Tips for Finding Scholarships to Help Pay for Your College Education
Adapted from I'm First Guide to College, by Amy Weinstein
Did you know that scholarships can help you pay for your college education and related expenses? In fact, the more scholarship money you get, the less you will have to pay for tuition, room and board, books, and other expenses. Most importantly, unlike loans, scholarships do not need to be repaid and should be an important park of your financial aid package.
You can find scholarships that are industry specific--those that have to do with science, technology, engineering, the arts, or mathematics. Additionally, there are scholarships if you have overcome challenging life obstacles. There are a number of scholarships available for students who are gifted academically, artistically, athletically, or musically.
Members from the National Scholarships Providers Association (NSPA) give scholarships and are committed to access, choice, and success. They offered the following tips for finding and applying for scholarships:
Start Early
Even before senior year of high school, you should be looking at scholarships applications in order to see what scholarship providers request. It is overwhelming for many students who begin looking at applications after junior year, only to realize they could have been more proactive in their level of involvement both in their school and in their community. Plus, starting early could mean finding scholarships that you could win before senior year to put towards your college tuition. It's never to early to start looking and applying for scholarships!
Look Everywhere
Remember to look for scholarships at your local community foundation! Other sources include high schools, libraries, employers, civic groups, community organizations, private foundations, and online searches. It's worth spending time to complete these applications. Two hours spent completing applications that can get you a $500 scholarship is like getting $250 per hour of effort.
Be Thorough
When searching for scholarships using an online matching service like FastWeb.com or CollegeGreenlight.com, try to complete the profile as thoroughly as possible. Students who answer all of the optional questions on average will match twice as many scholarships as students who only answer the required questions. If you have to pay money to get money, it's probably a scam. Never invest more than a postage stamp to obtain information about scholarships or to apply for scholarships.
Earn It
Scholarships are free, but they require effort on your part. Write the topically specific essays first and see if you can "recycle" some of the language for the general essays. Be thorough and polite. Once you begin applying, make sure to follow the rules of the scholarship. If you don't follow the rules, then you could be disqualified.
Final Helpful Tips
- Some schools will offer scholarship or grant money to students as well! Each school is different and some might require extra essays or an earlier deadline to be eligible for some scholarships. Be sure to look at the websites of the schools you're interested in to see if they have any scholarship opportunities.
- Remember: Some scholarships are from applying through public or private organizations directly, so be sure to check out as many organizations as possible and see how they want students to apply!
- Here are some super cool and big scholarships we've found: http://bit.ly/1I0Ikrl. There are many more out there, but these are some good ones if you don't mind putting in a lot of work for potentially a lot of reward.
- After you've filled out your College Greenlight profile, click on their scholarships tab to see what scholarships best fit you! College Greenlight shows how competitive scholarships are and how much effort they take--it's really cool!
***Complete this quiz to receive College Knowledge points and check out Lesson 8 to earn even more College Knowledge points!***
