Speaker 1: They take such hard classes to pull like straight A's. I am not that person. You're literally just getting free money for being a good student. So I got like $400,000 in scholarships just from Hi friends, it's Kate. Welcome or welcome back to my channel. Today I'm doing a long-awaited and highly requested video which is how I got $500,000 in merit scholarships. Colleges will usually offer you the merit scholarship because they like what you do or who you are. They'll like your test grades, your GPA, or they'll like you for your extracurriculars. And basically the whole reason why they have merit scholarships is they want to entice you to choose their school over another school because obviously money is a big factor when a lot of people decide on which college they want to attend. So the more a school likes you and is afraid you'll pick a different school, they'll probably give you more money. There's also need-based scholarships which is based on your family's financial status. So if you qualify for financial aid as well, then you can stack that with your school. So if you qualify for financial aid, then you can stack that with your merit and just bring down the cost of college significantly. I know that college is very very expensive so I want to walk you guys through all the steps that I took to get as many scholarships as possible. And these are all things that you guys can do no matter where you are in the college application process. You could literally be in ninth grade or you can be applying to college currently. And one more thing, if you get an ad while watching this, please consider watching it through and not skipping it because I use the money that I make on here to help my family out by paying for some tuition or other grants. So if you're interested in getting a scholarship, you can go to the link in the description below. And if you're new to my channel, I currently am a freshman at USC. I attend with a presidential scholarship which is a half-ride throughout the four years that I'm going to be attending there. The scholarship I got through USC is probably my most unique one out of all the ones that I received because I actually went up to interview with them for it. Some of the other scholarships that I got was a full ride to Fordham University, half-ride to Boston, and then I got a full ride to Boston University. So if you're new to my channel, if you want to know more in depth of like which schools I applied to, which ones I got into, and what scholarships I got from each one, make sure to just check out the videos I have linked down below because I explain everything in there. So right here is a list of the topics that I'm going to be going over in this video. And let's start off with your high school life, including your academics and extracurriculars. So obviously you probably know that your GPA does matter, but a big thing that people might not realize is that they look at what types of classes you're taking. So obviously the best would be to go to a high school, but if you're new to my channel, take challenging courses and get that 4.0 because you then you have the rigor thing checked off and you also have like the good grades thing checked off. Obviously it's difficult to have both and try to balance and maintain a healthy lifestyle. And colleges do understand that. So if you don't have like the perfect GPA, that's okay. Like in high school, I did not take like the most challenging like English classes because they're all considered the same thing. For example, in sophomore year, all the Englishes are called English 2A. Under English, 2A, you can pick different topics and different teachers. And personally, I went for the ones that had an easier course load and were considered a bit easier because English is not my strong suit. And I wanted to take courses that the college could recognize were considered more rigorous because then I would stand out more when they looked at my transcript compared to someone else's. In sophomore year, I took honors chemistry instead of regular chem. I know some people who took chemistry over the summertime so they could actually take AP chemistry in sophomore year, which would be special. Especially outstanding. I was not quite up for that challenge. Even honors was really hard for me already. So definitely like know yourself and what you can handle. But you should try to stretch yourself as much as you can because obviously colleges want to see you challenge yourself. Something else to consider with your coursework is also going to be your extracurriculars. Colleges are very interested in your extracurriculars because it's very likely that you, well you probably know this if you're in school, that you and the person sitting next to you could be taking the same class. So if you're in a class that you're in, you're going to be taking the same class. But you guys obviously do very different things outside of school. Everyone has like different extracurriculars and no matter what it is you need to find yours. I know that the athletics route is one of the most popular, but because it's one of the most popular, colleges might not see it as special because so many people do do athletics. So if you're gonna try to rely on that as like your selling point, I'm gonna be blunt, you have to be doing pretty well in it or just do something else with it because then they can see that you manage different time commitments well. Other great extracurriculars that I've seen is like if you're into computers like doing coding, colleges are really into that, especially if you're a female. I've heard that Model UN is a really good extracurricular to involve yourself in as well as like debate or like speech. Okay I'm gonna be honest though, I have a very like untraditional extracurriculars because obviously mine was YouTube and I want to just shout out you guys for making this all possible. Without you guys watching this and all the support that you've given me, I wouldn't have this platform to even write about this extracurricular. A regular of mine would not exist and I'm so so blessed and appreciated you guys for that. I also started a jewelry business selling like necklaces and earrings which is something that definitely made me stand out more as an applicant. Like I know that happened for my USC interview because let's be honest, in my grade people are so freaking smart and they take such hard classes, pull like straight A's. I am not that person but USC only took me in for an interview and I'm assuming that they probably chose me. So I wanna make my grades easier and I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't based on my extracurriculars and I'm sure that I was not based on like my grades. Colleges just want to see someone who's passionate about what they do. So my point is, do school, but also be more well-rounded in having other passions and interests and doing things that benefit others. My next point is about standardized testing which is the PSAT and the SAT. So I got like four hundred thousand dollars of scholarships just from doing well on my PSAT and because I scored in the top 1% of my state, which for me, I got a 1480. I was recognized as a PSAT national semi-finalist. You just have to write one pretty easy essay and most people then become finalists. So I was a finalist, but it doesn't mean that much because once you have the semi-finalist title, you're pretty much set with most school scholarships. The finalist thing just gives you an extra, I think $2,000 a year, which is definitely very great, but don't be super discouraged if you don't get the finalist position because getting the semi-finalist is already really great for scholarships. So simply because I was a PSAT semi-finalist, Fordham University gave me a full ride to their school. So over four years, that'd be like $220,000. That's literally just from scoring well on the PSAT. I honestly loved Fordham as well. I was so excited when I got that offer because it was just an amazing thing to have on the table. With Boston U and Northeastern U, I also got my half rides because of the national merit that I had. I know that if you're a senior in high school right now applying to colleges, I heard that a lot of schools aren't requiring the SAT, but if you're able to take the SAT, I would highly recommend it just because it will show that you took that extra step to study for it and prepare for it even though it wasn't a requirement because they'll see that you took the initiative to do so because the people next to you might be more lazy and just be like, it's not required, so I don't need to do it. But in fact, colleges will like that you did it. So know that even though a lot of colleges say optional, it's not really optional because it can determine whether or not you get into the school or how much scholarships they'll give you. The PSAT and SAT are both things that you can study for in relatively a short amount of time. It's nothing like four years of your high school GPA, but as you can see, they are very significant to the colleges. So I think it's really important to take time to study for them. If money matters to you and your family, then you should definitely just go really try hard on that. Okay, my parents were super like anal about that stuff. That's why they pushed me really hard, never wanted me to go to football games or anything like that. Just like hang out with my friends because they're like, you need to study for the PSAT and the SAT. And I was like, oh my gosh, you guys are so annoying. But then it kind of paid off like afterwards with all these scholarships. So I get where they're coming from now. So hopefully me telling you that is a little bit less annoying than your parents like pestering you to go study for the PSAT or SAT. Next topic is going to be your supplemental essays. Make sure you do a good job on your supplementals because they might be one of the deciding factors in who's going to get the scholarship because it's like a pie. This person gets this much, this person gets this much, this person gets nothing. And you want to be the person who got the most and you don't have to pay as much for college, obviously. It's literally like free money. So just be a try hard, okay, if you can. So common topics for your supplemental will be like, why do you want to go to our school? What's something you're passionate about? Like hobbies, talk about an experience that really changed you. When you're crafting these essays, make sure that you write a part where it talks about what you have to contribute to the school because obviously like, you can gush about this school. Like this school is amazing because blah, blah, blah. You need to connect it to why the school should accept you. Like just sell yourself basically because really the colleges want it to be like a two-way street. You have something to offer them. They have something to offer you. I also highly, highly recommend you guys apply to all of your colleges early. I made myself a Google Sheets of all the colleges I was applying to as well as like the deadline date. So I applied early to one, two, three, four, five, six, seven schools. Four of them were specific scholarship deadlines and the other four were just for early action. Scholarship deadlines just mean that you need to apply before this or to date if you want to even be considered for a scholarship. For example, USC said that you have to turn in your app before December 1st. You can turn it in after that cutoff date if you just want regular admission into the school but they're not even going to consider giving you money for merit but you can still qualify for financial need-based aid. Early action is usually November 1st and that basically just means that you want to apply and get your decision back earlier. If you apply early action, you'll usually find out your results in like December or January. So as someone who kind of gets really anxious about decisions that are outside of myself, it really gave me peace of mind to know that I could know my decisions earlier and it also gave me more time to weigh out my options and decide where I wanted to go. After your college apps are done, you'll probably have interviews scheduled so I know that all the Ivy, school interview you, usually like more prestigious schools. I am the someone who is so nervous when it comes to interviews. I hate them. I get stomach aches. I never show it because you know, when you say it out loud and show that you're nervous, I feel like it's kind of like telling yourself that you're nervous. So I try to just, you know, keep it in. You know something with like how people recommend like power posing before something because it just tells your body that you're confident. That's basically the mentality behind me not saying that I'm nervous. So biggest advice on interviews is fake it till you make it. Seem confident by your answers. Obviously be nice. Smile. I know that it's easy to get all stiff but the interviewer is just like another person and honestly, once you actually do the interview, it's not that bad at all. They just want to have a conversation with you. Have some questions prepared for them that show that you've done some research on the school but that you want to know more. And my last point today is to talk about outside scholarships. So these outside scholarships or grants are given to students. By foundations, which is not the university. So for example, like Google has a huge scholarship fund as well as like Burger King, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, you know, all those like big corporations out there. They like to give students money. So please sign up for those to find out which month you need to apply and blah, blah, blah. I highly recommend getting the Scholars app as well as FastWeb. I will have them linked down below. They're amazing resources. They sent emails to me like every week notifying me of new scholarships that I might be eligible for. And it was really useful. Some of them are going to be through like a lottery system, which is they literally just pick people randomly. But there's also ones that you might need to write an essay for or ones that look at your grades and extracurriculars much like a college would. Oh my goodness. You guys should also definitely get RaiseMe. RaiseMe basically pays you to get good grades in school. So you just sign up, enter your grades and they give you like micro scholarships. Like for example, if you got an A in math class, they'll give you $500. And then you can just really rack it up like people will get thousands from this. And then they have affiliated schools. I think from my list of schools that I applied to only Northeastern partnered with RaiseMe. But I know that they've added so many more to the list this year. So definitely go check that out. And they're guaranteed scholarships for you. And you literally are just getting free money for being a good student in high school and getting the good grades. So highly recommend. Don't miss out on that wonderful opportunity. I think that's about it for this video. I probably didn't cover everything. If you found this video helpful, it would mean so much. If you give it a like and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this, let me know down below what other videos you want to see me do. If there's topics that you want me to talk more about. I just want to help you guys out, get that money because college is freaking expensive. Follow me on my Instagram right here at kklee to stay connected. And I would love to chat with you guys in my DMs. Be a real one to your friends and share this video with them if you thought it was helpful. And I will see you guys in my next video. In the meantime, stay safe, drink lots of water and tell your loved ones that you love them. Bye. Bye.