From: davej@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Dave Juraschek)
Subject: Re: Scholarshipsa
Organization: George Mason University, Fairfax Va.
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 20:22:12 GMT


In article <1992Sep24.060843.6746@gagme.chi.il.us> you write:
>From: grnwood@gagme.chi.il.us (Jerry Greenwood)

>My 16 year old son is a programming fiend.  It's almost college time and my
>thoughts have turned to college and all the bucks that it takes to get a
>kid through it all.  

>Do large University computer science departments ever offer scholarships as
>do other departments?  I should know this but I don't ever recall hearing
>of anything like this.  I would very much like to send him somewhere where
>he will have the benefits of a larger institution but the costs are, of
>course, prohibitive.  Especially since I already have one in school.  

>Thanks in advance......

>-- 

>Submitted for your approval.....
>Jerry Greenwood                                                      N9NRG
>grnwood@gagme.chi.il.us                                       312-545-2219

>--

You may also wish to look into alternative and private sources of financial
aid.  There are a number of businesses that will find these sources for you.

Educational Scholarship Consultants (1-800-554-5357 extension 2274) is 
one such organization that might be able to help you.  
(This number is a toll free call that will connect you to a
message system.  The message tells you a bit about ESC and how you can get
more information from them.)

ESC is a financial aid research firm that specializes in locating sources
of private sector financial aid.  (That is, finaincial aid that does not
come from state or federal government sources.  As a result, many of the 
ESC found sources do not have prohibitive grade point average or family/
student income level restrictions.)

Something that makes ESC unique is that unlike almost every other organization
that finds sources of private sector financial aid, they don't just have you
fill out a computer form and sent you off to some parent company to generate
an impersonal (and often non-relevant) report for you.  (Most scholarship
companies take your money and a computer data form.  They send this to some
parent company who generates a report.  The parent company then either then
mails you the report or sends it back to the company you contacted who then
simply mail the report to you.  Big deal!)

ESC not only gets a computer report generated from the largest, most up to date
private sector financial aid database around, ESC then hand searches numerous
periodicals, other data bases, listings, publications and other sources.  And,
ESC is generally cheaper (in cost) than the majority of their competitors.
A lot of ESC's sources are not generally available by school counselors or
found in public libraries. Another bonus, ESC staff are ALL college & high
school educators (former or currently), one of whom who wrote a good portion
of the student finances system software for the second largest community
college in the nation.  ESC is located just outside Washington D.C.  So, they
are usually monitoring legistation that affects student financial aid.

There is also another kind of financial aid firm.  These firms  will charge
from $200 to $500 for their service.  For this, they solicit and guarantee 
the actual financial aid awards for you.  Usually most of this type of firm
will guarantee that they will secure awards for a student of at least $1500
in value.

A suggestion if you do decide to use a aid research firm (rather than the 
more expensive aid securing firm) ...  You mention that you already have
one child in college.   You might be able to consolidate information from
both of your children when you work with a research firm.  For the cost
of one report, you'll be able to get information that then will be 
applicable to both of your children since that report will have been
prepared as a composite of both of your children's backgrounds.

I hope this helps.
-Dave
Xref: sparky comp.edu:1768 alt.education.distance:373 k12.ed.tech:794 misc.education:3465