Dec 27 2008
Scholarships - Don’t Miss Out
So, I was talking to a friend from my undergrad university earlier today (cancelling our lunch 
) but oh well… some things just can’t be helped.
Anyway, we were talking about classes, and papers and averages and so on …
She is a very good student, and gets very good grades - this semester managed an average significantly higher than mine.
And yet, I get scholarships and she does not.
Do you know why?
I apply for them!
Yes, there are a few scholarships that just fall down from heaven. Or whatever - someone nominates you, or you earn some sort of distinction that qualifies you. I’ve got two of those over the course of my back to school adventures - one of each sort, totalling $2,500.
But for the vast majority of scholarships that are available to students - including mature/ returning/ adult/ nontraditional or whatever you want to call us students must be APPLIED FOR! My scholarship income to date from these types is $18,500. So far.
Yes there are a lot of hoops to jump through re: some of them …but even if it takes several hours to complete a scholarship application, if you are successful, that’s a whole lot of $$/hour.
There are all sorts of ways to find out about scholarships that are available to you. Google, as always, is your friend.
I honestly have not had much success with scholarships through online sites - but that could well be because …well … I haven’t actually followed through and applied for many of the one that come up through those sites.
Where I have had the most success is through the schools I have attended.
I’ve never been on a college or university website that didn’t have a link to resources re: financial awards & scholarships, I don’t think. Certainly not recently.
Laurentian U actually sends the forms out in email for its in-course scholarship - all one has to do, if their overall average is about 80%, is fill out the (very basic) darn forms!!!! The amount one recieves is automatic based on overall average - I recieved $2500 last year; my friend would have gotten even more than that if only she had returned the forms!!!! 10 minutes of time for more than $2500 …. who doesn’t jump on that?
Lots of people, that’s who …. DO NOT BE ONE OF THEM!!!
And you don’t even have to have great marks for a lot of them, either …. I mean, they tend not to fund people who are not passing - but there are all sorts of scholarships that are based on leadership, or need, or essay writing or nationality or employment or or or ….
There are millions & millions of dollars in scholarship money given to students young and old every year in both Canada and the U.S.
Have you asked for your share?
What are you waiting for?
I highly recommend you start with your own college/university’s website - but don’t stop there. You will also want to try googling your province or state and scholarship - bet you’ll find more there.
Here are a few other sites you might want to try - and remember, google is your friend 
Lots more there also.
If you have had experience in finding and winning scholarships, why not drop a comment and help to encourage other people to do the same?
This advice (which I agree with - when I was an undergraduate, I had a scholarship from the Engineering department and one from the Physics department because my major allowed it) also applies to finding jobs.
I’m often surprised how many will bemoan their loss of a job, only to find they haven’t written up a resume or made applications. When I got laid off once, long ago, I wrote up a resume and got it sent off within one working day. I was hired elsewhere eight days later. Other complained to me that they didn’t have a job offer in hand… but, when questioned, hadn’t sent out apps or resumes. What did they expect? Prospective employers went door to door?
LOL I sometimes think T thinks they’re going to do exactly that.. for quite some time she kept telling me “I am going to ….” like that should count for something.
I wish I would have applied for scholarships before and during college. Scholarships help out a lot.
I was one of the few for which scholarships have just fallen into my lap. Seriously. Of course, I go to a small community college, which is a HUGE help! They take everyone who applies to the college with a GPA at or above a certain level, and put them into a big pool of contestants. Scholarship foundations get access to our grades and our essays that we write when trying to get into the college (as if there was ever any question - this college accepts everyone who applies) and then gives out scholarships to whomever they want to, based on that info.
I got a full ride from a foundation simply from that. I am also in the honors program (a very easy and fun thing to do in our college) and they give me an additional scholarship for that. So I actually make money off school each semester. Pretty darn cool if you ask me. And quite frankly, my cumulative GPA really isn’t that high. A 3.7 or something like that.
So I guess my advice would be to attend a community two-year college for your AA, then go on to get your BA from a four-year college, because the two-year college is much more likely to give scholarships out to pretty much everyone. Oh, and write great entrance essays when applying for a college. They may do double duty.
Good luck, all!
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