College Scholarships – 6 Facts You Didn’t Know About Scholarships for Students
Many financial experts believe that the next great finance bubble is in the secondary education sector. Costs to attend college, both at public and private universities, both at 2 year and 4 year schools, both at non-profit and for profit colleges, are skyrocketing at a rate well above wage inflation. With this bubble showing no signs of popping, parents can expect the costs of their children’s education to continue to rise for the foreseeable future. As such, the opportunity to obtain scholarships has never been more important. Getting scholarships can be critical to a student’s future well being as scholarships not only save money in the present, but also prevent funds from being needed via student loans, which saddle students with debt for a large portion of their lives.
Some parents and students may not think that scholarships are too hard to obtain or that they have accomplished enough to earn a scholarship. This probably is not the case. Here are six ways to obtain scholarships that the reader may not be aware of:
1) Every year, thousands of scholarships go unclaimed for the reason that nobody applies because their existence is not advertised. There are examples at nearly every university. Students should visit their financial aid office and pester the attendant to see what scholarships are available.
2) Building on the previous example, there are numerous scholarships available for smaller amounts ($250 and less). Many students think that only scholarships in the thousands are worth going after. But who would not take $100 of free money if it were available? Not only does every little bit help, but these scholarships can also be stacked and combined to pay for a greater percentage of tuition as a whole.
3) Social media is a great tool for finding national scholarships. Users would be surprised as to the number of options that are available via a simple Twitter or Facebook search of the word “scholarship.” Many of these scholarships are not posted elsewhere.
4) There are some strange scholarship options available. Most people are not aware groups like Tall Clubs International offer very specific scholarships (in this case, for tall people). Everybody is weird and different in some way. Students should focus on those more unique aspects of their lives and see if any clubs or organizations that value people with those aspects or interests are offering scholarships. Odds are that they do.
5) Grants are not scholarships…but they provide the same benefits. Scholarships are based around some aspect of accomplishment, or potential for future accomplishment. People who offer the scholarship want to be associated with the student’s future success. Grants are essentially free money that is available based upon one’s background. For example, many people with Native American heritage are eligible for grants.
6) Many businesses offer huge numbers of small value scholarships. Discover Card is one of the highest profile examples of this. Like #2, these can be combined with other scholarships and students can find a large amount of their school paid for via a handful of different sources.
The most important thing to realize is that you have to ask for them! The only way to ensure that you will pay for your own school is to never apply for a scholarship.
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