Everyone wants to understand how to find college scholarships. The first step is to understand what kind of scholarships you are looking for. Are you going to qualify for need-based educational funding? Or are you going to rely on merit-based aid? Merit-based scholarships may come out of your college directly, or perhaps a private source.
Here's an introduction to how to purchase a variety of kinds of scholarships to help your student lessen the cost of college.
What Kinds of Scholarships Are Available?
The term scholarships is quite broad. You will find scholarships based on financial need, and academic scholarships which are offered to students with excellent grades or top standardized test scores. There are also scholarships for minority students and those who are studying particular subject areas.
Most private or scholarships are designed to counterbalance the price of tuition. There's also “full-ride” awards from colleges that cover the entire cost of attendance: tuition and costs, room and board, along with other educational expenses. Many full-ride scholarships can be found to athletes, but there are several available according to academic performance.
In general, there is no limit to the number of college or private merit scholarships a student can use for and win. Applications (especially for easy private scholarships that do not require an essay) often just take a couple of minutes.
How much merit aid your child needs depends on the price of attendance for that school they're considering. For example, a scholarship worth hundreds of dollars can significantly lower the cost of attending an in-state university. However, your son or daughter may need thousands of dollars in scholarship money to make attendance at an Ivy League school financially feasible.
How can you help your son or daughter decide which scholarships to try to get? The most time-efficient plan is to apply according to a couple of things: monetary amount and eligibility. Encourage your son or daughter to focus on generous awards they have a larger possibility of winning.
1. Scholarship Websites
Thanks to the internet, it is easier to find scholarships than in the past (if you know where you can look). There are many sites that aggregate current scholarships and supply all relevant information. These web sites make it very easy for your child to locate and compare awards quickly.
There's a multitude of scholarships available on most websites. Awards often range anywhere from $100 to thousands of dollars. Some require a detailed application plus a personal essay or other creative contribution. Other medication is more like a lottery drawing and only require students to provide a few personal information to use.
Unfortunately, the internet is also the place to find misinformation and unreliable details about paying for college. Here are some legitimate scholarship websites with trustworthy details about merit scholarships:
- Scholarships.com
- Niche.com
- Fastweb.com
- Cappex.com
- CareerOneStop.org (sponsored through the U.S. Department at work)
Another option is to find lists of scholarships with different specific deadline (e.g. scholarships with deadlines in September, October, November, December, and May). You can also sort available scholarship opportunities by eligibility requirements. For example, you will find scholarships open to senior high school seniors plus some that are available to juniors.
Most scholarship finder sites have links directly to the internet application page for each award.
2. High School Guidance Counselor's Office
High school guidance counselors are often excellent sources of information on how to find merit scholarships. They've already information on plenty of local and institution-specific scholarships that aren't well advertised.
There are some universites and colleges that provide automatic scholarships to students with certain grades or test scores. High school counselors have the data on these types of scholarship grant programs and may help your student understand which of them they're eligible for.
A good senior high school guidance counselor can also help your student figure out which awards would be best to apply for. They can offer information on which scholarships your student would have the best chance of receiving based on their grades, test scores, and extracurriculars.
Counselors will also help your student brush up on their own scholarship applications. Oftentimes, scholarships are awarded according to multiple factors, for example grades, community service, and a personal essay. Some scholarship applications also require recommendations. Your student's counselor can offer tips to craft a credit card applicatoin that maximizes their possibility of winning.
3. Colleges and Universities
Many schools offer their own institutional scholarships. These may be excellent options for students because they might not have as numerous applicants as national scholarship grant programs, meaning less competition. As with other scholarships, institution-based awards can vary in amount from the few $ 100, to thousands.
Some scholarships are based entirely on merit, whereas others also take financial need into account. In case your student is awarded an institutional scholarship, they might need to take certain courses or conserve a good GPA to keep the cash, especially for multi-year awards.
Another benefit of institutional scholarships is they are often open to not only standard undergraduate students. Some schools offer scholarships for nontraditional students. There are also opportunities for graduate students and people pursuing doctoral degrees.
The the best places to get information about institutional merit aid incorporate your student's high school guidance counselor and the university or college itself. You may also make use of a research tool like College Insights to compare the amount of merit aid offered at the possibility schools on your student's college list.
4. State Government
Most people think about the federal government with regards to need-based educational funding. However, many state governments offer scholarships, plus some of these awards are very generous.
Typically, state scholarships are just open to residential students who be eligible for a in-state tuition, but not all awards have this kind of restriction. Some scholarships are awarded based on a mixture of financial need and merit, while others only consider a student's merit.
A large amount of states offer scholarships for college students from underrepresented or minority groups. Other state scholarships are available to students who're studying certain subjects, such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), or those who are pursuing high-need fields (e.g. nursing or teaching).
State-sponsored scholarships can be difficult to find, but there are many good research options:
- High school guidance counselor's office
- Local libraries
- Scholarship websites with advanced searching and filtering features
If you know which state your student intends to study in (or which states they're considering), contact that state's department of education to learn about available scholarship opportunities. You'll find contact information with the U.S. Department of Education.
5. Employers
Many companies offer scholarships or tuition reimbursements to their employees. If your student includes a job, a part-time one, they might be capable of getting some additional money for school from the company they work for.
Sometimes tuition reimbursement funds aren't paid until following the school year or degree program is finished. You need to verify all terms of a course before signing up.
Some companies don't merely offer education advantages to their employees; they likewise have programs for employees' spouses and children. Which means your student may be able to get some college money from your or your spouse's employer. The best place to discover more on these types of programs is from the company's Human Resources department.
6. Local Organizations
Local groups often have private scholarship grant programs, and these could be a great source of college funding. Here are some examples of local organizations that frequently offer college scholarships:
- Veterans' groups (e.g. American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars)
- Churches and religious bodies
- Community centers
- Local (city/county) governments
- City or regional chapters of national clubs (e.g. Elks, Kiwanis International)
One of the best places to begin a scholarship search reaches your neighborhood library. Some organizations advertise their scholarships through libraries, and you may also look through local newspaper archives. Most city and town papers announce the winners of local scholarships each year, so they are a great resource for finding awards and grants obtainable in your region.
7. Google along with other Search Engines
It might seem obvious to use the internet to search for scholarships, but this choice is underutilized by a lot of. Scholarship websites like those in the above list usually aggregate scholarship information from many different sources, but there are many awards that get overlooked.
Some scholarships aren't advertised very well. Spending a little time with specific search phrases can reveal some options not found anywhere else.
This is particularly true of awards provided by private companies. Lots of companies offer scholarships that are open to a lot of students, not just employees' members of the family, however they don't widely advertise these opportunities. For example of companies and organizations that provide scholarships:
- Molson Coors
- DECA
- Microsoft
It's worth making the effort to test few different company names in a search for “<company name> scholarship.” Chances are, you'll find at least several programs your student is entitled to that you might not have known about, particularly when trying to find scholarships from smaller companies.
Conclusion
For most students, scholarships really are a key factor for making college affordable. Spend time comparing potential schools according to attendance costs and merit aid offered. The school Insights tool makes it easy to see key data for each institution. This information can help you and your student select the right scholarships to apply for.