[nabs-l] College and Scholarship Apps

Tue Jul 19 18:14:41 UTC 2016

Hi Cricket and all,

Jameyanne is right, you typically do the Fafsa in the Spring of your
senior year of high school for the following school year.  This goes
for subsequent school years as well.  Different schools release the
information based on the fafsa at different times, but it's usually at
least a month or so after.  My university does it in June or July, and
I remember the summer before my freshman year was when I had to make
loan decisions.  Also, a good tip my parents found out later is that
if you have a sibling already in college and they need to complete
multiple fafsas, there is an IRS tool that allows them to put in the
pin information they used on one completed fafsa to copy over all the
tax information.  You also can use estimates of tax information if
your school has an early deadline for fafsa submissions, but your
parents will need to correct any false figures they entered once their
taxes are finalized so the school has correct information.  I hope
that gives you a useful timeline of what to expect.

About scholarships... do apply for the NFB scholarships that are
offered.  As someone who has received scholarships from Ohio and from
the national organization, I can say that the affiliates and the NFB
both really go above and beyond to provide these scholarships for us.
The mentoring in the national scholarship program is amazing as well,
and for many students the scholarships also help them get more
connected with the NFB.  On the other hand, don't fall into the trap
some students do where they only apply for scholarships from blindness
and disability organizations.  There are plenty of scholarships out
there for students entering certain fields of study, from specific
ethnic backgrounds, and from companies and retailers on a local or
national scale.  Especially if you have the type of grades that can
get you into Stanford, you'd probably have a good edge in a lot of
those.  Sometimes mentioning blindness in those scholarship
applications can actually be an asset because it shows that you have
just as good of a track record as a sighted applicant, but had to make
accommodations or overcome what society sees as a form of adversity to
do the same work.  Treat that like a job interview, though; sometimes
it is better to just apply and not mention blindness at all, whereas
other cases might call for it.  E.G, I apply for most academic
scholarships without mentioning it, but when a question specifically
asks why I was drawn to my field of study I am honest in describing ow
my own disability led me to receive the services I want to provide for
others.  Sometimes smaller scholarships are announced in the local
newspaper, and following sites like scholarshipzone.com can sometimes
help.

Good luck,

On 7/19/16, Jameyanne Fuller via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Also definitely apply for NFB scholarships.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Cricket
> Bidleman via NABS-L
> Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2016 12:20 PM
> To: Bryan Duarte <bjduarte at asu.edu>
> Cc: Cricket Bidleman <cricketbidleman at gmail.com>; National Association of
> Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] College and Scholarship Apps
>
> Justin and Brian,
>
> I'll definitely be applying for the NFB of California and NFB national
> scholarships. I can only hope to be lucky enough to get some of them.
> Hopefully the FAFSA deadline will come out soon so that I can work on
> that too. I have to get into college first, before I can get a
> scholarship from any particular school. Stanford is my dream school,
> of course. Berkeley is a good one too. Still looking for others.
>
> On 7/19/16, Bryan Duarte <bjduarte at asu.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Hello Cricket,
>>
>> I must say I see you being so active on this list everyday and I love it!
>> I
>> am also glad to hear that you are about to be attending school and
>> applying
>> for scholarships, as this is a very important aspect of your educational
>> career.
>>
>> The first thing I would encourage you to do is visit your college or
>> universities scholarship portal. Each college should have a portal you can
>> access for scholarships. That is your best bet for receive scholarships
>> since they would only be awarded to students from your respective college
>> or
>> university. The second thing I would encourage you to do is apply for the
>> NFB national scholarship and your local state scholarship program if there
>> is one where you live. As a national
>>
>> I look forward to hearing more about what you are doing and keep up your
>> activity on this list it is great to have such a friendly, inquisitive,
>> and
>> outgoing student participating on this list. Have a great day!
>>
>> Go Devils!
>>
>> Bryan Duarte software engineer
>> ASU Computer Science Ph.D candidate
>> QwikEyes CEO http://www.qwikeyes.com/ <http://www.qwikeyes.com/>
>>
>> “let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you, all things are passing
>> away: God never changes. patience obtains all things. whoever has God
>> lacks
>> nothing; God alone suffices.”
>> -- St. Teresa of Avila
>>
>>> On Jul 19, 2016, at 7:54 AM, Cricket Bidleman via NABS-L
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Cricket
>>
>>
>
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-- 
Kaiti Shelton