College Scholarship

Q: I am a high school senior looking to attend college in the fall. I have tourette syndrome, but have succeeded very well in school. I also have nevus basal cell carcinoma syndrome, also called Gorlin syndrome, a rare disease which affects the skin. I was wondering if I could get some sort of scholarship to go to college. Here's some of my stuff: 1300 SAT: 680 Math, 620 Verbal Advanced Placement Scores: 5 on US history 4 on Language and Composition Currently ranked 8th out of senior class of 500 students, with a 3.9 unweighted GPA. Classes currently taking are: Computer programming I AP Calculus BC English 4 Honors AP Microeconomics AP Physics B AP Chemistry Clubs: Member of math team/mu alpha theta since 10th grade Sports 4th year on high school swim team, captain my junior year. Looking to attend either ga tech, university of south florida, or university of florida and major in computer engineering. Any feedback, comments, suggestions would be appreciated.

A: First, there is TONS of money out there in the form of scholarships that most people haven't even heard of, but it takes some work to get it. Go to your local library. There are a few VERY large (50 pound!) books that list every single source of financial assistance available. They are reference books, so you need to sit in the library and use them. Be prepared to write down lots of info or copy certain pages. These books are arranged by category, state, demographics, etc. Basically, you need to find the 'categories' you fit into, look them up in the correct section, read the various criteria for acceptance, and when you find some you fit into, write to them for an application, then follow the procedure each one has for applying for money. There will be general categories, such as "Male, Jewish, resident of Florida", "Male, applying for engineering school, with disability", "Female, East Coast, pursuing social work degree" "African American, Male, has a white poodle and wishes to study baking at state school in Kalamazoo, MI" etc. Some will be more specific than others, the more specific you can get, the less candidates there are likely to be. You

don't have to be lo-income to receive many of these, you mainly need to meet the criteria, and send in the application! You should also check out N.O.R.D., the National Organization for Rare Disorders. Their website is: www.rarediseases.org and their email address is orp...@rarediseases.org They also have info on Gorlin-Chaudry-Moss and Nevoid Basal Carcinoma Syndrome, and might be of help to you in other ways. You might also call your local Chamber of Commerce, AND speak to the admissions people at the schools you are thinking of, to see what grants or scholarships you might qualify for. I'm sure you already know about subsidized and unsubsidized Government loans?