December 2, 2018

Lesson:Applying for the right scholarships requires engaging in an honest self-reflection. Applying for scholarships is a numbers game—the more scholarships for which you apply, the greater the chances of seeing your financial aid tally increase. However, you should prioritize your time by researching and applying for scholarships for which you are a competitive candidate based on your race, gender, socioeconomic background, personal hardships, academic achievement, test scores, dependency status, career aspirations, college major, or gifts and talents.

The following checklist will assist in focusing your time and being prepared to submit high quality scholarship applications:

  • How will scholarships be handled by your college? Colleges have an array of policies for how they apply private scholarships to your educational costs. For example, some colleges will reduce their institutional scholarships and grants for each dollar received from outside scholarships; other colleges will apply outside scholarships toward reducing student loan debt first, then reducing Work-Study obligations, and then reducing institutional scholarships and grants. Contact the financial aid office for your college to confirm their policy aid policy for applying private scholarship money.
  • What is the financial aid gap that you need to close? After understanding the financial aid policy for your college and the amount of unmet financial need, you should be able to estimate how much money you will need to close your financial aid gap. For example, one of our students who received a no-loan financial aid award from Amherst College only needed $3,500 to cover her financial aid gap ($2,500 Work-Study and $1,000 parent contribution). Consequently, any scholarships received beyond this amount would only go to reduce the Amherst College institutional scholarship. Guided by this information, the student focused her scholarship research on identifying $3,500 in scholarships.
  • National Scholarships: Based on the financial aid gap that you need to close, do you need to apply for large national scholarship programs? Will scholarships that exceed your financial aid gap be deferrable to graduate school? Are you a competitive candidate for such scholarships? Review the profiles (i.e., GPA, test scores, class rank, leadership, community service, etc.) of students who are selected for such national scholarship programs as the Coca-Cola Scholarship, Gates Scholarship, Ron Brown, Stamps, Elks Foundation, and other such programs that receive tens of thousands applications. Compare your profile to the profile of winning students to determine your competitiveness.
  • State Scholarships: Identify the state scholarships for which you qualify or have the ability of reaching the qualifying criteria prior to graduating from high school or as a first-year college student.
  • Local Scholarships: Identify the local scholarships for which you qualify and are a competitive candidate, such as:
    • Civic and community organizations such as the Kiwanis Club and Chamber of Commerce
    • Religious organizations such as churches, mosques, and synagogues
    • Businesses such as WalMart, Burger King, Sam’s Club, and McDonald’s
    • Fraternities and Sororities
    • Law Offices
    • City and County scholarships
    • School-based scholarships such as the PTA, clubs, and honor societies
  • Affinity Scholarships: Identify scholarships based on your race, gender, religious background, first generation, personality type, or status as a participant in the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, or Junior Achievement. Your ethic, cultural, socioeconomic, and gender backgrounds can also be used to focus your scholarship search in other areas such as scholarships based on your college major, disability, or special circumstances.
  • Scholarships Based on Your College Major: Identify scholarships based on your college major or career aspirations, such as actuarial science, accounting, music, and engineering.
  • Disability Scholarships: Identify scholarships based on your physical, emotional, or mental disabilities.
  • Special Circumstances Scholarships: Identify scholarships based on such special circumstances as being adopted, a Ward of the State, death of a parent, or having been displaced by a natural disaster (e.g, hurricane, earthquake, wild fires).
  • Special Circumstances of Parents Scholarships: Identify scholarships based on your parent’s employer, or service in the military service, government, or political office.
  • Competition Scholarships: Identify scholarships based on your gifts and talents in such areas as academics, creative arts, visual arts, theatre arts, spoken word, and music.
  • Lottery Scholarships: While the chances are typically slim for winning scholarships with minimum qualifying criteria such as being left-handed, living in Idaho, or owning a pet, all students, no matter their academic achievement level, have a chance of winning.