Scholarship Options
Undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships are forms of financial aid that help students pay for their education. Unlike college student loans, scholarships and fellowships do not have to be repaid. Hundreds of thousands of scholarships and fellowships from several thousand sponsors are awarded each year.
Generally, scholarships and fellowships are reserved for college students with special qualifications, such as academic, athletic or artistic talent. Awards are also available for college students who are interested in particular fields of study, who are members of underrepresented groups, who live in certain areas of the country or who demonstrate financial aid need.
The best way to search for scholarships and fellowships is to use a personalized search on the internet that compares your background with a database of awards. Only those awards that fit your profile are identified as matches.
There are several free scholarship databases available online. With more than 1.5 million scholarships worth more than $3.4 billion, the internet can be the biggest and best way for the most accurate and most frequently updated scholarship database. If you supply an email address, they will notify you when new awards that match your profile are added to the database. You can even submit an electronic application to some of the scholarships listed on the internet scholarship database, saving you time and money. You can also include a college search and numerous other student financial aid resources.
In addition to the internet scholarship search, you may want to search one of the other free scholarship search sites. It does not take much time to search and it is free. To find small local awards that are not listed in any book or database, look for notices posted on bulletin boards at your school’s guidance office, the public library and outside the financial aid office at nearby colleges and universities.
College alumni and other private scholarship sponsors occasionally establish scholarships with esoteric eligibility requirements, such as a scholarship for left handed college students. Although there are not many of these unusual scholarships, they often attract a lot of attention because of their slightly offbeat nature.
The most prestigious scholarships and fellowships also attract a lot of attention because they are among the most lucrative and competitive awards. Many colleges also offer full tuition academic scholarships.
Average college students often ask whether there are any scholarships available to college students who do not have a 4.0 GPA. There are many scholarships for average college students that focus on qualities besides academic merit. There are also many community service scholarships.
Do not waste your money on fee-based scholarship matching services. You will not get any better information than you can get from the free services available on the Web.
Scholarships that sound too good to be true usually are. Learn how to recognize and protect yourself from the most common scholarship scams. The number one tip: If you have to pay money to get money, it is probably a scam.
It is important to ask the school’s financial aid office about its outside scholarship policy, since this can affect how much you benefit from winning a scholarship if you are receiving need-based student aid.
A portion of your scholarship might be taxable. Usually amounts used for tuition and required fees are tax-free, but you should review the rules to ensure that you report the scholarship correctly.
The most reliable information about the number and amount of scholarships can be found in the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), a statistically representative survey of undergraduate and graduate students conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the US Department of Education.
