SHS Students Services will update the Scholarship Bulletin once a month. Please know this is just a small sampling of the hundreds of scholarships out there. Visit the lists below.

EXCELLENCE / ACHIEVEMENT / SUCCESS SCHOLARSHIPS

• Apply: March 10-28
• Interviews: May 14 from 2:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
• Winners notified: May 19

Each scholarship is a single-year $2,000 scholarship.

Each of these three merit-based scholarships will be awarded to a Senior student who will finish his/her high school career with a weighted GPA of 3.0 and higher. Students will be ranked by GPA, and then divided into three equal groups for consideration for these awards. The Scholarship Committee will take into account the applicant's extracurricular activities, community service, academic honors and work experience. There will be an essay and an interview.

PERSEVERANCE SCHOLARSHIP

The Perseverance Scholarship has been designed for a Senior student who has overcome personal adversity, has finished his/her high school studies and wishes to continue his/her education. Selection of the recipient will be based on an essay and an interview with the Scholarship Committee. GPA is NOT a factor in the selection for this scholarship.

Link to apply: https://forms.gle/xP8PSaS7JQjGpasD8

COMMUNITY HERO SCHOLARSHIP

Single Year $1500 year 

Applicants competing for the scholarship will have a GPA of 3.5 or better and be on track to graduate in the spring. Applicants will have a demonstrated history of community service and engagement throughout their high school experience. Applicants are also given the opportunity to provide a letter of recommendation from a current or previous teacher, coach or counselor. Lastly, applicants will provide a written essay.

• Scholarship details

The best source for scholarship information is always the financial aid office of the college/university you wish to attend. Four free sites we recommend for scholarship searches are: 

• CFNC
• Scholarships.com
• Fastweb
• bigfuture.collegeboard.org
• Going Merry

• Morehead-Cain at UNC-Chapel Hill  https://www.moreheadcain.org/
• Park Scholar at North Carolina State University https://park.ncsu.edu/
• Levine Scholar at UNC-Charlotte https://levinescholars.charlotte.edu/

FAFSA website: http://fafsa.gov

Basics of Financial Aid

Residency Determination Service: https://ncresidency.cfnc.org/residencyInfo/pdf/RDSBasicsHS.pdf

It is a great idea to fill out the FAFSA and the RDS at the same time since they require some of the same information. 

All students who plan to attend a community college or a 4 year public college/university in North Carolina will be required to complete the Residency Determination Service forms. These are required forms to determine your residency for in-state tuition. This form can ONLY be filled out through the College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC) website. For that reason, you must create a CFNC account if you do not have one already. Additionally, all official transcripts must be sent to in-state schools (both 2 year and 4 year) through CFNC's Transcript Manager function.

CFNC Website 

FINANCIAL AID ASSISTANCE

We have a financial aid advisor at Sanderson on Wednesdays from 8am-12pm. Mary Ann Norwood is available to meet with students and parents. To make an appointment, students and parents can email Mrs. Norwood at mnorwood@wcpss.net. Mrs. Norwood will also be visiting each Senior English class each semester to talk about financial aid.

RESOURCE

Sallie Mae ® unveiled a one-stop college-planning destination, created with, and for, high school educators and counselors. Their new site provides access to free, online college planning tools, short educational videos on financial aid, a free scholarship search engine with access to billions of dollars in scholarships, a college planning calculator, and other valuable information to help guide students and their families through the planning for college process.

A group of high school counselors from across the country helped the company develop the right resources, including videos, blog posts, and FAQs, for topics like completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), obtaining scholarships, budgeting for college, navigating financial aid offer letters, and understanding student loans. Please visit: https://www.salliemae.com/college-planning/