Time for Scholarships

It is the time of year where students (and parents) are thinking about applying for scholarships to help finance college costs. Below are some basics about scholarships.


Why scholarships?
From the student point of view it helps you pay college costs. For every dollar you receive in scholarships it is one less dollar you have to borrow and pay interest on for a student loan.

How are scholarships organized?
  • Criteria: What qualities or specifics you have to meet to be eligible for a scholarship. This could be things like grade point average, ACT/SAT composite score, where you live, what high school you attend.
  • Scope of the Scholarship: How wide in geographic area is the scholarship available for applicants? Is it a national, state, regional, county, school district, etc? The larger the area the more the competition and you have to calculate your chances if it is worth your while to apply.
  • Deadline: What is the due date for the scholarship application? If the application has to be mailed to an organization is the due date when the mailing is postmarked at the post office or is the due date when it needs to be in the organization’s office?
Helpful resource for scholarships: (no www.) scholarshipmastery.com. Adam Carroll explains his ideas about doing scholarships. It is a free website. You put in your name and email and you get access to four online videos. Those videos are: Finding the Funding, Applying with Ease, Killer Essays, Acing the Interview.

Scholarship Sources
First place to start is with the college that you are going to attend. Be sure to check with your high school counselor and how they distribute information about local high school scholarships.
Good luck!


Steve - ICAN Council Bluffs Center