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Hello. We think we know you. You are a good student, maybe even a great or fabulous student. You are looking forward to going to college. Or, more likely, you are in your senior year and getting organized for the full court press of getting into the college of your choice and getting the financial aid you need to be sure you and your family can afford this next step of your education.
It’s pretty exciting and more than a little nerve-wracking. You’re already dealing with the pressures of your high school career and they are significant, we know. The process of getting ready, getting into and paying for college is a very big extra project in your already crowded life.
You may be reading this website because you’ve already concluded that you will apply for scholarships. Or, the question of whether or not to apply for scholarships may not have an obvious answer for you yet. Either way, it’s sensible to read our website and get the facts about scholarships as well as the best advice we can offer about how to succeed in winning scholarships.
We will spend time in this website explaining how college funding works, the types of scholarships available, how to find them and how to apply for them. That’s pretty standard issue for a website about scholarships, although we think if you’ll pardon us saying so, that we’ve done an excellent and job of being comprehensive and readable. Here’s what’s different.
We know that the path to success in earning scholarships has approximately three parts. (This process is hardly so simplistic that anyone should presume to do more than approximate the components.)
You must to be able to organize and prioritize
We will show you what must be organized and how to do it. Then, we will show you how to decide what the high priority items are and how to treat them in a high priority way.
You must be able to write about a variety of topics that may or may not be exciting to you in a fluid and thoughtful way, demonstrating that you are a scholar or would like to be a scholar.
This may be the most difficult part about becoming a successful scholarship winner. However, we know that with some help, you can do it.
You must understand yourself well enough to create a compelling portrait of who you are. You must understand your audience well enough to be able to position your skills and strengths as deserving of their support.
Knowing yourself takes more work than writing down a list of extracurricular activities. We will help you learn how to find the “method behind the madness” of your life and present it in a winning way. Why? Because scholarship committees award funding to candidates they can understand and relate to and who distinguish themselves from other candidates by their ability to communicate their special-ness.
Should you apply for scholarships? We think so. Why? Beyond the obvious fact that every extra dollar can help you and your family, the scholarship process is also a way to develop the winning skills that will serve you well in whatever you do in your life. The ability to organize, prioritize, write well, match message to audience and most of all, know yourself, are gifts you should give yourself as soon as possible. Use this website and the scholarship process to get yourself ready for the rest of your life.
By the way, if you happen to be a parent reading this website, please encourage your son or daughter to look for scholarships, following our approach. Just think how much smoother their path will be if they hone these skills now, before they leave your nest. If you’re reading this website we know we don’t really need to say this but we’ll do it anyway. They’ll need your help and support.
Scholarships are the ideal form of student aid, as they're basically gifts that never have to be repaid. On the other hand, student loans must be repaid, but they're made at very low interest rates, and you're usually you're not required to begin repayment until six months after you graduate. Some student loans require you to prove financial need, but some of them don't. Many students turn to student loans as a method to pay for college. Basically, if you cannot get access to the free money you have to borrow it in the form of a student loan.
Mission Statement of Website:
The goal of this website is to educate students about scholarship access and the necessary requirements for achieving maximum financial aid. In addition, we provide our information free of charge to help students avoid scholarship scam artists and misleading authors who promise "secrets" to what is essentially publicly available information.
Contact Email: [email protected]
Please note all the materials found on this website are 2005 copyrighted and protected by Pza donation
Types of Scholarships Available
Scholarships originate from a variety of sources. This page will help you understand who awards scholarships and why they support college education through this specialized funding. College-Specific Awards
Colleges often have scholarship money available that is used to develop the financial package offered to an applicant who has been granted admission. These scholarships are available under a variety of terms that may include maintaining a certain GPA, pursuing a specific major, etc.
Athletic Scholarships
Many, many athletes dream of going to college on an athletic scholarship. It’s possible to achieve that dream, but these scholarships are highly competitive and the application process is a world unto itself. Awards are made through colleges and applying for an athletic scholarship is akin to marketing yourself for a starring movie role. If you are interested in winning an athletic scholarship, go immediately to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) website and begin reading as fast as you can.
According to the NCAA,
Athletic scholarships for undergraduate student-athletes at Division I and Division II schools are partially funded through the NCAA membership revenue distribution. These scholarships are awarded directly by each academic institution and not the NCAA. About $1 billion in athletic scholarships are awarded each year. Over 126,000 student-athletes receive either a partial or full athletic scholarship. Division III schools offer only academic scholarships. They do not offer athletic scholarships.
Second, contact the financial aid office of the school you hope to attend. They should have lots of information about available awards.
Third, find and read detailed information about the process of winning athletic scholarships. You might start with the site, www.collegesportsscholarships.com, created by an athlete and his dad to help other athletes understand the scholarship process. It’s all free and it looks like a good starting point. Also, The Arkansas Scholarship Connection, www.arkansasscholarshipconnection.org, provides a lot of good, free information.
Academic Awards
These merit-based scholarships are awarded by your college for academic achievement. Inquire about these awards at your school’s financial aid office though you may not even have to apply for an academic award; they are often wrapped into the financial aid package offered by the college, based on your college application.
Departmental Awards
Specific departments may have scholarships available to attract or retain student in the department’s field of study. If you know what your major will be, contact that department to inquire about scholarships.
Private Organizations
There are thousands of private organizations that offer scholarship awards, ranging from $50 to $20,000 and more. Within the “private” category there are many types of organizations to consider.
Corporations
Corporations offer scholarships to attract and retain employees, support the communities where the business is located and encourage entrants into the business’ field of work. These are often the scholarships that go unawarded for lack of applicants.
Search for corporation scholarships by checking with your parents’ employers for possible programs, researching businesses in your region and searching your newspaper’s archives for award announcements. You may have a much greater chance of receiving a private corporation award because geographic, employment and other restrictions narrow the number of candidates.
Religious Organizations
Religious organizations often award scholarships to help their members afford the cost of college. If you and your family are affiliated with a specific religious group, check with your local group about the availability of scholarships.
Unions
Unions are a major source of scholarship funds. The AFL-CIO website offers a scholarship search service related to union-sponsored scholarships that includes $4,000,000 in available funds.
High School or School District
Your high school may offer scholarships to graduating students. Your high school guidance counselor can provide information about availability.
Chamber of Commerce
Chambers often have scholarship programs and they can be great sources of information about which businesses in your community offer scholarships.
Other Private Organizations
The ubiquitous category “other” is really the mother lode of scholarship opportunities. There are thousand of scholarships available, given by organizations who wish to further their mission by supporting the education of students. This category of scholarships is the reason for using a web search engine to identify suitable opportunities in this vast universe of money offers.
The Military
The military is a well-known source of college scholarships. The Air Force ROTC program can pay up to full college tuition plus a stipend for books. Military scholarships are awarded in return for a tour of duty with the branch of the military supporting your education. Be sure you’re prepared to fulfill the terms of your scholarship agreement. If the prospect of military service fits with your goals, a military scholarship may be an excellent way for you to underwrite your college education.
Use the military link at www.student.gov to locate the sites that you should search for military scholarships, including special scholarships for veterans.
State and Federal Sources of Financial Aid Funds
The federal government provides $33 billion in grant aid to post-secondary education students annually. The aid comes in several forms:
Need-based federal aid:
Federal Pell Grants
Federal Subsidized Stafford Loans Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants Federal Work Study Perkins Loans Financing options:
Federal PLUS loans (also known as Direct Plus Loans)
Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loans (Also known as Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans) Other parent loans Alternative Student Loans In order to receive a grant from the federal program, your college must qualify to administer these grants. Check with your school’s financial aid department to be sure your school is a qualified participant. The internet site where you can fill out your “Free Application for Federal Student Aid”, (FAFSA), http://www.fafsa.ed.gov, provides great information about federal grant programs.
Another excellent site is www.student.gov. Click on their scholarships link and you will find a glittering array of scholarship possibilities from many different federal agencies.
Check with your state’s higher education authority to see what kind of assistance is available. Many states provide excellent scholarships and grants and often have special categories of award for women going back to school, minorities, and people with disabilities. Be sure to follow all application procedures and deadlines. Many colleges will not make up for state grants lost to students though late applications. Additionally, many states and private colleges administer need-based institutional funds which help round out financial aid awards.
Information Overload
The categories described on this page represent thousands of scholarships and billions of dollars in financial aid. Your job is to make your way through the maze of information and options and in doing so, create a scholarship application plan that gives you the highest probability of success with the best scholarship matches available.
Judging the Scholarship Application The judging of scholarship applications may appear to be a mysterious black box. Frankly, that’s true to a certain extent not because there’s a conspiracy of secrecy but because the judging process varies widely based upon the organization’s goals in making the award, the availability of paid staff and judges, traditions and policies, timeframe for rendering decisions and so on. Variations aside, the evaluation of scholarship applications does have some generalizable characteristics.
The Winnowing Process
In agriculture, the winnowing process separates the chaff (undesirable) from the wheat (desirable) by thrashing the stalks. The scholarship application winnowing process will probably feel like a thrashing as well.
Scholarship funds receive many, many more applications than they can possibly fully consider. Therefore, the first step in the judging process is to eliminate as many non-qualifying applications as possible. This strategy reduces the application volume to a more manageable size.
The first cut may well be “the unkindest cut of all”. Here is where all of you “triple checker” personalities will soar above your colleagues who take a more casual approach to life and, possibly scholarships. Incomplete applications are the first to go. It is not uncommon for an administrative staff person to compare your application to a checklist of initial criteria such as “all blanks on the form filled in,” “no spelling errors” and reject any applications that don’t meet these initial screens. Just think, you spent hours perfecting that essay, more hours gathering letters of recommendation, more hours assembling the documents, attaching them to the application in the correct order and it gets thrown out because of the word “admissoin” (sic).
Laura DiFiore, founder of FreSchl, makes a frightening claim in her article, “Judging Scholarships, Part I”. According to Ms. DeFiore, up to 90% of applications are eliminated in the first review. It’s a breathtaking statistic that is borne out by other funders as well. There’s a message here. Pay attention to detail. Get help to review your application.
The good news in this somewhat distressing information is that even though you may not have the best GPA in the pile or the longest list of extracurricular activities, if you’re a good proofreader, you have a tremendous advantage working for you.
Selecting the Players
The first phase was painful but fast. You have now made it to the second phase where the hot light of scrutiny burns brighter. Now your application will be compared to others and the ranking will begin.
The participants in this round of judging will probably include paid staff and some or all of the judges. If academic achievement is important, evaluators may compare GPAs and eliminate any below a particular cutoff point. For example, the scholarship eligibility criteria listed a GPA of 3.0 or better to qualify. However, if there are plenty of good candidates with a GPA of 3.6 or better, the otherwise good candidate with a GPA of 3.4 may be scratched. The criteria and intensity of scrutiny varies with the goals of the scholarship, the number of awards made and, sometimes, the temperament of the evaluator. The inescapable purpose of this review is to eliminate more applicants.
Note well, however, that many scholarships do not rely heavily on GPAS and SATs as their criteria.
As we spoke with funders about how they judged applicants, a clear message came through about making it to the finalist round. That message is to demonstrate that you are a unique person that the judges can relate to and feel confident will be worthy of their award.
Joshua Barsch, president of Straight Forward Media and originator of the Dale Fridell scholarship, makes an interesting observation. His organization received 25,000 applications for their one $500 scholarship. This scholarship does not require a minimum GPA or reporting of SAT scores; it simply asks the applicant to explain why they should receive the award based on need and work ethic. According to Josh, 80 - 85% of the essays were functionally identical, i.e., a laundry list of activities and scores. Those applicants were eliminated. The judges looked for the essays that introduced them to a real person who had real feelings and real problems that he or she had overcome. The message here is to be authentic.
Selection of the Winner(s)
You have survived the neatness and accuracy cut. Your measurable attributes rank in the top 1-10% or so. Now the competition begins in earnest. This is the time that judges begin to look carefully at who is presenting him or herself for this scholarship. Does your package of academic success, extracurricular activities, leadership skills and achievements add up to a person worthy of their financial support?
This process is inherently subjective. Like anyone, judges will gravitate towards more likable candidates. They are much more likely to champion your cause if they can understand you and really sense that you have something valuable to offer that will be enhanced by support of your college education. Dottie Theriaque of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, says that the more insight about yourself that you provide to the judges, the greater your opportunity for selection.
This final stage may include judges picking personal favorites and arguing their merits to the panel, taking votes and re-votes. Finally, the winners will emerge. If you have followed the steps carefully, you may find yourself in the winner’s circle.
Take Heart
Not every competition is so brutal. Anne Lazaroney, Guidance Counselor at Berlin High School in upstate New York, notes that when her high school judge panel looks at applicants, their goal is to help everyone. They work to spread the scholarships across as many people as possible and use the amount of money awarded as the way to reward academic achievement and community service.
It’s true that insight into the judging of scholarship applications can be a bit demoralizing. The chances of failure are much greater than the chances of success. However, keep in mind:
Understanding the process gives you an immediate and important edge over those who are slapping together an application without having done any research.
There are many ways to increase the probability of success. Read on to find more tools for improving your opportunity for a scholarship award. Preparing the Application
Filling out the scholarship application is a fact of life when seeking scholarships. Unfortunately, there is no generic form or format; each scholarship fund has its own methods and information needs. Some scholarships such as The Annual Signet Classic Scholarship Essay Contest offers no application form at all; submissions are accompanied by a letter with a required set of information. You should plan to spend 10-15 hours per scholarship application. This estimate includes gathering materials, filling out application, preparing the package and writing a short essay.
Now it’s time to add efficiency to your skills because the preparation of scholarship applications is something of a production line process where efficiency will save you time and help you avoid errors.
High Demand Materials
Obtain or create a number of copies of materials that will be requested over and over again. Frequently requested documents might include transcripts, financial aid forms or copies of tax returns, resumes, letters of recommendation or photographs. Your efficiency in preparing scholarship packages will be astronomically enhanced by being able to simply pluck the requested documents from the document holders filed in your scholarship three ring binder.
Multi-Tasking
In most cases, applying for a scholarship means writing an essay. Look for opportunities to use those scholarship essays to fulfill class requirements as well. If you need to write an essay for your government course, you might as well write on the topic of “a current elected public official in the United States, who is acting courageously to address a political issue at the local, state, national, or international level”. Then you can submit your homework assignment to “The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest”. Or, if you need to read a book and write a report on some aspect of the reading, plan to read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde and submit your book report to the “Annual Signet Classic Scholarship Essay Contest”.
We particularly appreciate the requirements of the “The CollegeProwler Essay Competition”. This competition requires that you submit up to three college application essays that you have already written and submitted. Now that’s a great example of the power of reuse, recycle.
The Scholarship Cover Letter
The application cover letter conveys the package from you to the funding organization. It is one more opportunity to demonstrate professionalism and knowledge of appropriate business etiquette.
If possible, make a determination to whom the letter should be addressed. Be sure you have that individual’s name and title spelled correctly. Avoid using either, “Dear Sir” or Dear Madam”.
In the body of the letter, express your pleasure at the opportunity to submit your application for the specific award you are seeking. It’s always useful to add a sentence praising the work or the mission of the funding organization.
Close the letter by expressing your enthusiasm for participating in the process and always thank the recipient for their time and consideration.
Forms and Documents
The scholarship application form introduces you to the judges. You need to make that introduction as crisp and business-like as possible.
Make copies of the application form so that you can create a working draft. Use that draft to complete the final application form.
Type the application form if at all possible. Don’t use fancy fonts; stick with standard business fonts like Times New Roman or Arial. Legibility and neatness are extremely important. Your application can be eliminated if it cannot be easily read.
Put your name on every page of the application. Many funds prefer that applications be free of staples so they are easier to photocopy or distribute. That means there is the potential for parts of your application to become lost. Placing your name on every page gives your application a fighting chance of being reconstituted if a page or two gets waylaid during the process.
Answer every question. If you don’t believe that a question applies to you, don’t leave it blank – it could be judged incomplete. Don’t mark the question N/A, not applicable. The evaluators may have a different point of view on its applicability and can disqualify you for failing to complete the form. Instead, answer the question if you can. If the question is truly not applicable, write a sentence that describes your situation. For example, if the question is, “What is your military history?” it is preferable to write “I have never served in the military” rather than leave it blank or write N/A.
Check, check and re-check for typos. Enlist help in this review. It is very hard to proof read your own material. Inevitably, your mind’s eye reads what you thought you wrote, not what actually made it onto the page. A fresh reader will catch the words that you missed and find the spelling problems.
If there is one thing we learned from speaking with funders, it is that simple errors will remove you from the competition much more quickly than listing too few club activities. Even if you are not class valedictorian or community volunteer of the year or a survivor of some horrific circumstances with a heroic story to tell, you can still be in the finalist round by being sure you spelled the name of the scholarship fund correctly and attending to all of the other minor details that will make your application perfectly correct and therefore worthy of consideration.
Place the requested documents in the package in the order that they are requested. This consistency makes it easier for evaluators to locate information. It’s also simpler for you to check the documents against the list of requirements.
Do not add documents that have not been requested. There are many scholarship guides in the press that encourage you to add additional materials as a way for you to show your creativity and make your application unique. Judging by the available data, if you create an error-free, neat and timely application package, you will have already distinguished your application as unique. Additional materials:
Give the impression that you think the funders don’t really know what they need;
Can disqualify you in some competitions; Makes your application more difficult to manage and consequently more likely to be eliminated. Some advice givers swear by the “additional material” strategy. We don’t. You are better served by focusing on making your application shine, using the structure requested by the funder.
Do not staple documents together unless directed to do so. It is always reasonable to use paper clips to keep materials tidy. Do not place the application in a special folder unless directed to do so. The place to be creative and innovative is in the preparation of your essay. When preparing the applications, just follow the directions you are given.
Make a complete copy of the application before you send it. Don’t skip the transcript or the financial aid statement because you know those are included; it is always important to have a complete record of everything you send the funder in exactly the form it was received by the funder.
Use an envelope that will hold your application without folding it. As a matter of presentation, the application will look better without creases. Send the application “return receipt requested” or use a delivery service like FedEx that allows you to track the package’s path and verify who signed for it. In this way you will have proof that the application was received by the organization. If you do not receive verification within the appropriate length of time, follow up. You won’t have a chance at the scholarship if the application never makes it to the in-box.
The Bottom Line
The scholarship application is a paper model of you. Make sure your application is professional and compelling.
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