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Look to Parents' Employers for College Scholarships
Tweet Share on Facebook September 15, 2011 Comment (2)It was a great summer, wasn't it? You laid around the pool all day, hung out in the basement playing video games with friends, and watched marathons of your favorite reality TV shows for hours on end. But now that you're several weeks into the school year already, it's time to crack down and get to work, and not just on your math homework.
Yes, we're talking about college again. It'll be here before you know it, so don't wait until it's time to fill out the FAFSA before you start to seriously think about how you're going to pay for it. Lucky for you, the Internet has made it much easier to locate and apply for scholarships than ever before. But before you dive into your search, there's one not-so-obvious place you should look first: your parents' place of employment.
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Discover Scholarships Just for Men
Tweet Share on Facebook September 8, 2011 Comment (4)Up until the past decade or so, men were earning college degrees at a higher number than their female counterparts. And aside from athletic awards, scholarships specifically for men were not very common.
But a 2010 report by the American Council on Education shows that males account for only 43 percent of students enrolled in postsecondary education. Since the gender gap in college enrollment has swung in the other direction, scholarships for men are now an important way to help males continue to enroll in college and keep earning those degrees.
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Look For 5 Qualities in Scholarship Recommendation Writers
Tweet Share on Facebook September 1, 2011 Comment (3)Many scholarship programs will ask applicants to submit one or more letters of recommendation along with their completed application. Recommendation letters can help fill in the gaps between the information you provide about yourself (such as your grades and extracurricular activities) and why you are uniquely qualified to earn top scholarship dollars. Getting the right letters of recommendation could make all the difference between a top award, a smaller award, or no scholarship award at all. To make sure your recommendation covers everything it should, keep these five things in mind:
1. Select people who know you well: The first step to getting great letters of recommendation is to select the right people to write them for you. The best recommendations come from people who know you well, and with whom you've worked closely. Teachers, employers, and coaches are excellent choices, as are people you've volunteered with and members of your clergy.
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Make Your Extracurricular Activities Pay Off
Tweet Share on Facebook August 25, 2011 Comment (4)I played trumpet in concert bands, pep bands, and orchestras throughout high school and college, including a few summers at a relatively prestigious music camp for high school students. It was at this camp where a guest conductor arranged the band in a way I'd never seen before. Oboes, bassoons, bass clarinets, baritone saxophones, and tubas sat smack in the middle, while the more populous trumpet, trombone, clarinet, and flute sections were consigned to the outsides.
What's more, the conductor dubbed this middle section "Scholarship Row." After years of conducting collegiate bands, he'd come to learn that there was a shortage of talented musicians taking up these offbeat but crucial horn spots—thereby ensuring that there was a lot more scholarship money out there for an above-average bassoon player than for an above-average trombone player.
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Get a Jump Start on Money for College
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2011 Comment (2)While most scholarship deadlines are still several months away, there are a few with deadlines just around the corner that you definitely don't want to miss out on.
Plus, by starting your scholarship search early, you may be able to breathe a sigh of relief if you win scholarship awards now—before your friends have even started the search process.
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Consider Professional Organizations as Scholarship Resources
Tweet Share on Facebook August 11, 2011 Comment (3)As tuition rises, it's more crucial than ever to discover new and innovative ways of finding scholarship money—and one opportunity you might not think of is via professional associations in your field of interest. These associations are a great way to network with professionals, and they're also wonderful places to find scholarships. Being a member also allows you to find job listings and read up on current events and issues within your career field. (Not to mention it's a great résumé builder.) If you join as a high school or undergrad student, you will most likely enjoy reduced membership dues as well.
[Read about 4 overlooked ways to pay for college.]
Here are a few of the many scholarships sponsored by professional organizations:
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Students With Average Grades Can Get Scholarships
Tweet Share on Facebook August 4, 2011 Comment (6)While scholarship opportunities abound for students with eye-popping SAT scores and single-digit class ranks, those without remarkable academic backgrounds are often left to wonder if there are any scholarships left for them. Rest assured that there is financial support provided to those with average grades. More and more scholarships are becoming available for students based on creativity, community service, overcoming adversity and extracurricular activities. Regardless of your grades, test scores, or passions, there's bound to be an opportunity for scholarship money for you, too.
[Get more advice on how to pay for college.]
If you have creative skills:
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6 College Scholarships That Award Leadership
Tweet Share on Facebook July 28, 2011 Comment (5)It's no secret that colleges look to students' leadership and volunteer experience when determining who they select to join their ranks. If you're serious about getting into college, you know that your applications should cover the leadership skills you've acquired and volunteer work you've done while in high school. What you may not realize is that there are a lot of people out there who will pay you back big time for all the free work you've done over the last four years.
[Learn more about finding college scholarships.]
If you don't have any volunteer experience under your belt, these scholarships should be the ultimate motivation to get yourself moving immediately. On the other hand, if you've thrived by paying it forward, consider a job in public service upon graduation. After 10 years of full-time public service work, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program will forgive whatever outstanding principal and interest remains from your federal loans. Who doesn't love free money?
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Help the Economy: Donate to a Scholarship
Tweet Share on Facebook July 21, 2011 CommentAt Scholarship America, we hear time and again from students who receive scholarships through our programs that they benefit from both the financial assistance and the knowledge that their community believes in them enough to subsidize their education. Some students have shared that earning a scholarship was the catalyst for going to college, and to persisting in their studies to earn their degree. Some tell us that if it weren't for scholarships, they wouldn't have attended college at all.
[Read 5 reasons why scholarships are essential.]
A new study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, The Undereducated American, confirms the importance of helping more students get into and complete an education beyond high school. The study's authors, Anthony P. Carnevale and Stephen J. Rose, found that over the past 30 years, the demand for college-educated workers has outpaced supply—and we will need to add 20 million postsecondary-educated workers to the economy by 2025 if we are to regain our No. 1 global position in college graduates.
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Consider These Rhodes Scholarship Tips
Tweet Share on Facebook July 14, 2011 Comment (3)There are thousands of scholarships out there for students at every level of academics, and they can all make a huge difference in the right student's life. But when it comes to prestige, name recognition and financial impact, there are a few that stand out—none more so than the century-old Rhodes Scholarship, whose recipients have gone on to become presidents (Bill Clinton), prime ministers (Canada's John Turner and Jamaica's Norman Manley), senators, Supreme Court justices, Olympians, Palme d'Or winners, university presidents, NFL stars, Nobel Prize recipients, and more.
[Slide show: 12 Famous Rhodes Scholars]
The scholarship was founded in 1902 upon the death of Cecil Rhodes—a British diamond magnate so wealthy he had an entire country named after him—as the first large-scale international academic exchange program. Its mission is simple but wide ranging: funding prestigious programs of study at Rhodes's alma mater, University of Oxford, for qualified students from outside the United Kingdom. Each year, regional selection committees pick 32 Rhodes scholars from the United States from a field of around 1,000 applicants; there are 80 Rhodes scholars worldwide each year. Those selected receive tuition and living expenses for at least two years, with a third potentially available depending on programs of study. To apply, students must be ages 18 to 24, and must have a completed bachelor's degree prior to entering Oxford. And, just like in 1902, those recipients are selected based on criteria laid out in Rhodes's will:
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