I understand this is not the time for getting admission in college. This article will help you prepare you for next years. Try these techniques you will sure to get your Scholarship Money for your study.
It’s not uncommon to start planning for financial aid in your junior year of high school. Don’t be intimidated or scared-off by a private school -- with need and merit based aid you can actually pay less for a private school than a public one. Do not be afraid to ask questions of your parents, teachers, counselors, or principals. You can also call the college you want to attend. The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.
The average annual cost to attend a four-year public college is $8,244, says College Board. For out-of-state students, that number more than doubles ($20,770) – and for private schools, it triples ($28,500). And that’s just tuition. Those numbers don’t include housing, living expenses, or textbooks.
Here are some tips and tricks you can use to help fund your college experience.
1. Use free Scholarship websites
These are free scholarship search sites where a student can find financial aid opportunities. There are scholarship search services that do the work for you, but you have to pay for those. Check out the free sites like www.freescholarship.com and www.fastweb.com.
Check out the free sites
Scholarships.com
CollegeBoard.org
College-Scholarships.com
College Answer
QuestBridge
Scholarship America
FastWeb.com
www.freescholarship.com
2. Use FAFSA - Free Application for Federal Student Aid
This is the student aid form that most colleges and universities use to determine a student’s need-based aid, which can take the form of grants or loans. It takes about 30 minutes to fill this out on-line.
FAFSA - Free Application for Federal Student Aid
3. Check locally and offline
Online searches are a great tool, but your odds of winning nationally competitive scholarships might be lower than less-advertised local ones. Check with local businesses and community-oriented organizations in your area: Rotary clubs, YMCA, Kiwanis, and even churches. High-school and library bulletin boards and well-connected guidance counselors might also be able to clue you in.
Be persistent
While there’s a mind-boggling amount of free money out there, don’t expect it to fall into your lap. Do the legwork and keep checking every semester. Some scholarships aren’t available to freshmen or undecided majors, and new opportunities pop up all the time.
Tap your network.
Chances are your friends are in the same boat as you. Talk to them about sharing scholarship resources. In a few minutes you could easily double, triple, or quadruple your list of scholarships. Also, sharing is caring and some good karma is never a bad thing when you’re trying to win some cash. The trick: Trade with friends that have some similar interests and abilities. This way the scholarships you swap will be a little more qualified.
Athletics and Activities Grants
Are you a gifted hockey player or trumpet player? While you may not earn the coveted full-ride to a Division I school, there may be money at your chosen school that fits your given talent: athletics, music, art or theatre.
Religious Scholarships
Many colleges and universities are affiliated with different churches. Check your church and your prospective colleges for opportunities for faith-based aid.
University Scholarships
Contact the universities you want to attend because each school will have unique scholarship opportunities, deadlines and applications. There are many opportunities, but the cliché holds true -- the early bird gets the worm. These scholarships aren’t strictly based on academics. Some are for students who exhibit leadership or involvement in the community or other high school activities.
Specialty Scholarships
Many big box retailers like Wal-Mart and Lowe’s offer undergraduate scholarships, and your parent’s employer may offer scholarship money to employee’s children.
And there are scholarships based on race, gender, academic interest and even geographic location, so there may be a scholarship that fits your special circumstances. Millions of dollars go unclaimed because students do not realize they are uniquely eligible for certain scholarships.
Target scholarships with simple applications.
There are countless scholarships that require nothing more than an easy sign-up. While these typically have slightly smaller payouts, the benefits can quickly rack up with little time investment. The trick: These are usually very popular and attract many applicants. Use the law of averages and apply to as many as you can. Counting on just one could really limit your chances.
Dedicate at least 30 minutes a day to researching and applying.
It’s key to make time for discovering new opportunities and to actually apply to them. The trick: Don’t not burn yourself out. Just devote a small chunk of time each day and before you know it, money will be coming your way!
Reuse your work
Apply for a few scholarships, and you’ll start to see a pattern. Many want the same information, and essay scholarships may touch on the same themes (especially “tell us who you are and why you want our money”).
While plagiarism is a no-no in college, you can’t plagiarize yourself. Save time by keeping documents you can copy and paste from, and use your Web browser’s autocomplete feature so you don’t have to type in your contact info a billion times. Just make sure to double-check everything.
Check non-academic scholarships
As we already mentioned, there are literally billions of dollars in scholarships out there every year. As we covered in 25 Bizarre Scholarships, many don’t require great grades, test scores, or any kind of performance at all – there are scholarships based on everything from your height to a passion for the science behind wine.
Some of them have such weirdly specific criteria that you might win just by being the only person crazy enough to apply. For instance, there’s a scholarship for Catholics named Zolp. (Name changes won’t work.) So don’t sell yourself short when searching.
At last if you can’t get enough aid
Consider starting at a community college, which charges significantly less than a four-year university and lets you finish core courses before transferring to the school you really want. Just make sure your credits will carry over – ask the transfer schools for an articulation agreement.
You could also try applying to some of the cheapest schools in the country, or the tuition-free schools named in this BusinessWeek article. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new comparison shopping tool might also help.
Some of these scholarships are worth only $500 – not enough to pay for even one class. But every bit counts, especially if the alternative is a high-interest student loan that will take years to pay off. Apply for everything you might qualify for, and there’s no telling how much you might end up with…
Surname scholarships
What’s in a name? Money. Like the Zolp scholarship, the Scarpinato Scholarship gives you a full ride – but this one doesn’t require a conversion to Catholicism. The name can come from birth or marriage, and it’s valid at Texas A&M University. The name Gatling will grant you $9,000 to $18,000 at North Carolina State. Van Valkenburg and variants can net you $1,000 good anywhere, and several names can put you in the good graces of Harvard, including Baxendale, Hudson, and Bright.
Little people, tall people, and Klingon scholarships.
You don’t need to be tall or a sci-fi geek for these: You need to be really short, really tall, or love language. Little People of America gives out annual scholarships of up to $1,000 to those under 4-foot-10 or members of their families. If none apply, the award may also go to anyone with a disability or someone with financial need; the Billy Barty Foundation has a similar scholarship. Tall Clubs International has a similar scholarship for women over 5-foot-10 and men over 6-2. Meanwhile, the Klingon Language Institute not only exists, but it gives out $500 a year to language students who don’t even need “familiarity with Klingon or other constructed languages.” More Trekkie scholarships are out there too. You can even win a $5,000 scholarship for writing about elves - or drawing them.
Tasty scholarships
Getting the $5,000 American Association of Candy Technologists scholarship is like taking candy from a baby – or maybe a robot. You need a “demonstrated interest in confectionery technology” along with a decent GPA and at least sophomore status. And beef is not just for dinner, it’s also for class: The National Beef Ambassador Program awards up to $2,500 if you can give great speeches about the merits of cows – a debate with the winners of the $5,000 Vegetarian Resource Group scholarship is not required. Budding wine connoisseur? Junior-level science majors with no gripes about grapes can go after the American Society for Enology and Viticulture scholarship. Heck, you can even win $25,000 for making a peanut butter sandwich – jelly optional.
Religious scholarships.
Take a vow of poverty and, ironically enough, you could win the Monastic Scholarship at Naropa University. Studying American Buddhism at that school could also get you a $2,500 Frederick P. Lenz scholarship. Pagans aren’t left out either: The Carolina Spirit Quest scholarship is worth $500 for such students who live in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, or Washington, D.C. Hindu students studying business can win up to $10,000 with the Rattan L. Khosa scholarship at the University of Chicago.
•Doing-weird-things scholarships. That’s an awfully broad category, but where else are we going to mention $25,000 scholarships for people who dance for a living or $5,000 scholarships for people who wear Duct tape to prom? What about scholarships for people who compete in national marbles contests? There are $7,500 scholarships for students who drink milk while playing sports, and the Gertrude J. Steppen scholarship for students who don’t drink and don’t play sports. There’s a scholarship for chaste North Carolina girls who live on campus without a car and have no other financial aid. And one that Stacy mentioned in the above video, a $2,000 scholarship for those with a talent for duck-calling.
