2 answers
Hope
Student
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
1
Question
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Can I earn scholorships while in college?
Can I earn scholorships while in college? If so, how do I go about that? I also want to know what I need to know before I begin the interview process.
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2 answers
Doc Frick
Career Coach and Mentor
1591
Answers
California, CA
Updated
Doc’s Answer
Hope you can learn about scholarships in several ways, including contacting the financial aid office at the school you plan to attend, checking information or online or where family members work. But be careful. Make sure scholarship information and offers you receive are legitimate; and remember that you don't have to pay to find scholarships or other financial aid.
SCHOOL – School scholarships can come from your high school (that you’re graduating) or your college (that you will be attending next year). In both cases, schools may have scholarships funded by the government, a private agency (for-profit or non-profit), alumni, or the school’s own endowment. Some scholarships will be eligible for all students, while others will be based on specific qualities (e.g. leadership) or merits (GPA, sports). Some colleges may have departmental scholarships–for example, only for students majoring in psychology. The narrower the eligibility requirements, the less competition you have–and the greater chance you have.
WEBSITE – Scholarship websites are commonly the first place recommended to search. These websites are easily accessible and host hundreds upon thousands of scholarships. In the past few years, scholarship websites have really upped their game with simple sign-up options, filter options (such as college major, gender, race, and school year), and search results matched to students’ individual profiles. The downside with scholarship websites is the massive amounts of competition. Many of these websites link to external, national scholarships, and sometimes the scholarships are based on a lottery system. Since some sites aren’t updated frequently enough or quality-checked, some sites will still list scholarship programs that no longer exist. One last note of caution about these sites: Beware of scams. Some scholarship applications may require you to pay a fee in order to apply. You shouldn’t need to pay for any scholarship application.
GOVERNMENT – Government scholarships are provided on a national, state, or local level. Usually national and state government scholarships are applied for through FAFSA. National scholarships contain a crowded competition, since qualifications tend to be more flexible. For example, most national scholarships are not restricted by major, school year, or locality. State and local government scholarships have the restriction of where you live. Local scholarships become very specific in which students they consider eligible. However, the qualifications are typically related to demographic restrictions rather than academic restrictions.
PRIVATE – Private scholarships are provided by for-profits, like Coca-Cola and Walmart, or non-profits, like Foundations. Both options have very flexible qualifications, as the company or organization is free to set their own rules for the scholarship they are funding.
For-profit scholarships have slightly more competition as they tend to be big name companies. Non-profit scholarships can vary greatly. Both private scholarship options tend to attach a theme to the scholarship application, such as a college major, a hobby, your heritage, or a topic the organization may support.
Hope this will be helpful Hope
Scholarships.com – Scholarships.com divides scholarships by a variety of unique categories, including GPA, military affiliation, ethnicity, artistic ability.
Fastweb.com – Fastweb.com aggregates awards from both large and small directories. You have to make a profile to search for scholarships, which is similar to other sites. But after the initial sign-up process, you can easily search for scholarships and filter your results.
ScholarshipOwl.com – ScholarshipOwl.com is a popular scholarship website that compiles awards and organizes them by amount, types of requirements, number of winners and length of time until the application is due.
SCHOOL – School scholarships can come from your high school (that you’re graduating) or your college (that you will be attending next year). In both cases, schools may have scholarships funded by the government, a private agency (for-profit or non-profit), alumni, or the school’s own endowment. Some scholarships will be eligible for all students, while others will be based on specific qualities (e.g. leadership) or merits (GPA, sports). Some colleges may have departmental scholarships–for example, only for students majoring in psychology. The narrower the eligibility requirements, the less competition you have–and the greater chance you have.
WEBSITE – Scholarship websites are commonly the first place recommended to search. These websites are easily accessible and host hundreds upon thousands of scholarships. In the past few years, scholarship websites have really upped their game with simple sign-up options, filter options (such as college major, gender, race, and school year), and search results matched to students’ individual profiles. The downside with scholarship websites is the massive amounts of competition. Many of these websites link to external, national scholarships, and sometimes the scholarships are based on a lottery system. Since some sites aren’t updated frequently enough or quality-checked, some sites will still list scholarship programs that no longer exist. One last note of caution about these sites: Beware of scams. Some scholarship applications may require you to pay a fee in order to apply. You shouldn’t need to pay for any scholarship application.
GOVERNMENT – Government scholarships are provided on a national, state, or local level. Usually national and state government scholarships are applied for through FAFSA. National scholarships contain a crowded competition, since qualifications tend to be more flexible. For example, most national scholarships are not restricted by major, school year, or locality. State and local government scholarships have the restriction of where you live. Local scholarships become very specific in which students they consider eligible. However, the qualifications are typically related to demographic restrictions rather than academic restrictions.
PRIVATE – Private scholarships are provided by for-profits, like Coca-Cola and Walmart, or non-profits, like Foundations. Both options have very flexible qualifications, as the company or organization is free to set their own rules for the scholarship they are funding.
For-profit scholarships have slightly more competition as they tend to be big name companies. Non-profit scholarships can vary greatly. Both private scholarship options tend to attach a theme to the scholarship application, such as a college major, a hobby, your heritage, or a topic the organization may support.
Hope this will be helpful Hope
Doc recommends the following next steps:
Abiola Oladipupo
Fabricator
37
Answers
Kaduna, Nigeria
Updated
Abiola’s Answer
Yes with the right guidance
Hi Abiola! Can you give Hope an idea of what kind of guidance she needs? Can you provide resources?
Sharyn Grose, Admin