Tech Scholarships for College/University? 577
Mirkon asks: "I'm a potential high school graduate, and have been accepted to a four-year school for furthering my rather biased educational interests. The problem is that while I'm cheap, the school (predictably) isn't. It's still getting itself off the ground, and thus only offers the legal minimum of scholarships - for racial minorities and those with intense financial need, neither of which I qualify for. Tedious searching for third-party scholarships has revealed that there are very, very few that cater to the interests of a technologically-inclined student, and even fewer that don't give a paltry one-time prize of $500 or less. While there's certainly no shortage of 'write an essay about us/you and we might give you a scholarship' offerings, I find it hard to swallow that there aren't more and more valuable scholarships to encourage growth in the tech sector. Are there?"
Two solutions (Score:1, Insightful)
Why so married to 'tech'? (Score:5, Insightful)
How about a job? (Score:5, Insightful)
Student loans are another way to go - there's nothing wrong with getting one either. I did it, and I paid it off too. Yes, it took a few years, but it was finally paid off.
It may even be the case that you'll have to put off going to college for a year or so until you have enough money. So be it.
Good luck!
Do what I did - GET A PART-TIME JOB (Score:4, Insightful)
* how to manage your time and prioritize obligations
* how to make and save money; how to spend money wisely
* how to deal with work conditions, including low pay, long hours, bad bosses, evil customers, etc.
* eventually, how to appreciate a "better" job, having tasted first hand what some people have to do to earn a living
Potential graduate? (Score:3, Insightful)
I was a potential graduate and the last few months of my senior year really really sucked.
army (Score:5, Insightful)
PS Flamers: This is not for everyone, just a suggestion to those of us that don't want to pay an unreasonable amount for a college education.
Re:OT but can someone fill me in... (Score:5, Insightful)
The author of this entry to "Please help me, Slashdot" has noted early on that he is cheap: The author does not want a loan. He is looking for a scholarship offer -- that is, he would like very much for someone else to pay for his expenses and send him to school for free. (Wouldn't we all have loved that?)
Unfortunately I have nothing useful to add on that front, as the only scholarship I ever took advantage of was a strictly academic one, and only that for going to a tiny, two-year state school. This hasn't prevented me from being in a computer-related field for the last eight years, nor has it prevented me from working as a senior network engineer, or as a field consultant, or down at the Pentagon, or etc.
The person who submitted the story noted that he is a potential high school graduate
Re:How about a job? (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't always take the easy way; the other path may be more interesting and rewarding -- true success isn't without its struggle.
Consider other schools? (Score:2, Insightful)
You should also be careful about picking a school based on (as you put it) your "rather biased educational interests". As a someone who hasn't graduated from high school yet, your interests are very likely to change over the next few years of your life, as you set out into the world and see things that are different from where you grew up. Don't shortchange yourself by picking a school that is tailored to your current interests, and won't be able to support your future ones.
Also, don't shortchange yourself by isolating your interests into the tech sector. Make sure you can explore the full range of academic subjects that are available at a good school. You'll never get a chance like this again.
they shouldn't be any encouragement for tech (Score:5, Insightful)
Try some informational interviews at technology companies and just look around and see how the people in the technology staff and first couple levels of management are above the age of 45. If the companies say they have a "dual career ladder", ask how many directors they have on the managerial side. Then ask how many they have on the technical side. if they give you a nonzero number, ask to be introduced to some of them. Another question on the same line is to ask what does it take to become a director for managerial and then ask for the technical. You'll frequently find that the technical rungs have significantly higher hurdles than the managerial side.
Don't be fooled by the typical
A technology career is also bad for you physically and mentally. Most companies use subtle or not so subtle psychological pressure to encourage staff to work all sorts of hours, usually in the name of teambuilding. It will cost you sleep, health by being increasingly sedentary and obese, and even possibly repetitive motion damages which leaves you with lifelong pain.
The psychological pressure to work long hours will reduce your ability to take time off to take vacations.
The hyper focus mindset it takes to get work done in a cube environment also will impact your ability to form healthy relationships with a partner. Important time off together (see above) will be impaired and nibbled away at by the inability to leave work at work.
So, leave the technology career for others. The smart move into something where you can have a long career and make good money without putting your physical and mental health at risk. take care of yourself. Because not only will nobody else do it, everybody else wants to eat you alive and not in a good way.
Re:OT but can someone fill me in... (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, go to a _state_ school! Your education will cost 1/10 to 1/3 as much money! You won't be burdened by student loans! Instead you'll buy a shiny new car and/or house with all the money yo'll save.
And "tech" workers, don't diss college. There is a demand for skilled engineering students, although curently many of those oppurtunities are in the defense industry.
-n
I did that with the Navy (Score:3, Insightful)
If getting blown up / shot worries you - I say go Navy or Air Force. Not to mention if you are smart and test well you could get into some very interesting technical work- say with UAVs or something else cool. There are other benefits as well- like being able to buy a house with no money down using a V.A. home loan. I had more out of pocket costs on my first car than I did on my first house.
Re:Why so married to 'tech'? (Score:5, Insightful)
While it may be true that some people don't learn many applied skills in college, many companies simply won't take a chance on a non-college graduate, college dropout, or someone who got straight D's.
You can bleat and complain as much as you want about the effectiveness of academic training, but the power of the diploma is well-established in job hunting.
Besides, college is fun and is often a good place to mature and improve other important social skills.
some advice (Score:3, Insightful)
You wrote, "[i]t's still getting itself off the ground," and that worries me. First of all you want to attend a well established institution. This is not only because of the name recognition when you apply for employment after graduation. You want the school to be around long enough for you to be able to graduate and solvent enough to cover its expenses, or the staff and profs will leave. This is from personal experience. My wife's cousin attended a college that was just starting up, but I do not remember the name. He was studying music. A couple of years later the school declared bankruptcy and that was it. He lost all the tution he paid even for classes that he paid for but never took yet due to the bankruptcy. Later, since the school was a virtual unknown and there was no one there to contact, no other school offered him any credit for the work he did while there. In debt he had to get a job and only now, some years later, is he back in school at UIC and not studying music.
The $500 scholarships are worthless, do not bother. I won a handful and in two cases I never saw the money. Also, you have to list them when you apply for financial aid and each year the financial aid office calculate 54% (if I remember correctly) of that to reduce your award from the school. In the end I lost more money than I gained from that and I spent many weekends writing annoying essays about topics like the American Revolution and how I will make the world a better place after my college education.
Forget scholarships (Score:1, Insightful)
I went through five years of school without any scholarships, and paid my own way.
If you're already technically inclinded, get a job. If you have even rudimentary programming skills, you should be able to work for at least $20 an hour.
Compare that to the usual philosophy major pulling in a whopping $5.35 an hour at the local grocery store.
Re:How about a job? (Score:5, Insightful)
Having a work schedule in addition to a full-time class schedule is not always a good idea. It's a little difficult to do great work in school if you are always sitting down to Advanced Linguistic Anthropology after eight hours of waiting tables or restocking the paper towels at Wal-Mart.
Student loans are another way to go - there's nothing wrong with getting one either.
Except the ridiculous interest and the fact that it takes years and years and years to pay it off.
Item one in college: DO NOT BORROW EVEN ONE DOLLAR UNLESS IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
This is especially important with credit cards. Fuck that up and you'll realize right fucking now how un-free money is.
Re:Rich relatives (Score:1, Insightful)
Maybe find a cheaper school (Score:3, Insightful)
My point is that if you can't afford some super expensive school maybe you should think about going to a cheaper state school (one that is in YOUR state.) I think that you will find that when you get out the people who went to the cheap schools will for the most part being working at the same jobs and making the same amount of $$ as those who went for the expensive schools. The cost of state schools are going up much faster than inflation but I think most of the time you can still afford basic tuition by working in the summer and at part time jobs. For room and board I guess you will have to live off mommy and daddy or get student loans. My advice: try to stay for longer than 4 years (compared to college the real world sucks!! who graduates in 4 years anymore anyway?) and try to take as few student loans as possible; if you are lucky the mommy and daddy bank will pay for much of it -- even if that means you have to live in your parent's basement.
Re:How about a job? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not a good idea if it really bothers you giving up a little drinking, fucking, getting stoned, and watching tv time to push a mop around or ask if someone wants fries with that. I guess it really depends how much your education matters to you. If you can't stomach the idea of giving up a social life for the prospect of a great education and a future, perhaps you should just quit college and file for unemployment now and save some time.
Why limit your scholarship possibilities (Score:5, Insightful)
The University Student Panhandling Advisor
Seriously, a lot of schools will have staff whose sole professional purpose is to keep track of scholarships which students of that institution could compete for. Makes sense, the U doesn't care who pays the bills, just so long as they get paid, so helping economically disadvantaged students to find funding is a win-win.
My personal experience was that there were literally hundreds of scholarships available to me, once I stopped focusing on $DISCIPLINE.
So stop worrying about tech scholarships, start worrying about scholarships, period. If that youth-tap-dance-zealot scholarship pays the bills, put on those shoes baby, just put on those shoes...
Re:army (Score:5, Insightful)
You start out with a rank you won't ever attain if you "just enlisted"... you will be an officer.
and if you're tech inclined you'd most likely not see the front lines as your skills would make you more valuable elsewhere.
If you believe that, you're a fool. There are lots of room for tech jobs up at the front line, near the front line, and in our own set of high-value targets. There is no such thing as "most likely."
I was someone "tech inclined" in the Army, and yes, it got me put with counterfire radar instead of with an infantry unit (I was a 13F - Field Artillery Fire Support A.K.A. Forward Observer)... but the TOC I worked in also had M.I., communications, and lots of other high-value targets. We were right on top of the list of things an enemy would be looking for should we have been deployed. (Thankfully, we just did humanitarian stuff while I was in.)
People at the front lines are using high-tech equipment that needs to be serviced, and if you are "tech inclined" you just might be the guy who has to jump into a foxhole at the front lines and fix it.
DO NOT JOIN THE MILITARY THINKING YOU WILL NOT SEE COMBAT. You are doing a disservice to yourself, your fellow soldiers, and your country.
That is all.
Re:Local Resources (Score:1, Insightful)
Yes. Stick with the real engineering positions instead of being a retarded IT monkeyboy.
Re:Local Resources (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:write those essays (Score:2, Insightful)
Write a generic, flexible essay and, well, crap-flood it everywhere. You'll be amazed at the checks you'll be cashing at the end of the semester, after all of your tuition, housing, and books have been paid by other people...
I think your nephew must have had more going for him than the fact that he was the only person applying for these scholarships. The idea that there are loads of unclaimed scholarships that are open to whomever turns in an essay, regardless of their merits, is nonsense, pure and simple.
Peterson's [petersons.com], which is an authoritative a source as any, explains:
There are lots of scholarships out there, but they're all fairly competitive.
Re:they shouldn't be any encouragement for tech (Score:1, Insightful)
This post might as well have been written by me. "Tech careers" are absolutely a serious problem once you reach the age of 40 - 45. If you haven't made it into management (and figure only 2 - 5% do) by that time, your screwed. Further, if you're TECHNICALLY GOOD, you'll be passed over for management because they can't do without your skills in the trenches. But at 45 and 70K+ income, you become a target and a retirement liability. Don't do it. Choose something that can't be outsourced to India, expecially trades. You will always have better income potential and job security over your lifetime as a plumber or electrician than any technical degreed person, and you'll probably have YOUR OWN COMPANY. Remember that as an engineer, unlike any other "profession" you are usually beholden to some mammoth employer for a paycheck. I could go on.......