Homeschool Scholarships for College

1. Need Based Scholarships

The first type of homeschool scholarship is need-based financial aid related to the FAFSA that you fill out during October of senior year. Awards are given as grants and loans. Loans have to be repaid; they are not a gift of cash. Financial aid may include work study, such as a minimum wage job working for the school (in the cafeteria, for example and may not pay well). These scholarships are first come, first served.

Need-based scholarships may be somewhat helpful even if you are a middle income family. Learn about these college scholarships so you can determine if they will be helpful. Get up-to-date information on need-based scholarships and the ever changing FAFSA in my free resource, Need Based Scholarships - A White Paper. It’s filled with tips for busy parents who dread filling out government forms.

2. Private Scholarships

The second kind of homeschool scholarship is the private financial aid your child can earn from businesses or through special applications. You can search for scholarship opportunities given for special talents or abilities, often also involving a written essay or project, submitted with thorough homeschool records. There are many unused scholarships, and the awards vary from small to huge amounts.

As you and your teen complete applications and essays for these scholarships, you can use the work for high school English credit. This can save you quite a bit of money on English curriculum. But there is no guarantee of success, even if you and your teen complete a million applications. Our family worked hard on applying for these scholarships for an entire year, and our children each received about $2500 from this kind of scholarship. You can read strategies for earning private scholarships in my book, College Scholarships for High School Credit: Learn and Earn With This Two-for-One Strategy.

3. Merit Scholarships

The third kind of college scholarship for homeschoolers is the merit-based scholarship a student receives directly from the college when they apply. These can be automatically awarded, based on SAT®, ACT®, or GPA. This is why homeschool parents should provide grades in all classes, so the student has a GPA on which to determine scholarships. Colleges may give homeschool scholarships related to special skills or talents shared in the application process.

Merit-based scholarships are often the easiest to get when you know the simple strategies. These college scholarships can make the biggest financial impact for your family, even if your child isn’t an Einstein. Our children received great scholarships from all colleges applied to - awarded over $184,000 in scholarships to our first choice college.

To earn a merit scholarship, you must convince colleges that your child is worthy of a merit scholarship. The ability to persuade colleges comes from what I call “clipping college coupons.” You know how you save money on groceries by clipping coupons and shopping ads? The same tactic can be used for colleges. You can convince colleges you are worthy of merit scholarships by "clipping college coupons." These coupons are the many small things colleges request in order to determine who to award admission and scholarships.

You have complete control over some of these coupons as the parent. You can’t always make your child write well, test well, get a job, or suddenly become extroverted. But there is one thing you can control; you can always provide outside documentation with thorough homeschool records. All of these kinds of outside documentation are awesome, but who is ever going to know about them if you don’t share them? They all need to be included in your student’s college application, and most of them need to be included in your student’s records.

With all of this information in mind, here are three of the most important tips for homeschoolers in need of scholarships.

1. Apply the First Month of Senior Year

Apply for colleges early in senior year, and complete all applications well before each due date. I suggest trying to beat deadlines by two months, or finishing everything before Thanksgiving. This means you need to have all the pieces of the application ready to go, which requires you to pay close attention to all those “college coupons” I talked about. Most financial aid is first come, first served. You want to be first in line when they are handing out the cash.

2. Apply to 4 to 8 Universities

Apply to a mix of public and private universities. Public colleges are often cash-strapped, with few available scholarships. Private schools may be well funded, with larger scholarships. In my experience, public and private universities are often the same price after financial aid is given, so make sure you include a mix of colleges. In my family, one private college offered a full tuition scholarship and said it was their top scholarship. The public university offered my son merely a few hundred dollars per quarter, and said it was their top scholarship.

3. Apply to Reach, Fit, and Safety Schools

Choose some "reach" schools. These colleges have higher average test scores than your child, but your child meets the college requirements. Ivy League and military academies are always reach schools, no matter how high your child’s test scores may be. Choose some "fit" schools. These colleges' test scores are about the same as your child’s, and your child meets the college requirements. Choose some "safety" schools, as well, where your child’s test scores are higher than the college average and they exceed the requirements.