Monday, October 03, 2011
Applying for Scholarships? Think Small
WSJ.com: Forget about scoring that one big scholarship or grant to cover the rising cost of college. Students are finding that smaller is often more lucrative. With many scholarship-application deadlines approaching in November, more students are applying to a wide range of smaller scholarships, hoping to piece together award money from various sources -- often organizations that cater to a specific group, interest, subject matter, ethnicity or industry.
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I mean I agree with this to an extent. The reality of most cases is that those who are proactive enough to search for the smaller scholarships and apply are already qualified enough for several scholarships. At least that is what happened at my school. Yes, there were dozens of smaller scholarships handed out...most of which the same four people received.
When I was in undergrad I sought out scholarships much more than I did in grad school, and I do regret that looking back. I wish I had put more effort into scholarship hunting. Even though it would have made my busy schedule busier, if I had gotten scholarships it would have well paid off. When I was searching for scholarships, I found the most success in the local groups and school specific gifts. There are so many options around to find groups giving away money, and part of the way to find them is being active in your community, but also talking with financial aid advisers who over time learn which groups are helping put students through college.
I'm glad this article got posted, because I needed to be reminded to search for scholarships. I agree with the article. I applied for about 13 last year, and got one. It was the smallest both applicant and monetary-wise. I almost think it's a waste of time to apply for the "Best Buy Scholarship" that's being advertised everywhere--and that probably a million people are going for. Especially in this program...we can't waste time!
It's difficult to think small when approaching scholarships because of how blinded you can be by the big numbers. It's as if our eyes are bigger than our mind calculators. It costs _____ a semester to go here. When I graduate I will be _____ in debt. This scholarship will give me $100,000 for a video about world hunger??? GREAT. But one thing I've learned and this article reminded me off is that it all adds up. Something is better than nothing. I wish that I could dedicate more time in my day to applying for scholarships, because god knows I need them. However the program in which I don't have the money to pay for is eating away at my time. Welcome to the College Student Financial Paradox. Maybe I should write a book and that's how I'll pay for school...
I totally agree with this. I think the pattern is that if the award is $10,000 than 1,000 people are probably applying for it. Whereas if you're piecing together several $250 awards, you're likely competing against only about 25 people. I think I tried almost every suggestion on this page, including a scholarship that was solely for senior high school students of employers of Booz Allen Hamilton, but this is a company with more than 100,000 employees, so I thought I had good chances but no cigar. I also tried local scholarships like "Northern Virginia Theatre Alliance", all you had to do was create a design, with paperwork, visuals, and a statement. Then present it. This was fun for me and challenged me in my own area for which I was seeking a higher education.
Another thing to consider is if the scholarship is renewable. Then a $250 scholarship becomes $1,000 over the 4 years of school.
The best thing to take from all of this is that " it all adds up". The biggest scholarships do attract the most applicant's, so your chances have severely decreased. However, those $500 and $1000 scholarships really add up. Think about it--even getting a $500 scholarship is enough to cover the cost of books. And in college finding money for food alone is hard enough. So, I'm all for the finding as many scholarships as you can.
I completely agree with the points in the article. On deciding to attend Grad school I had to apply for numerous scholarships and some of them might have contributed as little as $1000. However when you start to add up the small amounts of scholarship funds it really adds up. In addition when organisations realise that you have been funded by other people, they are more likely to fund you as well because this reassures them that you are a "product" worth investing in.
I was always told to look for small scholarships. There are even some smaller scholarships that fall through the cracks and go to no one, because nobody knows about them. There really are scholarships for everything, when researching scholarships, I even found one for people who have food allergies. The chances of getting a large scholarship are slim to none, and when you think about how much work you often have to do to apply for these large scholarships, and weigh these factors, it often seems that it's not even worth it to apply for the large ones.
This is a good mindset to have when thinking about financial aid.
At most universities, if you go over a certain amount in outside scholarships (for CMU I believe it is $7000) they will decrease the amount of money you receive from the school. Depending on how capitalist your institution wants to be, they will decrease your amount in fair proportions (if you go 500 over they deduct 500 from your package), but there are several institutions who will scrape off a little bit more than they rightly should... There's also something to be said about small scholarships in terms of applicants. Not many people apply for the under 1000 scholarships, so they're easier to get depending on the criteria. I made it almost to the limit in outside scholarships for CMU, most of them were 500 and under rewards.
Something is always better than nothing. When it comes to applying for scholarships a big part of it is seeking out some that less publicized to automatically reduce competition. Statistically speaking, it's more affective to apply to many smaller scholarships with the hope of getting at least one. There are small, local businesses who give out scholarships, but they don't necessarily advertise that all over the place. It's harder to find where to apply than the application process itself.
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