Where to search for scholarships?

[Nate Straus]

Hi, I am a male nursing student who is hopefully transferring to the University of Washington next year to begin the RN program, and I need financial aid. My family has a high income, but I already have a brother in Stanford so I need to find a way to help pay for tuition myself. I am white, upper-middle class, not part of any major orginization or religion....So I don't really know where to start. As for now I am looking for scholarships in the 10,000$ plus range because I need to come up with about $40,000, I will start looking into smaller ones later. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[UVA Grad Nursing]

Undergraduate aid is generally based on financial need (determined by the FAFSA). If you are under age 24, the presumption is that you are a dependent student and so your parents' income will be used for determining financial aid.

[Nate Straus]

I am familiar with FAFSA, but my family in no way qualifies for it. The only reason we will have problems paying is because my brother is already enrolled at stanford. I was hoping more for other scholarships, possibly merit based because I have done pretty well in school so far.

[elkpark]

You may want to check with your (home) state. A number of states have grant/scholarship programs (funded and run by the state) designed to encourage people to go into nursing or further their education in nursing, with the goal of increasing the number of nurses in the state. Often you can "work off" the money after graduation instead of paying it back. I got money from my state to attend graduate school (in nursing), and was able to repay it simply by working in the state after graduation (in the state, not for the state), which was a v. nice deal (if I had left the state without working the specified amount of time, I would have had to repay the money).

Of course, that was a long time ago, and I'm sure a lot of those programs have been reduced or eliminated in the current economy -- but it would be worth checking on.