Scholarships

Scholarship:   A grant or payment made to support a student’s education, awarded on the basis of academic or other achievement.   Students often think that because they are not academically strong that they cannot qualify for scholarships.  While test scores and grade point averages do play a role in earning scholarships, notice that the end of the definition reminds us that scholarships are awarded on “other” achievements as well.

Even small scholarships add up fast!

Many organizations receive tax breaks for awarding scholarships and companies want to be strong supporters of education, so they come up with lots of creative ways to determine scholarship eligibility.

The key to obtaining scholarships is often just legwork which means you need to start early – as early as 7^th grade for some scholarships. Of course, if you currently have a high school senior or even a college student, it’s never too late to start.

There are several scholarship search engines on the internet and you may already have your favorite.  One of my favorites is Fastweb.  Log on, set up an account, fill out a profile questionnaire and they will let you know what scholarships you may possibly qualify for nationwide.   It’s a good idea to set up a separate e-mail account for your scholarships searches.  Organizations often use scholarship applications as a data mine and you can find yourself inundated with e-mails.

The key, though, is not necessarily in having a great search engine that will find you scholarships – the key is to actually do the legwork and APPLY for the free money!   I often tell students that they need to make a habit of applying for at least two scholarships every month (even during the summer).  So, I’ll say it again: Start early.

You will find that many scholarships ask the student to write an essay.  Don’t groan and pass up on these opportunities.  The essays are usually not very long and you may already have a similar essay stored in your computer already.  Think about it this way – if it takes you four hours to write the essay and the payment is $1000 – you’ve just earned $250 per hour.  Not a bad deal!

But alongside those essay scholarships, you will find many other, often unusual, ways to qualify for scholarships.  Some will be based on your creative talents, some based on volunteer hours, others may look at ancestry or what you have chosen as a field of study.

A true scholarship will be paid out once a student has been accepted at a college and the check will usually be made payable to both the student and the institution.  Many scholarships, however, will award the money now – which means it will be your responsibility to save the funds for college.  Any monies not applied to tuition will be taxable.

Here’s a short list of scholarships that are currently available.  And check back from time to time.  It will be my goal to occasionally post available scholarships.  Meanwhile, don’t wait – check out these websites now:

Common Knowledge Scholarship

Digital Innovation Scholarship

$2000 No Essay Scholarship

Added October 2017 – Best Mattress Scholarship

~to your success!

Joanne

(Image courtesy of nuchylee at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)