Introduction
This three-part series will cover how to find scholarships, how to choose scholarships to apply for, and how to compile competitive scholarship applications. The purpose of these articles is to help students better understand the scholarship process in order to become stronger scholarship applicants.
Part 1. How to Find Scholarships
Almost all students that dream of going to college face one huge obstacle—paying for college. Unless you have the financial resources to pay thousands of dollars in tuition and fees, you’re probably going to need some additional support from outside sources. One of the best places to start is by searching for scholarships. You may ask, “What is a scholarship?” Basically, in the simplest of terms, a scholarship is free money for you to go to school that is awarded based on a certain criteria. I like to think of it this way: scholarships are an organization’s financial investment in your potential to succeed in college, to maximize the resources provided, and to give back to your community. Of course, every scholarship organization has its own guidelines, but this definition holds true for most organizations.
The most common question that I hear from students when they start their scholarship search is “Where do I find scholarships?” There are a multitude of scholarship resources that you may not even be aware about. In this article, I am going to outline four specific resources that you can use to find scholarship opportunities and that helped me tremendously in my own scholarship search. The first and most accessible resource is the Internet. Websites like www.fastweb.com and www.scholarships.com offer free accounts for students to input their profiles about their interests, goals, area of study, and other comprehensive information. From their databases containing billions of dollars in scholarships, a list of possible scholarship opportunities will be generated based on your profile. You’ll be able to save your favorites, access the websites of specific scholarships, and read more about the scholarship process under their resources section. Many students always ask if it’s even worth it to use sites like FastWeb; I know first-hand that scholarship websites are a solid starting point for a successful scholarship search.
Beyond websites, a second resource is written material like scholarship books and publications. You can find books like The College Board Scholarship Handbook at local libraries, bookstores, and perhaps even your school’s college and career center. While you shouldn’t have to pay money for scholarship applications or materials, you can check out the books from the library or simply write down a list of possible scholarships and any information from scholarship books in different bookstores. Then search for additional information about those scholarships on the Internet. For scholarships that I couldn’t find a website for, I wrote down their mailing address and sent letters requesting applications.
Other than books and websites, a third resource is to check in your community for local scholarships. If you work at a store, see if your company offers scholarships for students. Other community resources may include volunteer organizations, religious institutions, and community groups like your local Elk’s Lodge, Lion’s Club, and Rotary Club. You can always search on the Internet or call and visit them for more information. During my scholarship search, I brainstormed different companies and organizations that might offer scholarships and searched for more info on Google. This method helped me find several scholarship opportunities that hadn’t shown up in my FastWeb results.
A fourth and vital resource is your school’s college and career center or your college’s undergraduate scholarship office. Career counselors and advisors have a wealth of information about scholarships and other programs both in your community and nation?wide. Make a point of visiting your counselors and career center regularly to find out about new opportunities that you may not be able to find on FastWeb and other scholarship websites. If your school has a website, check to see if there are any local scholarship opportunities listed on the college and career page. Don’t stop there though; check out the websites of other schools in your district and city to see if they’ve listed scholarships that you may not have come across yet. I checked the websites of other high schools to pool all my resources and found some great scholarship opportunities this way.
Through each of these resources, you can find an abundance of scholarships to apply for. Learning to maximize these tools will help you master the scholarship process and develop skills that will be useful in how you organize, plan, and take action in whatever endeavors you pursue. I know this first?hand through my own scholarship experiences. In the second part of this series, you will learn how to choose scholarships that best fit your strengths and for which you will be a competitive applicant.
About the Author
In the spring of his senior year of high school in 2006, Samson Lim created Sam’s Scholarship Kiosk, a scholarship resource website that provides students with an insider’s guide to the college scholarship process. After applying for over 75 scholarships throughout high school and winning 18 both locally and nationally, Sam set out to help students better understand how to find scholarships, how to choose scholarships to apply for, and how to compile competitive scholarship applications. Today, Sam continues to work with students through workshops on scholarships and essays, speaking to audiences about overcoming adversity to achieve success, and creating materials to help students better understand the scholarship process. For more information, please visit www.scholarshipjunkies.com.
