College Scholarship and Grants?
The cost of tuition is on the rise. College-bound students, along with their families, often find it discouraging when attempting to get financial aid to help fund their college education. While this high cost can be an issue with getting a college education, there is some good news. An increasing number of scholarship and grant options for college-bound students and their families continue to become available. Even though the amount of available financial aid is increasing for college-bound students, I recommend you begin your scholarship and grant search now!
Students should be assembling applications, recommendations, essays, test scores and transcripts. To help ensure deadlines are met, I recommend creating a calendar to keep track of cut-off dates as well as to stay on top of the sizeable amount of paperwork you will need to submit.
Available government & public financial aid funds are increasing for college-bound students, however, they are also limited. Begin your scholarship and grant search early as this should increase the likelihood that you will receive financial assistance.
Where to Start Your Scholarship and Grant Search?
There are many resources to be considered when you begin your college scholarship and grant search. Following are some of those resources:
1. Merit-Based - merit-based scholarships can be based on academic or athletic achievements, however, they can also be awarded on the virtue of ethnic, religious, and professional affiliations. Many companies also provide scholarships to the children of employees.
2. Corporate Scholarship - while obtaining a corporate college grant is not as common as a grant from a national scholarship search, it is an option worth exploring. Each year, corporations award students with thousands of dollars in financial aid. Also, ask your parents to check with the companies where they work.
3. Local Resources - be sure not to overlook local opportunities during your college scholarship and grant search. The American Legion, the Rotary Club, the Jaycees, and Boosters chapters often set aside funds for college-bound students in the area. Memorial scholarships are another great source of college funding that are often overlooked. The benefit of a local search as opposed to a free grant from a national scholarship search is the competition, which is considerably less than that for national awards. To begin, ask your students’ high school career office to see what’s available.
Federal Scholarship and Grants - the U.S. government is the nation’s largest financial aid resource, but you must first file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA can be found in your student’s high school guidance office as well as online. It is extremely important that filing the FAFSA for financial aid is completed before priority deadlines.
While you may have heard that free private grants and scholarships make up the majority financial aid, in reality, the vast majority of financial aid is provided by the national and state governments and by schools. Take advantage of this enormous resource. Start your scholarship search today by filling out the necessary paperwork. Learn more about filing the FAFSA for financial aid on from this government link: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/
