Uncovering Scholarship Money

Scholarships are only for super-intelligent and seriously athletic kids, right?

Well, yes and no.

Academic and sports scholarships are some of the most widely known and sought-after scholarships, but there are plenty of other scholarships based entirely on other things. Enough money to pay for school can be found even if your child isn't class valedictorian or a star quarterback.

If students look hard enough for the money, they'll find it.

What you and your child shouldn't be looking for is a single, big scholarship that will cover tuition (or more) for four years. Instead, change your way of thinking and look for as many small scholarships as your child can qualify for. Many corporations, charities, companies, and other organizations offer small scholarships ranging from several hundred to a couple thousand dollars each.

Considering how expensive a college education is, that may not sound like much. But what if your child were able to land twenty or more scholarships, each averaging a thousand dollars? His or her entire education could be paid for.

Millions of dollars of scholarship money goes unclaimed each year for one simple reason: no one applied for it. Your child can be the one who snags the opportunity.

So how do you get smaller scholarships?

Plan Ahead
During ninth or tenth grade (or earlier!), students should be thinking ahead to the kinds of things they'll need to include in a scholarship application. They won't be applying until eleventh or twelfth grade, but a lot of what will get them noticed by scholarship committees will be the activities they're involved in before that.

Encourage them to be part of school programs, look for leadership opportunities, join school clubs, do extracurricular activities, participate in service organizations and honor societies, or do anything else they might be interested in. Keep track of awards they receive, whether they're from scouting, the PTA Reflections contest, or a team or club. Remind them of the importance of recording all their major accomplishments and leadership roles, including club leaders, Church leadership (such as Laurel president), and any other noteworthy experience they have during high school.

Keep a running file of these kinds of items. Your student might not use them all, but he or she won't know for sure until it's time to fill out those applications.

Since a lot of scholarships are based on geography, race, gender, industry interest, and talent, students should also know to jot down anything about themselves that a specific scholarship might look for. They don’t want to miss out on a scholarship aimed at students in the Northwest, or one for students wanting to go into computer animation, or one for female students of Asian descent, if any of those things apply!

Creating Themes
When it's time to fill out the applications, your child should pull out his or her file of activities and accomplishments. They should try to find patterns, such as service projects, leadership, ethnic identity, or interests and talents (athletics, science, music, etc.). These will be themes for scholarship applications.

Now students should expand on these themes by writing three solid examples for each one. Each example should describe their actions and accomplishments within that theme. The running file will be useful for ideas.

Examples need to be specific. "Participated in a Sub-for-Santa event" is pretty vague. For a student's participation, that could mean anything from donating a dollar to coordinating the entire event. However, "Spent 45 hours coordinating 15 high school students in a Sub-for-Santa drive, raising $2,400" is much more specific - and impressive.

When describing Church youth callings, they'll need to put the callings in terms that will make sense to members of a scholarship committee, who will not likely be Latter-day Saints. But even if a scholarship committee member knows what a "Laurel" is or what a "priests quorum secretary" does, describing the actual activities and accomplishments will come across better.

Again, callings should be described in actions. Instead of, "Laurel president for 10 months," the following works much better: "For 10 months, acted as president of church girls' group consisting of 8 young women ages 16 and 17. Helped plan and carry out weekly activities that included life skills and community service."

But students should try to be even more specific than that - what specific weekly activities, life skills, and community service projects were they involved in? How did they plan it? How many hours went into a specific service project? The more concrete their examples, the more likely they are to nab that scholarship.

Letters of Recommendation
Many scholarships ask for letters of recommendation from teachers, employers, or other adults who know the student well. In order to meet application deadlines, students should be sure to ask for the letters well in advance so the writers have plenty of time to return them.

Reuse Materials
Over and over students will find scholarship applications asking for similar items: letters of recommendations, themes, essays, transcripts, test scores, etc. Many of these can be used in several applications, especially if they're kept in computer files that your child can simply print out again. Those things students can't make computer copies of should be photocopied several times and kept on hand.

Finding the Scholarships
Locating scholarships can be tricky if you don't know where to look. Here are a few places to start searching:

Start local.
Ask businesses, radio stations, rotary clubs, etc., in your own community. You might find a small company with a scholarship that's gone unawarded for years.

Spread the word.
Tell family, friends, co-workers, teachers, and neighbors that you're looking for scholarships - and that no scholarship is too small. Someone might come back with a little-known award through his or her employer or some other avenue that you never would have known about otherwise.

Use your student's school counseling office.
Many have binders full of scholarship information. Academic counselors can point your child toward other resources.

Search scholarship directories.
Bookstores and libraries have many such directories available every year, such as How to Go to College Almost for Free, by Ben Kaplan.

Use online scholarship search engines.
Search for "scholarship search engines" and you'll find many great sites. Your student can input scholarship criteria, and the engine will come up with applicable scholarships.

Warning: No reputable organization or website will ever ask you to pay for providing scholarship information. Do not pay a person or website to hunt for you. Chances are you won't get enough funding to pay for their fees, let alone to pay for school.

Don't let your child put off planning for college. And remember that grades aren't everything. If students want to find money for school, it's there for the taking.

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Scholarships for Adult Learners

RandyLynn in New Orleans, LA

Can anyone share their experience or expertise on adult learners ability, or lack of, to acquire scholarships funds?

uncovering scholarship money

frostfire in arizona

These articles only do a service for one set of students and parents. Talking about being aware while a kid is in 9th grade does no good when they've already graduated and finally gotten the bug to be responsible! We need an article that will help us AFTER a child has been working OR gone to school on their own and realized how "painful" the tuition is on their pocketbooks. THAT would be helpful.

Another Adult Re-entering School

Debora in Castro Valley, CA

Thank you for the information. I also was wondering if someone could provide any tips for adults returning to school. I am a single mother of two adult children, one with autism and the other in college, and have recently started an MBA program after being out of work for 6 months. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Scholarship Money

Christie in Poway

I agree with the other 2 comments. My grandson was ill and not able to attend high school or do projects for 2 yrs. and had to be careful in his Sr. year. He did have a home tutor for his school work but could not get outside experience. He went to college last year and is trying to go now but it is a real hardship. How do you find a scholarship for him, or is he out of luck?

Scholarships for Seniors

Joanne in Lehi, Utah

I would like to find out about scholarships for seniors! There was a great billboard in our area; it read "Graduate at 95" showing a pretty graduate.

Scholarships Can Found During College

Linda in Cheyenne, WY

For the reader from Arizona, there are scholarships for those already in college. For example, I applied for and received two scholarships as a Junior. One was for $1500 and the other $520. Not large sums but they helped a lot. Both of them were offered by the school. Professional associations also offer scholarships for those currently attending college. You just need to do some digging. Do an online search or talk with the school's administration.

Use the good search engines

Tom in Houston

For those of you wondering how to find scholarships for someone in your specific situation, the good search engines will have you register for free and fill out a fairly in depth survey about yourself and then find you a list based on the information you entered in the survey. From my past experience searching for scholarships I can say there are many specific to women, single mom's, and the disabled(seriously ill). As a further example, you can find scholarships for descendants of people from certain counties in Ireland (my ancestral county wasn't among them). Hope this helps some and good luck!

Tips for seniors

Wayne in Seattle, Washington area

I agree with the other comments about providing information for those of use with a little more seniority in life. Many of us find ourselves in a position of needing to return to school. This can be to change careers, fill a void left by a job loss or to better ourselves. Some of the tips given apply to all students. Some apply only to high school students. I am sure there is information out there which would apply to us in the more senior category. I would like to see an article with specific information for our group. Thank you. Wayne in Washington

Resources for adults returning to school

roberta in Arizona

My husband is a displaced worked returning to school after being in the workforce for 30+ years. Scholarship $$$ for those who are not high school students or minorities are few and far between. And then when you look at who is getting the $$'s from those few scholarships he might be elgible for, it's high school and young college students. We are having to go the student loan route with displaced worker grants to help out.