College Scholarship Purdue University Calumet Campus

Last year I started to research college scholarships. What a job that turned out to be. I went to google and put in college scholarships and I got 6 million plus hits. I almost fainted right then and there. I should have started this before my son was born. Are they kidding me??  Not only did I have to search out college scholarships but now I am told I also have to fill out a FAFSA form. FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. I was told this could take up to 4 hours to complete. Maybe I should have started this 2 years before my son was born! So I signed up last year for a couple of websites that help you with college scholarships. Now for over a year those sites have been sending me a mind boggling amount of emails that I barely understand. Do this do that, say what my kid is a junior in high school, we gotta start this now??  Oh man was I in trouble. 

Now my son is a senior in high school and I am still searching out college scholarships. Thankfully his high school counselor has a list of some college scholarships that would be a good match for my son. This helps a bit. What we decided to do was look at the colleges that my son would like to attend. This narrowed the search a bit. Many of the top colleges offered athletic scholarships which was not what we were looking for. My son played on the high school football team for 2 years and decided that was not a sport he wanted to play in any way except for fun. The coaches will tell you that academics was the most important thing but we parents know that wasn't the case. If you missed a practice you didn't play in the next game, but if he had to go to the dentist I had to take him out of class. Who were they kidding. Academic or merit scholarships are much harder to find. There are plenty that give you $500 or $1000 a year but we all know that isn't that much these days. The tuition at Harvard is $53,000 dollars a year. My house didn't cost that much. The next thing that really gets me is that a lot of these colleges want a 500 word or so essay when you apply to them. What!! My kid is in high school with a full load taking Honors classes and now he has to write essays for all the schools he wants to apply for. Most of the colleges he wants to attend require an essay. He was as shocked as I was. He simply doesn't have the time to do this. What to do now??

 Let me tell you about my son. He is currently the salutatorian of his senior class and he has a 170 iq. He has only had one B on any report card in his life. That was freshman year Spanish class and the only reason he is not the valedictorian. I am very proud of him. Of course any parent would like their child to get a full ride academic scholarship, but I believe my son is smart enough to get one. A friend of mine told me about this particular scholarship at Purdue University at the Calumet Campus. Its called the Chancellor Scholar Award. It works like this. Any high school student who graduates as the valedictorian or the salutatorian and applies to Purdue University Calumet Campus will recieve 100% tuition plus 50% of the housing fee for 4 years providing they maintain full time student status and maintain a 3.0 grade point average. This scholarship if for Indiana and Illinois students only. The university is only 40 miles from our home. So my son applied for admission and for the Chancellor's Award.

Today was the Breakfast for the Chancellor's Scholar Award Applicants. We were excited. My husband, myself, and my son attended. This was an informative day for us. We got to hear about the university and the over 100 academic programs that they offer. The head of each department talked about the programs in their department. It was an interesting day. I think what was on the minds of most of the parents was when would the decision be made as to who got the awards and how many did they give out every year. Its not mentioned in the information about the award and that was curious. Finally at the end of the program they told us what we all came to hear. This is what they told us and I was truly amazed. The Chancellor's Scholar Award is given to any and all students that apply for admission to the university and applies for the Chancellor's Scholar Award.  Wait a minute did I hear that right. I asked again just to make sure I wasn't hearing things. I wasn't. As long as my son graduates 1st or 2nd in his class he has a 100% academic scholarship. If it hadn't been inappropriate I would have danced on the table. They said a few years ago they gave out 60 Chancellor's Scholar Awards. I think that is one of the most amazing things I have ever heard. There had to be any where from 30 to 40 high school seniors there today who had applied for the scholarship. And the most amazing thing was that after this was announced you could have heard a pin drop. I think us parents were stunned into silence. I am excited for my son because he really wants to go there and I am stressed because he must finish his senior year 1st or 2nd. Only 6 months to go!!!