On the Hunt for College Money: Scholarships

It’s a little late to be looking for scholarships, you say to yourself. I’ll work with financial aid.

Wrong.

Whether you are an eighth grader, high school junior, graduating senior, or junior in college, it’s never too late – or too early – to start looking at scholarships. I wish I had thought that way a year ago!

During the fall of senior year, college applications take most of our attention, and applying for scholarships is secondary. I personally mostly stuck to applying for the big college wide scholarships, ones that would provide me with full tuition, tuition and a half, all books, or several thousand dollars a semester. This was largely for time saving purposes.

There is one major problem with only applying for presidential scholarships and their familiars: not many people get them. Which leaves me in a position I’m sure many other people are in as well: while I have gotten some scholarships, they were largely to out-of-state institutions I won’t be attending, and I have no scholarships for UGA. I should still be receiving HOPE despite cuts, which is a great relief to me. However, for those who will not be receiving HOPE next semester, or who simply need more to cover the cost of college, scholarship hunting is easy to do online, and many scholarships can be applied for quite quickly!

One good website for this is http://www.college-scholarships.com/100college.htm which has helpful links to many scholarship search engines. Of scholarship search engines, my favorite is www.fastweb.com, which will provide links to scholarships it thinks you should apply for based on your year in school and major. This is an obvious plus, as it streamlines your search. Cons to this website? You’ll often get three e-mails in a day, although on other days you will receive none at all. If the e-mails get overwhelming, you can however just delete them, since usually only one is about scholarships for you.

Additionally, there are a number of books available for purchase. If you are going to go the book route, I suggest physically going to the store rather than ordering online - it will give you the chance to get the feel of a book and decide if you actually like the layout BEFORE you pay for shipping.

Are you familiar with the scholarship application process? Are you still applying for them? Or have you already gotten some and just want to celebrate? Let the community know about scholarships you’ve applied for or think others should check out, as well as ones you’ve received!