Finding the Right Scholarships for You

Unlike student loans, which must eventually be paid back, scholarships are financial awards that do not have to be repaid. Thus, they are very desirable to students.

Scholarships may be based on many standards. The most common criterion is academic achievement, but scholarships may also be given to promising athletes, members of a religious, ethnic, or sexual group (often a minority), students who are planning to study in a specific area, or students who show financial need. Some scholarships select promising students with no application process, others require students to apply.

Scholarships may come from many different sources. The federal government offers some grants, or scholarships, as do many states. Colleges and high schools may also be a rich source of scholarships. Finally, some scholarships are privately funded.

When looking for a scholarship, it's best to begin early--your junior year in high school is not too soon. This will give you an idea of what is available as you narrow down your final choices in your senior year. Sometimes the difference between going to one school or another hinges on the scholarship package you can get.

You may be told that the best way to find a scholarship is to purchase an expensive book or computer program that provides a list of scholarships, but this is not the case. All the information available in a book is available through your financial aid office or online at no extra charge at all.

If you are a high school student looking for a scholarship, the first thing to do is talk to your guidance counselor at high school. Tell him or her which colleges you are interested in and what fields you think you might be interested in studying.

If your guidance counselor has no useful advice, try contacting the financial aid offices at the colleges of your choice. If you are a good student, or a good athlete, you may be able to get colleges to compete for you, each college trying to put together the most attractive financial aid package. Even if you are a mediocre student, you may be eligible for some type of assistance.

Once you have exhausted the resources of the college financial aid offices, it's time to check out the Internet. Using a popular search engine, like Google, type in "scholarship" and your location. For instance, if you live in Chicago, you would type, "scholarship Chicago."

You can then go on searching using multiple different search terms to describe yourself and your academic ambitions. Suppose you are a lesbian. The search "scholarship lesbian" directs you to several campuses and programs around the nation that offer scholarships to lesbian and gay students.

It's always a good idea to identify as many different scholarships as possible. That way, it you don't get one, you still have a chance at getting the others.

Once you have found one scholarship or more that interests you, get all the information you can about it. If it requires and application and personal statement, take some time to outline what you want to say--why is the scholarship so important to your academic career, and why should it be awarded to you and no one else? Once you have got your application complete, ask a parent, teacher, or trusted friend to look over it with you and make sure there are no embarrassing spelling or grammar errors.

Scholarships can be difficult to find, but if you keep in touch with your financial aid office at college and keep an eye on the Internet, you're in an excellent position to discover a great scholarship package that will ease the financial strain of getting a college education.