of time to pull that together uh sometimes the recommendation will actually be a preset uh uh group of questions that’s the institution wants that reference to
Answer other times it’s a free form letter uh asking the reference just to speak about your qualities as a student and then once they do submit it do make sure you write them a thank you note uh it’s helpful uh be aware that you often
Very often will not be able to see what that person wrote about you okay that’s part of that process uh they may be willing to share it with you uh outside of the University but the colleges will not share that information with you as I mentioned NC State is a is a
Bit different than many of the universities uh and colleges that you may be considering uh almost all of our institutional scholarships can only be applied for after you’re accepted there are a few that are we call our distinctive scholarships where you will be invited beforehand before you’re actually accepted to the university
You’ll be invited to apply for the park scholarship or the good night scholarship uh or the textiles uh transfer informational scholarships uh those are the only times that you’d actually be able to log into pack assist complete the application before you’re accepted to the university uh sometime in January then there’s also additional
Scholarships once you’re actually a student at the University that you’ll be able to apply for uh such as the calwell fellow scholarship uh in your fall semester so even though right now you’re looking okay how am I going to afford my first year realize that each year you do
Need to reapply uh for certain scholarships some will automa automatically be renewable and they’ll be promised to you for the full four years as long as you meet the the minimum academic standards uh or uh activity participation that those scholarships may require uh but others might be it’s a one-time deal and you
Have to to reapply every year and there’s no guarantee that you’ll get it for the four years so that’s another question you might want to ask and speaking of questions to ask go on to the next slide um so yeah touching on the Renewables what are the minimum requirements to
Keep a scholarship or to actually even uh be considered eligible for a scholarship initially uh is there a minimum GPA do you have to particip ipate in uh a certain major do you have to do service hours uh most high schools now have a community service process for
Its students so you’ll be used to having that kind of requirement um do you have to reapply every year uh sometimes yes sometimes no find out are those Awards stackable with any other financial aid you’re receiving so if you qualify for the Federal pel grant you qualify for
The state grants you receive an outside scholarship how will the university adjust their scholarships and grants in your total financial aid offer if certain numbers are met here at NC State we package towards need first and then towards cost of attendance your total cost of Education uh if you’re combined Aid
Exceeds either one of those criteria there might be adjustments necessary well will have to reduce the institutional scholarship that you’re receiving and that can occur before you even start or if you didn’t report an outside scholarship to us and we receive a check Midway through your fall
Semester it can happen at that point too try to avoid that by uh notifying the financial aid office at the college you’ll attend when you know that you’re going to receive an outside scholarship this way they can make the adjustment ahead of time and you’re prepared to know what your actual uh
Out- of-pocket expense might be for the coming year and then anytime that you have questions not only for NC State but but in general if you have questions about the scholarship process uh and need some input feel free to contact our financial aid office we’ll be glad to
Help thank you so much Ken um there are a couple things a couple tips I wanted to pull out from the um the tips that Ken gave us number one when you’re looking to apply for institutional scholarships ask the college how am I considered for scholarships is my admissions application also my scholarship
Application or is there a separate process for applying for scholarships also ask them must I be admitted before applying to scholarships at your institution or am I able to apply for scholarships before I receive an acceptance and then lastly find out the scholarship application deadline if it’s not the same as the admissions
Deadline so before we move on to talking more about State scholarships I want to introduce you all or present to you all um a brand new state scholarship it is the next NC scholarship so the next NC scholarship allows full-time students to receive at least $3,000 at a community
College or $5,000 at a UNCC system institution that’s a 4-year public College in North Carolina if they meet a couple of criteria if a student has um a student aid index for those of you who are familiar with the financial aid process this term replaces the the former term expected family contribution
So if a student uh has a student aid index equal to or less than 7500 and an adjusted gross income equal to or less than $80,000 then a student is eligible for that next NC scholarship so again if your family has an adjusted gross income equal to or less than
$80,000 you’re likely eligible for the next NC scholarship which combines state and federal aid to make College attendance more affordable that $3,000 scholarship is virtually is enough to virtually cover your tuition fees at a North Carolina Community College and if you’re attending an a UNCC institution that $5,000 that you’re eligible for
Would cover about 50% of tuition in fees and if um your adjusted gross income is less than $80,000 than additional support is available based upon need so again that is the next NC scholarship we’re really excited to unveil this information to learn more about scholarships at the state of North
Carolina offers I’m thrilled to welcome my colleague Sean Henderson who’s the higher education program manager with the North Carolina State education assistance Authority take it away Sean good afternoon everyone uh as as mentioned my name is Sean Henderson I am a higher education program manager here at the North Carolina State education assistance
Authority I appreciate the opportunity to be with you this evening just want to take a little time to briefly cover State Grant programs then also want to take the time to cover two popular non-state programs that actually funded by profit foundations that we oversee here at the authority as well so just
Bear with me as I briefly cover this and provide this valuable information thank you very much first just want to briefly cover the state grants program and make everyone aware regardless of what type of institution you’re planning to attend it could be a North Carolina public Community College North Carolina public
University or a North Carolina private college the state of North Carolina has a funded need-based grant program that you can be considered for and the process for consideration is very simple there’s not a separate application you have to complete or submit it’s simply the requirement is you must complete the
Fasta the free application for federal student aid that is your application to be considered for the various need based grant funded programs so remember that there’s not a separate application you must complete just simply complete the fasta which you should be doing anyway and that is your application to be
Considered for the various need-based Grant programs that are funded by the state of North Carolina regardless of what type of institution you’re planning to attend the thing you want to keep in mind it’s almost a first come first served situation you want to complete and submit your fasta accurately as soon
As possible because the funding is only awarded until it’s ex exhausted it’s not unlimited funding you must get in as early as possible so so that the financial aid office at your institution can review your information to determine if your student is eligible to receive funding from one of the need-based
Programs and you want funding to be available if they do determine that your student is eligible so please do that as soon as possible the eligibility requirements for the state need-based programs it’s very simple straightforward first and foremost you must be a confirmed North Carolina resident and your residency is confirmed
Via the North Carolina residency determination services this again is it’s a process us that everyone who’s planning to attend college in North Carolina must do regardless of what type of institution you’re planning to attend but it’s especially important if you’re planning to attend a state public institution or a community State
Community College because if you do not complete The Residency determination process you are automatically considered to be an out ofate student and the tuition calls for an out of state student or out of- count resident student is much more than someone who is considered to be an instate student for
North Carina res residency purposes so completing the RDS process is very important and vital it’s just as important as completing a submitting your fast you must be a student who’s seeking an undergraduate degree you’ve never received a bachelor’s degree before so that is another key factor and also you must be making satisfactory
Academic progress hopefully you’ve heard of sap but if you haven’t it’s something that you want to become familiar with not only for financial aid purposes but just because you are a college student app is important because it’s how your matriculation or your complet your your steps towards completing your de degree
Requirements are measured it looks at how many credit hours you’ve attempted how many credit hours you’ve earned as well as the time the amount of time it has taken for you to receive or earn those credit hours towards obtaining your degree so get familiar with the satis Factory academic progress policy
Of your institution because it varies from school to school it’s not the same you may be looking at school a and find that the SAT policy is totally different for school B that you’re considering so that is something that you want to become familiar with especially once
You’ve locked in on the school that you’re going to be attending you want to know what the SAT policy is once again not only for financial aid but just because you are a college student is key towards you reaching that graduation um goal of yours last but not least fast
For completion is require required and you must be meeting the pel eligibility criteria the federal P Grant of course it’s a federal program and your eligibility to receive federal pale funds is determined or based on the processing of your fast application by the US Department education so it’s a very straightforward application process
Complete the fasta also you need to complete the residency determination Services process and then the eligibility criteria you can see it’s very straightforward and very straight um simple in regards to what your student would need to be meeting in order to be um determined eligible to receive funding via one of the
Need-based grant programs that are funded by the state of North Carolina next slide please here I’m just going to talk briefly about the Golden Leaf scholarship program and what you’re seeing before you here is basically a map that’s showing the various counties that are considered to be eligible in
The state of North Carolina for a student to be considered eligible student to be eligible for consideration um once they’ve applied for this particular program next slide please the Golden Leaf scholarship program it’s actually funded by the Golden Leaf Foundation which is based in Rocky Mount North Carolina uh the Golden Leaf Foundation
Actually funds or sponsors two versions of the golden leaf scholarship um the first version which is for students who are planning to attend a North a participating North Carolina private or public institution so if you are a student who’s looking to attend a four-year institution here in the state
Of North Carolina you may potentially be um this is one of the programs you would want to consider applying for um and then secondly I’m just going to kind of touch on it there is a there is a scholarship program specifically for students who are planning to attend a
Community college as you can see under both programs ironically there are 58 institutions that participate in the program we’re excited because under the Community College program every Community College in North Carolina participates in the program we haven’t gotten to the point where every public or private for institution North
Carolina participates in the program but that’s something that the foundation is working on so briefly for the four-year version of the program the student must be a soon to be graduate of a North Carolina High School or must be currently attending a North Carolina Community College Planning to transfer
To a participating fouryear institution also must be a resident a resident of a qualified North Carolina county there are 78 out of 100 counties in North Carolina there are 78 counties that are considered um eligible for consideration under the four-year version of The Golden Leaf scholarship program and with
This version this version is actually overseen by the North Carolina State educ education assistance Authority the foundation contracts with the agency to actually oversee this particular program from a toz from application all the way to students being selected and awarding and funding being released to institutions on behalf of students for
The Community College version for 58 participating schools as I indicated for this particular version 94 of the 100 counties in North Carolina have been deemed eligible for consideration so for students a resident of 94 of the wri counties they could be um consider eligible or considered eligible if they
Applaud cons consider for eligibility I do apologize and in this particular case we do not oversee the Community College version of the program each Community College actually oversees the program on their particular count on campus in most instances it handled directly through the Office of Financial Aid so if you
Are your student is interested or planning to attend a community college you’re going to want to be in direct communication with the Office of Financial Aid most likely to find out what their process is in regards to applying submitting your application and what the consideration eligibility requirements are in addition to what
I’ve listed here in regards to that um being a resident but eligible County next slide with the four-year version you see here these are the basic eligibility requirements once again must be a no kind of Resident for tuition purposes which is verify via the RDS residency determination Services process
You must be a resident of a qualified County for at least 10 years that’s the student or the parent must be a resident of a qualifying County for at least 10 years students be gradua from a North Carolina High School or currently enrolled in a North Carolina Community
College Planning to transfer to a participating for your school and most important well not most important but just as important the FASA the FASA is required you see here there’s a strike through where we say EFC expected family contribution must be 16,000 or less that has been been the requirement up until
This current school year the current 2023 24 school year however with the US Department of Education making changes to the fasta form they’re going away from giving or doing a calculation deter that determines a family’s EFC or a student’s EFC to determining the student or the family student aid indexed and as
Of the present time what the maximum or the highest sa can be for this particular program has not been determined that is um currently being reviewed and will be determined and once it has been finalized that information will be made available with all the other information on the website at the
Um location you see here at the bottom of the page just briefly want to say the program um scholarship has a value of $3,500 per school year it is renewable um if you are a high school student who will be receiving the award for the first time you can receive up to $14,000
Because the scholarship can be received up to four academic years for someone who’s transferring 12 participating for your school um they can receive up to three years so the maximum amount will be $10,500 the main emphasis of this program is leadership student development so one want to provide scholarship funding to participate to
Attend college but also the scholarship provides leadership and internship opportunities as well for students and here you have the application for the upcoming school year will open at the site Below on January 8th with a closing date of March 1st the Community College version you see there’s um the eligibility requirements
Depending on what your program of study will be when you’re at the community college not going to go through each and every one of these items here however once again being a resident of North Carolina is a key item must be a resident of a qualifying County um for
The curriculum um track you must be enrolled full-time and demonstrate financial aid need as demonstrated by completing the fasta so fasta completion is again required if you are going to be a curriculum track student power for the workforce continuing development or education track the eligibility requirements are pretty much the same
Other than the fact that you must be enrolled and what’s considered a Workforce continuing education pathway or course offering but then also financial aid need is required or considered but it’s not through the FASA it’s actually through a process that’s done strictly through the financial aid office so necess if you’re going through
Workforce continuing education fasta completion is not required however we still recommend you complete the fasta even if you’re planning to go that track because plans do change and you may find that you need to have your fasta done for other reasons next slide please briefly I wanted to talk about
The Au Le Brooks scholarship program it’s another foundational scholarship program that we oversee we oversee this for private Foundation excuse me I do apologize um for this particular scholarship no kind of residency is a requirement must be confirmed Through The Residency determination Services process there’s 14 qualifying counties for this
Particular program so out of 100 counties the foundation has determined or established 14 counties that are considered to be eligible qualifying residential counties for this program the student must be a North Carolina High School senior and planning to attend either NC State UNCC Chapel Hill or UNCC Greensboro so there’s only three
Participating universities in the state of North Carolina at this time I do apologize pass for completion is completed Passa comple completion is required um this one also had or had I should say a maximum EFC that was required which the maximum it had to be $122,000 or less again with moving to
The s or the student aid index with fast for calculation we’ve must determine what that maximum sa is going to be that has not been determined yet but once it is determined it will be published on the website link that you see here at the bottom of the page with this
Particular scholarship it has a value of $122,000 each school year and it is renewable so a student who is receiving a scholarship and who is eligible to receive funding for all four years can receive a maximum of $448,000 in addition to the scholarship itself this scholarship also offers a technology stien of
$2,500 so the first semester or going into the first semester that the student is going to be receiving program funding they will actually receive a check for $2,500 which enables them I apologize it’s almost as I’m trying to lose my voice please forgive me they receive a check for $2,500 that
They’re able to use to go buy technology laptops programs things that they may need to assist them with their educational Pursuits and in addition to that Scholars are also able to apply there’s a very simple application process process for this but Scholars are also able to apply for additional
Funding to for participation in internships research fellowships and also to assist with the cost of attendance for studying abroad so in addition to your scholarship receiving a $2,500 stiping students can also receive funding to assist with participating in an internship whether it’s paid or not uh a research fellowship or also with
Traveling abroad needless to say this is a very popular program um in addition to this um as with the other program the application will open on January 8th and it will also close on March 1st next slide please ah last but not least we can’t emphasize cfnc enough so here it is once
Again even though we’ve already talked about it at the beginning of the presentation just wanted to take a moment to once again emphasize that the cfc.org tool website is available and we really urge you to visit it if you haven’t already done so and if you have
Visited before please go back and visit it again it’s amazing how I have I talk with students talk with families and we’ll make reference to the website and be like well I didn’t see that when I was there go back it’s there so like I said if you visited it already please go
Back and if you haven’t please go there because it is a tool and there’s various u i mean there’s just a lot of information there from A to Z whether it’s dealing with the admissions application process finantial aid process itself there’s just so much information there that can help you um
As you begin um your college career and also during and after your college career next slide please and it’s already been mentioned but I just wanted to mention once again that there is a scholarship Search tool on the cfnc website and we highly highly recommend that you go there if you haven’t already
Done so um as as was mentioned previously while we believe this scholarship SE Search tool is better it’s because it’s not focused on national scholarship it’s focused on scholarships that North Carolina students can actually be considered for and re have a strong chance of receiving funding through it’s
A very easy um tool to use you’re able to just go and use it wide open to review all scholarships that are listed there and there’s also mechanisms there where you can narrow your search Down based on what your interest are based on what county you live in based on what
Institution you’re planning to attend if you have a disability it it’s just a a wide array or wide range of ways you can use this tool to to refine your search if you will to narrow it down and save yourself some time that’s what I hear
From a lot of students and families I just don’t have time well this is a very simple and easy tool to use and you can determine exactly how much time you take and need to filter through the scholarships that are listed there next slide please last but not
Least I just wanted to make sure that you have my contact information you have the contact information for our agency whether you have a question today tomorrow two three four years from now we are here to assist you and if it’s not something that we can help you with
Directly we most likely can point you in the right direction to put you in contact with the right person or the right office on your campus or whoever you may need to speak to so just wanted to put that before you so that you would have it in front of you tonight you’ll
Have it later when the re the PowerPoint is made available to you because we do want to emphasize that we are available to assist whether we’re able to help you directly or not thank you awesome thank you Sean so we are going to get into um speaking with our
Students who are on the panel now we have two young women who had much success in their scholarship application process Gabby Cuba is a current Junior at UNCC Chapel Hill she’s majoring in Neuroscience with minors and chemistry and Military science and Leadership um
Gabby is in the Army Roc and is an S SMP Cadet with the National Guard she’s also a Chancellor science scholar at Chapel Hill Jenny Tav Vasquez is a recent graduate of UNCC Chapel Hill where she created her own major an interdisciplinary major in the social determinance of Health Jenny is
Currently a research assistant at the National Institute of Health working on Obesity research in children and Adolescence she’s currently applying to med school and is interested in being a primary care physician and Jenny was a Morhead Kane scholar at Chapel Hill so Gabby and Jenny are going to take some
Time briefly to talk to you about this their scholarship search and to give you all some tips some practical information that’ll help you in your scholarship Search Gabby you want to go first yeah I can go first um as I already said my name is Gabby um when I
Applied you know I was the typical student that was really worried about you know graduating with devb and so I rush to Miss Johnson being like panicky being like I don’t know what I’m going to do I have no idea how I’m going to pay for college and so we started um you
Know with just a bunch of researchers towards um websites and so I actually shared in the um chat a document and that document ranges from General scholarship websites that you could like find any types of scholarship and it goes into specific scholarships and National scholarships and even University scholarships that I
Personally I applied to obviously these aren’t just um the only scholarships out there there are plenty of scholarships out there that you can research even more about and I even left my email at the end of the document if you wanted to ask any more questions um I won three
Specific scholarships which was the assistant League of triangle area which gave me $6,000 for my education and I also won the good night um Educational Foundation or um its broader name is the NC Hispanic scholarship fund and I got $5,000 um correction $500 and then I won the stanic um equity
And Diversity Scholarship which gave me 5,000 and each one had you know an application you had to submit your resume um and those were just some like General scholarships I won two were state based and then one was just um a national base and then I won scholarships for three University four
Universities correction um one was the University I’m in now which is the chancellor science Scholars 10,000 annually and I’m I’m a little biased because I go here but um definitely recommend it it gives you a lot of opportunities in terms of you they provide you with internship opportunities and lab opportunities and
You really have a close Community honestly um uh in NC State I was a finalist for the good night scholarship um and then for Elon University I actually won a couple scholarship there was the Odyssey program which um I was given 25,000 but it ranges from 5,000 to
25,000 uh there was the presidential scholarship that if you have good grades you automatically get awarded that scholarship uh if you have a certain like GPA and ACT score there was the fellows program which ranged I don’t remember exactly how much I got but it ranged from
7,500 to 13500 um and then the Elon engagement scholarship which was an additional 5,000 and so you know I just wanted to I know it’s been said time and time again but you know it’s essential to note that there are scholarships for everything besides GPA if you have like a special
Interest there are some scholarship programs that are designed for students with specific interest like if you’re really good at writing if you’re playing musical instrument um there are specific scholarships which is um why I put some skill based Scholarships in the document if you have a unique situation some
Scholarships require essays to learn more about your story if you’re a remember of the community club or program there are scholarships based on that um and so getting these scholarships allowed me to focus on just book expensives and like Essentials in terms of expensive and you know and I no
Longer had that concern of graduating with loans and so that took a lot of weight off my shoulder because Beyond expenses I was able to really get to know my University and what it has to offer in terms of like clubs and you know special events and stuff like that
I was able to focus on actually getting a support group and like focus on like you know building a community and so I was able to make use of my universi like tutoring Services because grades are everything and sometimes if you really want that a in a class you have to go to
Office hours and so if you’re always working all the time you’re not going to have time to go to those office hours um and so a specific class that I had that like issue was psychology 270 which is like a statistical principle research class and so those office hours really
Helped me and so um you know I think it’s really important that if you’re if you’re looking for scholarships to start locally because the pool is smaller than National scholarships and so I think that if you need like any more advice or any more help you can contact me and any
Anyway but we are running out of time so I’ll switch it over thanks Gabby so Jenny talk to us give us some tips that you would share to current High School seniors in their application in their scholarship application process yeah sure um so I like basically had like a similar
Experience to Gabby and I would say like my biggest tip um really comes down to like being on top of it and like organizing yourself like the way I apply to scholarships is that like I told myself like I made an Excel sheet I broke it down to like local National
Institutional and then um I use my resources like I literally went on Google and I was like Alam County like scholarships and then I like looked at all of them see what criteria I fit and put them into my Excel sheet and then I really focus on knocking out like two
Three applications a week like just like knowing setting a goal for myself because I knew that I would have to like work hard now so it could pay off later um and so I think my biggest tip would be like to like organize yourself like ‘s a lot of scholarships out there for
Many different reasons and it’s a little overwhelming at first but if like you really organize yourself you like make an Excel sheet like knocks them out like you’ll be able to really like at least reward yourself in the end um another tip that I have is like not limit
Yourself like I think I was very much like oh I shouldn’t apply to this scholarship because like I don’t fit like this certain like maybe I’m just not competitive enough or I thought I wasn’t um and like I think one of my biggest advice is like apply Broad and
Like apply to things that like you might not think you will not get you know like I think locally is great but I also think like National like scholarships or like institutional scholarships that like you might think are really competitive or also great to apply to
Because you never know um any I don’t know about any other tips okay that’s fine thank you Jenny thank you for sharing so at this point um we have just a few minutes left we’re gonna open it up to questions questions um from the audience to any of the
Panelists excuse me um any the panelists who joined us tonight our students um Kathy are there things that have come up that we want to answer live yeah um uh one of the things that we saw a few questions around is how to determine what is a legitimate
Scholarship versus just a scam or or just a portal to try and capture your information yeah that’s a wonderful question I’ll start off with that one of the ways to determine one of the biggest scams I think is if you see anything that that requires you to pay it’s not
Legit so you should never have to pay for a scholarship one of the biggest um Hallmarks of scholarships one of the biggest categories or excuse me characteristics is that scholarships are free they don’t have to be repaid so if someone is asking you to pay money to
Gain access to this money that doesn’t have to be repaid that’s a red flag Ken did you Ken did you want to add something to that that was actually going to be my uh spot too is you know if they’re asking you to pay you know they’re offering you a $1,000 scholarship and
They’re only charging you $10 but they’re going to get 10,000 people applying for it where’s that other $99,000 going to you so uh yeah if they’re requesting a payment for you to apply for a scholarship don’t do it uh other ones but uh Jenny and Gabby may be
Better able to answer this one uh since I’m from a different generation other ones that I’m wary of are the ones that request you to set up a website that links uh that that creates clicks for their website uh those concern me a little bit too as possible scans but I
Don’t I know if you as students have uh went for those type of scholarships and had any type of experience yeah one of one of the things I um I wanted to ask um are to students is I think sometimes students are intimidated to fill out scholarship applications because they might have to
Do an essay it feels like a lot of work um obvious L essay questions can be different but any advice for um how to make the most of that essay in terms of standing out and really shining at least from my perspective I always wrote stuff that I was really
Passionate about um and like if you write about something you’re passionate about whether it’s your dreams or what you want to do in the future what has led you to become the person you are today um I feel like that’s really impct F and the person who’s reading that will
Definitely feel your like your honesty and your genuiness and like and like you know it’s just going to get through to the person as long as you stick to what’s true and what you’re writing and as long as you’re passionate about it yeah to add on to that like I
Definitely agree I think like a lot of people are afraid to be personal in their essays but I think one of the biggest advices and is like to like be personal I’ll be honest like talk about times that you’ve struggled or talk about like maybe like disadvantages that
You have because I think that’s like what’s unique about you and different that allows you like to stand out in like a huge pool of people thanks and how have you been asked to like or are you asked by the organizations that provide the scholarships you know do you have to
Stay in touch with them do you have to provide any updates on your progress is there any kind follow up once you’re awarded the scholarship uh for the two like State ones and then the national one like those three there’s not really updates but the one that I got from my
University um I meet with them like every like you know a couple times a year and you they get like progress on my GPA they get progress on how I’m doing if I’m like in a lab um because there are certain requirements from at least the university scholarship that
They have to like moderate and um they still want to keep that close community so they often host like events and stuff to make sure that you know our cohorts are still talking to each other and are still helping each other out I would say I have a similar
Experience um to Gabby like the local ones I would say that I the few that I got I didn’t update them once I was in college but like the one that like my program that I got had a very like censored program where like they followed you through every year and they
Had like set up meetings um every like semester to make sure that you’re still on track academically and also just like like physically and mentally I think they care about like everything in general um and so that’s the way that I was told to update them it’s just like
One-on-one meetings but it’s also nice like I a lot of the scholarships that I got like I was I I was like sending like update emails telling them like kind of like what I was doing in college and that I was grateful about the um scholarships that I got so I think
That’s another way to like stay connected it does definitely depend one of the roles that we have in our Scholarship office we also handle the external scholarships that students receive uh if it’s a one-year scholarship most organizations are not going to require a student to send any
Type of update but as Jenny and Gabby mentioned it’d be nice to let them know how you’re doing to let them know you appreciate the scholarship you’re receiving but if you’re getting a multi year scholarship very often that organization is going to want uh a report of your grades at a minimum uh
Each semester uh and in order for them to then send the following semester’s check thanks all Jenny I think I’m sending it back to you we are awesome sounds great so before we wrap I just want to let you all know about an upcoming event that cfnc is hosting
Hosting if you’re a Spanish speaking family or you know of a Spanish speaking family who has questions about the fafs and RDS this session is for them again it’s about um uh allows families to ask questions excuse me about a FAFSA and the RDS it will be held next Tuesday
November 16th at 6 PM if you’re interested or know someone who would in who would be interested please feel free to visit cfnc.org events to register and also to see any other upcoming events that cfnc is hosting for students and families we want to thank you all um for
Attending our session this evening again a recording of tonight’s session will be sent to All registrants You may also visit the cfnc YouTube page for a recording of This webinar and also for a recording of the first of our series entitled how to pay for college and
Other resources that will help you plan apply and pay for college we hope you all have a wonderful evening good night
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