The cost of college is viewed almost exclusively in a negative light. OK— that makes sense. When young adults are entering the professional world with six-figure debt sums there is not a lot of room for celebration.
Still, it’s better to take a complete view of the situation. First of all, not all colleges are expensive. Second? Even those that are offer scholarship opportunities.
Many people assume that college scholarships are not for them. It is true that a C-average probably won’t result in thousands of dollars in award money. It is also true that not only valedictorians get good scholarship opportunities.
In this article, we take a look at how you can use scholarships and grants to help pay for college.
Think About What Makes You Unique
In business, there is a concept known as the unique selling point. What makes one product different from the other? As a consumer, you might assume that the answer is nothing. But walk down a chip aisle and you’ll find that actually each product is subtly different in a way that can be marketed and branded.
What makes you a special chip? Why would a university want you badly enough to reduce the price of their education?
All scholarships are competitive, and this becomes only truer when big money is at stake. You need to identify your unique selling point.
Sometimes this means tapping into aspects of your personal life that may feel uncomfortable to exploit.
For example, if you are a minority, you may find that there are tons of grants and scholarship opportunities that are specific to racial groups.
The same is true for gay applicants or even people who are first-generation college students.
You may feel uncomfortable leveraging these aspects of your personal life for financial gain. That makes sense. Still, it is an effective way to gain scholarship money.
Most industries are looking for ways to increase diversity. The first step is doing it at the college level. This desire has created a lot of opportunities for people with unique backgrounds. Why not take advantage?
Look Local
Many communities also have local grant and scholarship opportunities that could be worth looking into. These are usually smaller amounts, but they are significantly less competitive. Your high school may have some opportunities for award money.
Check also with local charities and churches. The sum that you are eligible for with these institutions will not be enormous, but they will be easier to get. Fewer applicants. Possibly even personal connections. Every dollar you get in scholarships and grants is money in your pocket at the end of the day. Go after that low-hanging fruit.
Career-Specific Opportunities
If you are interested in a career path that has experienced staffing shortages, you may find that there are many scholarship and grant opportunities designed to fill in those employment gaps.
The most common examples of this are healthcare, education, and social work. Necessary jobs that routinely do not see enough applicants.
Often, career-specific scholarships will be provided by the state. You will probably still need a decent transcript to qualify for them, but they also won’t be as competitive as merit-based scholarship opportunities.
Are these full rides? No. But a few thousand dollars a year can add up pretty quickly over time.
Conditional Scholarships
As the name suggests conditional scholarships are granted only if you meet specific criteria. For example, a conditional scholarship in education might require you to spend the first five years of your career working in a low-income school district. If you fail to meet that requirement the money that was given to you as a scholarship will need to be paid back.
Now that may sound intimidating, but often these conditional scholarship opportunities are easy to fulfill without even trying. Most schools are considered low-income.
Like job-specific scholarships conditional opportunities are usually not full rides, but they are another good way to save a few thousand dollars on the price of your education.
How Much Time Should You Put Into This?
Of course that is ultimately a subjective determination. Still, let’s think of it in terms of compensation. How much work would you be willing to do for $50,000? That is a relatively achievable some to get in scholarship money over the course of four years. In all cases, it will take much less time to achieve it through traditional employment.
Most people generally recommend spending at least a few months, seeking out scholarships and applying for them. Don’t sleep on small awards either. You may not want to bother spending an hour or so applying for a $1000 scholarship, but that is a relatively small amount of effort to make a good sum of money.
Keep in mind also that many scholarships are recurring. That $1000 award may actually be worth $4000 over the course of your education. Most people don’t make that in an hour.
Giving yourself enough time to apply for a wide range of opportunities is the best way to make sure that you are being comprehensive in your efforts. You won’t get everything but if your transcript is even someway decent, you will at least get some money.
Conclusion
Take a look at your bank balance. Wouldn’t that figure look a lot nicer if it was $5000 larger? That is a pretty attainable sum in scholarship money even if you don’t have straight A’s. The average student can get a lot more money than they realize. Ultimately this will result in cash that you otherwise wouldn’t have if you didn’t go for the scholarship. The true value of these opportunities can often feel abstract to someone who has never spent more than $10 on a slice of pizza before.
The reality is that every cent you get in scholarship money is cash you will eventually have in your bank account.
Trust in the process. College is expensive, but scholarships make it less so.
