Littlemiss: The answer to your question will be different depending on what community you live in. For me, although it was really hard to write all the essays, I have a very unique background because I went to public school, did ncsy, became a baal teshuva, transferred to a local bais yaakov, and my family isn’t so wealthy. So depending on your background and where you live, it might not be possible to get a full scholarship. However, the key thing is to search online.
If you know that you are going to a Jewish College after your year in seminary, then I do not recommend participating in an Israel experience program unless fafsa allows you to get grants instead of loans/ nothing. Otherwise, you could be spending $2,000 on a program for a transcript to be in debt.
Also, most seminaries have some sort of scholarship or work study fund that can help a bit as well.
Nanny: I was never a straight a student, and I even got a D in a class and a bunch of C on my transcript and although that meant I could not apply for the merit scholarship from my federation, people that ask you to send in a transcript usually also look at other factors such as essays, and possibly interviews- if applicable.
There are also scholarships that I don’t know about for other communities because I live in the midwest, but there are probably funds available from places that have paper applications as well.