Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Financing Your Education: Grants and Scholarships

Financing college can be a daunting task in this day and age; many are overwhelmed with the options for funding their education. There are many options available in the form of grants, scholarships, federal student loans, and private student loans. In this article, I will focus on Grants and Scholarships.

Grants and scholarships are essentially free money for college students. The money can usually go to any number of expenses including tuition, housing, books, and food. For the first several semesters of my undergraduate education, I enjoyed the benefit of a scholarship which paid for my books each semester. Although it was only several hundred dollars, that was several hundred dollars less I had to earn each semester working a part time job.

There are many ways to go about finding a grant or a scholarship, here are a few:


Government Searches
Although sometimes government websites can be cumbersome, Student Aid on the Web - Students.gov is an invaluable resource to use when trying to find money for school. At students.gov, you can create a profile and search for scholarships that way or, you can search by the type of scholarship you want. This is among the best ways to start your search.


Minority and Non Traditional Scholarships
If you are a member of a minority group, there may be scholarships available for you. Many good students forget to play on what sets them apart when looking for a scholarship, and one thing that may set you apart is your race. Other attributes that may set someone apart might be disabilities, age (non traditional students), sexual orientation, or whether or not you have been adopted. Try every angle when searching for college scholarships.


Academic Scholarships
If you are a good student, one whose GPA, SAT or ACT scores, and extra curricular activities are above and beyond the average at the school you are applying to, you may be awarded an academic scholarship. While this may be a possible strategy at lower ranked schools, most of the hardest colleges to gain acceptance to don't hand out many of this type of scholarship.


Scholarship Guides
There are many scholarship guides which purport to offer you better information than government searches for a fee. Do not sign up for guides which cost money. Most if not all of the scholarships I have come across didn't require a fee to apply for. There are, however, some free scholarship guides which do quite a good job of matching one with an appropriate scholarship.

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