Are you stressed out about how you’re planning to pay for college? With the rising costs of tuition, colleges are becoming more expensive. Will tough economic times prevent you from attending and applying to college?
“It doesn’t have to. College is still a smart choice. The options may be tougher to weigh, and students and their families will need to dig a little deeper, but there is still a wide variety of opportunities out there,” said Cheryl Brown, director of undergraduate admissions at Binghamton University.
Scholarships are a great way for students to help pay for their education. A scholarship is a financial grant given to a student by an organization or school to help pay for their education. In simpler terms, it’s free money for school.
There are many places to find scholarships. On the internet, there are scholarship search engines that help. Scholarships.com and fastweb.com are two examples.
Fastweb.com, the oldest online scholarship matchmaker, gives students a list of schools matching their preferences and a profile on each school. In addition each school’s applications and scholarships are available. Scholarships.com allows students to create a profile and find scholarships based on academics, talents and interests.
According to bookrags.com, millions of scholarships go unused each year. Some of these unused scholarships suffer from lack of publicity. Others have few applicants because of lack of interest or qualifications, for example the Student Inventors Scholarship.
Merit based scholarships are awarded to students with academic achievement. They are given based on GPA, SAT, and ACT scores. The Walton Family Foundation Scholarship, which is administered by the Wal-Mart Foundation, awards a $3,000 scholarship based a high school grade point average of at least 2.5 on a 4-point scale.
Furthermore, Need-based scholarships are given to low income families that are financially unable to pay for school.
Also, universities and colleges award athletic scholarships to promising high school athletes. To obtain an athletic scholarship, one must have the interest of a coach from a university. According to college-athletic-scholarships.com, you can be sought after by a coach or contact a coach yourself. If you choose to take the latter route, you should create a resume which includes your relevant statistics, varsity experience, awards won, current coach’s name and full contact information, as well as GPA, ACT and/or SAT scores, and any honors or AP courses you may have taken.
“A college coach will not recruit any athlete without good grades,” said physical education teacher Mr. Dennis Barrett.
There are also scholarships given to students by the school they are attending, which vary greatly based on each school. Schools often receive grant money from federal organizations to give to their students.
“Long Island University gave me my first scholarship for academic achievement. I was surprised and pleased that a school wanted me enough to offer me money to go there,” said senior Winsome Cheung.
And there are lesser-known scholarships and unusual scholarships given to those that qualify. These include scholarships for being left-handed, gay, tall, or even drinking milk on a regular basis. For example, the Scholar Athlete Milk Mustache of the Year award goes to ‘graduating high school senior scholar athletes’ that send in
photographs of their milk mustaches while the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America gives scholarships to students that are being treated for allergies or asthma.
An important tip when applying for scholarships is to start your search early and applying before the deadline. If you start early, you should have plenty of time to prepare your information and submission requirements to an organization. For instance, the deadline to register and submit your essay for Do Something Awards is March 1, 2010. One should read the qualifications carefully to be able to qualify. And as always, have someone review your work before submitting it.
“Students should be proactive in researching scholarships they may be eligible for as early as summer ‘10 for juniors,” said guidance counselor Mrs. Marie Pastena.
Although many scholarships are competitive, don’t be discouraged. Every student is unique and has an equal opportunity at scholarships.
However, be on the lookout for scholarship scams. Scholarships that say they are “guaranteed” or require an application fee are most likely scams. Being a finalist for a scholarship you never applied for is also most likely a scam. As always, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
