Do smaller FAFSA scholarship programs notify non-winners? My son hasn't heard back

From my experience, most smaller scholarships only notify winners. My daughter applied to 12 local ones last year and only heard back from the two she actually won. The rest were crickets. It's super frustrating because you're left wondering if they even received your application!

My son had same EXACT issue!!!! Applied to like 6 local things and only heard from 1. So rude!!! The worst part is we saw someone else from his school got one he applied for on social media before the organization even announced winners. What a joke the whole system is.

As someone who's served on several local scholarship committees, I can provide some insight. Most small scholarship programs are run by volunteers with limited resources. Unlike the FAFSA system with its automated notifications, smaller scholarships typically only notify winners due to time constraints. However, there's nothing wrong with sending a polite email inquiry to check on your application status. Don't assume rejection until you've confirmed it. For future reference, I recommend your son create a scholarship tracking spreadsheet that includes contact information for each scholarship program. This allows for appropriate follow-up and better organization of the application process. Also, check if these scholarships have social media accounts where they might announce winners.

My daughter went through this last yr. Its SO ANNOYING. She applied for like 15 small scholarships and only heard back from 3 (she won those 3). What we did was call the school guidance office because they usually know which scholarships have been awarded already. Saved us a ton of time vs contacting each scholarship committee directly. Also check local newspaper announcement sections, sometimes they publish the winners there and nowhere else!!!

I've worked extensively with financial aid offices and can tell you that this situation is unfortunately common. While the FAFSA system provides systematic notifications, most smaller scholarship programs operate independently with different notification procedures. I'd recommend taking these steps: 1. Email the scholarship coordinators with a polite inquiry about timeline/status 2. Ask your son's high school counseling office if they've received notification about any local scholarship recipients 3. Check the organizations' websites or social media pages for winner announcements 4. Don't wait on these scholarships to make your final financial decisions It's also worth noting that some scholarships notify schools directly rather than students, so check with the financial aid office at your son's chosen college. They might already have information about scholarships he's been awarded that you don't know about yet.

I dealt with this exact situation last year with my son's scholarships. After weeks of hearing nothing, I was getting frustrated with the FAFSA customer service line - constant busy signals and disconnections when trying to coordinate his scholarships with his aid package. I finally found a service called Claimyr that helped me get through to a real FAFSA agent in about 8 minutes instead of spending hours on hold. They actually connected me with someone who confirmed which scholarships had been reported to them, which helped us figure out which ones he had won. Really helpful - there's a video demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ so you can see how it works. The FAFSA agent was able to tell us which scholarships had been officially reported to them, which was information we couldn't get anywhere else.

Something I learned - if the scholarships are through a community foundation, they sometimes have one big ceremony where they announce ALL their scholarship winners together. My daughter didn't hear anything for months, then suddenly got an invitation to this awards ceremony. So maybe check if any of those scholarships are administered through a community foundation?

WAIT has anyone else noticed the FAFSA SAI calculations are TOTALLY different this year???? My kid's number was like 30% higher than the EFC from last year even though our income only went up like 5%! The whole system is RIGGED!!!

I just wanna say i applied for sm scholarship in high school and like never heard from most!! its super normal dont worry lol. they only tell u if u win something its crazy but thats how it works good luck!!!

While you're waiting to hear back about these scholarships, I recommend reviewing your son's current financial aid package from his chosen school(s). With the higher-than-expected SAI score, you may want to submit a Professional Judgment appeal (sometimes called a Special Circumstances review) to the financial aid office. If your financial situation has changed since the tax year used for FAFSA calculations, or if you have unusual expenses not captured by the FAFSA, this process might help increase his institutional aid offer regardless of these outside scholarships.