#tinytsundoku

08.13.18 [21/100 days of productivity]

Guys! My amazon order came in and look how gorgeous these notebooks are (click for full res)! And they’re so cheap too! Also now I have the whole mildliners set- I had the blue box last year but since they’ve kind of run out of ink I upgraded. 

As someone who has been profoundly influenced by the cost of college in the US, I really wanted to help other people be better prepared than I was and make some dents in student debt. Having also gone to a public school without a fully developed counseling department, I missed out on a lot of info about scholarships and ways of paying for college. Additionally, I haven't seen much financial-aid based advice floating around the studyblr community and wanted to help fill that gap as well. 

The following is a compilation of information, sources, and general help that will maybe bridge that information gap for those who don’t necessarily have easy access to it. I’m afraid the guide is pretty US-based simply because that’s the only system I have experience with, but perhaps others will be willing to add on. So here you go!

A scholarship is free money. You don’t pay it back (unlike a loan), and it is gifted to you by an outside organization. There are tons of places to find them, and they can greatly help reduce your cost of college.

Every scholarship has its own requirements for applying, and may ask you to do something (write an essay, make a video, etc) in order to compete.

Need Based Scholarships:  You must demonstrate financing need to qualify for the scholarship. Usually, you’ll need to have filled out FAFSA and have an EFC (expected family contribution) lower than a certain number. 

Merit Scholarships: Merit scholarships are awarded to the participant who demonstrates the most merit, or worthiness. This can be due to academic success, an personal talent, volunteer work, or other qualities that make someone a great candidate. 

Both need and merit based scholarships may have additional requirements, such as only being open to people of certain genders, ethnicities, or backgrounds. 

- The internet! Its full of scholarships, seriously. And tons of sites curate them, so I’ve added an entire section on that below.

- Local Community: If you have a local Rotary or Lions Club branch, these organizations almost always have scholarships for local grads. You can also check with any other organizations such as the community center, other clubs/fraternal associations, or businesses. 

- At your job/your parents job: Parents work for a sizeable company? Many offer scholarships that are only open to the families of those employed.  They can ask the HR department, or you can look on the company website. Other companies offer tuition assistance or scholarships for employees (ex: Chick-Fil-A has a 2.5k employee-only scholarship), so you should check your own place of work too. 

- Career Center/Counselor: School counselors can get a bad rap, but they have tons of resources! Ask them if they have any scholarship info (they definitely will, they get sent this kind of stuff) if its not already posted in the room. 

- Your current school: This is for both high school students and college students. If you’re a high schooler, check with the PTA to see what they offer, and check what the school offers (again, ask the counselor!). They usually at least have something small, often for students nominated by the teachers. For college students, check the financial aid web page for your school. Many list scholarships the school has partnered with or promotes, as well as alumni scholarships (funds provided by past graduates for current students). 

- Your future school: Applying for college this year? Some schools will automatically send your application to relevant, school-sponsored scholarships for consideration, while others will require you to specifically choose this or to complete additional materials. Look this up early so you don’t miss any deadlines!

(I have personally used these websites and can vouch for them. However, I would love to add others as well so let me know!)

Fastweb - the OG scholarship website. Its literally just a huge list of lists of scholarships. Its not the prettiest website (or at least didnt use to be), or the easiest to sort through, but there is definitely plenty of opportunities. 

Chegg - A legitimate source of scholarships, although they tend to list very popular and very competitive ones. While these are, of course, worth a lot of money, you’ll want to make sure you’re very competitive before applying so you don’t waste time. 

Cappex - Yep, you have to sign up. But its totally worth it. Aside from having a really organized list (sort by amount, requirements, deadline, etc), they will also send emails to remind you of deadlines for apps you’ve started or scholarships your might qualify for. It will also help you look for colleges that fit your needs if you’re not sure where you want to go. 100% free. Highly recommend. 

GoingMerry - This one is really really new, and I only know about it bc my school counselor let us in on it. Its supposed to be kind of like a commonApp for scholarships. So far it shown itself to have a lot of smaller, individual scholarships rather than large popular ones which is really nice. (non ref link).

DoSomething - This organization makes monthly initiatives (ex: get friends to register to vote, run a canned goods drive) and if you participate you can submit an entry for a scholarship. There are about 5 campaigns per month and they usually pick winners randomly. They’ll email with you with new campaigns and winners regularly. Its a good way to impact your community and maybe get some money for it!

This is definitely not a comprehensive list, but it will certainly get you started!

Some final words:

1. NEVER pay for a scholarship service. Sites that do this (such as Scholly) are scams. A legitimate scholarship fund/website will never charge you to apply for or match to scholarships. 

2. Watch out for lottery scholarships where you have to sign up. Sites like Niche or Scholarship Points, etc will advertise that if you sign up you “could win a [insert large amount] scholarship”. In reality you’ll just get a lot of spam, since the entire thing is a lottery system and designed to increase their search engine rankings. 

3. Make sure you know what you’re applying for- a judged or a lottery type scholarship. The former means you’re actually competing based on your application, while the latter simply has basic qualifications and then you’re thrown into a drawing (aka much less likely to win anything for your efforts).

4. Found a lot of scholarships? Make an excel sheet of them if they’re on different sites. This will help you keep track of due dates, eligibility, prompts, etc. 

5. Don’t get discouraged! Apply to as many scholarships as possible. Free money is out there and while it may take you some time to win it, it is definitely attainable and you can do it!

Now go and get your free money!