The other day I finally did something that I have foolishly not done for many years- I finally applied for an award/scholarship or as some would call it, “free money.” It’s funny because Ramit Sethi wrote about how some people think there’s a limited amount of money and when I read the article it hit me that I am one of those people, sorry Ramit.
Since today is really the first time that I’m diving into the topic of college scholarships all I will do is share some important facts about the “free money” that is known as a college scholarship:
Scholarships for college students are everywhere
Free money for college seems like a revolutionary idea but it really isn’t. Once I opened my eyes to how accessible college scholarships are I started noticing them everywhere. My work has a scholarship available, a few small businesses in the area have scholarships, the local branch of my bank has a scholarship, and there are many other places offering scholarships for college students.
Your College Scholarship Doesn’t Have to be an Academic Scholarship
Besides the obvious athletic scholarship, your scholarship does not have to be all about your grades. Many college students worry about applying for scholarships because they think that since they don’t have a 4.0 GPA then they won’t make the cut. One thing that I found while looking through the list of scholarships/awards offered at my University I realized that there are many different categories: scholarships for students that work full time, for students of every different major, for students that pursue entrepreneurial ventures, and many more.
The College Scholarship Essay Is Worth The Time & Effort
I will be completely upfront here and tell you guys that whenever I saw that a scholarship had an essay to write I immediately changed my mind about the whole college scholarship. That’s a horrible way of looking at it because the time invested into the essay could be worth thousands of dollars. If the college scholarship company is willing to give you anywhere from $1000 to $20,000 then they why not write an essay that will take you an hour? It takes most college students hundreds of hours of work to earn that much money, so an hour or so doesn’t seem that bad. Worst case scenario is you don’t get the scholarship and you use the essay for your next application.
The take home point is that I do not care how busy you claim you are this summer or any other excuse you come up with- I want every college student reading this right now to apply for a scholarship before September rolls around. When you do please share your experiences here in the comments section!
photo: Hikingartist
{ 1 trackback }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I found out all about college scholarships at thevirtualcollege.tk, which is a huge online college fair representing hundreds of us colleges. You can read through the site and also ask questions. There is no charge to access the site.
Many people are trying for scholarships. Sure there are millions of them out there. However, it might be the time to try other approaches in locating scholarships. These methods are free, too. First, try the high school guidance office. It has a list of local scholarships for current high school students. Second, the public library has a book listing scholarships with some not even listed on the web. Finally, try the college’s financial aid office. It has a list of private scholarships offered from outside organizations and companies. Sometimes a college major will list scholarships on its website too.