Expert: Les Thomas - 1/23/2012

Question
Hi,

My mother had me and I never knew my real dad, but when I was 7 my mom married. Another 4 years later I was legally adopted by my father, meaning taking his last name. Do you know if there is any scholarships for this? I don't know if i is technically adoption, but there has to be someone.

Thanks
Cody

Answer
Cody,

While your situation may have not been the best to live with... there are quite a few students who also fit into your situation as well.

While scholarships may be available... they won't reduce your out of pocket expense... they will only reduce the amount of discount the colleges give in their form of Financial Aid.

In other words... let's say the College is going to give you a $10,000 discount - (also called Gift Aid), and you happened to get a - we'll call it - a ($5,000 Adopted Scholarship) - the college would absorb that $5,000 into the original $10,000 they were going to be giving you.  You'd still get the full $10K - but $5K of it would be your Adopted Scholarship, and the other $5K would be the college's discount.

You may want to search Google - on the Internet for Scholarships - but be careful of those companies that charge you anything for finding you or promising you to find a scholarship.  They are typically rip off scam companies... so be very careful.

If you're serious about lowering the cost of College... contact College Funding Connection on-line at www.collegefundingconnection.org.  They are the best in the country!

I hope this helps.