How does scholarships work?Answered
I'm currently a junior in high school with no knowledge of how scholarships work. Whatever research I've done is all I've been going off of, but I'm still a bit confused about how it all works. Do I have to apply for scholarships annually? For all of the scholarships I apply for that aren't connected to a college, how do I then use those to reduce my college cost? Is it worth trying to apply for scholarships, most of them ask for essays which are then used as a competition to see who wins the best response, I'm not strong in English to begin with? Are there any particular ones I should be looking for?
thank you to anyone who responds, it's very much appreciated!
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I am about to start high school and I have been doing some research on how to get a scholarship. I noticed your post about it and thought I could share my knowledge. Scholarships can be given out by certain groups or school clubs such as band or choir. They give them out to people who are hard workers and the people who do give them out are very careful about who they give it too. Scholarships can pay for tuition or a first year at college or maybe only a chunk of those two things. I want to apply to Stanford in four years and I personally have not found a single way to pay for the entire tuition. I can take out student loans, however that will only get me so far. Scholarships are one of the best ways to get money for college. If your in band (I don't know if your high school does this) they will give out a full scholarship to one student and partials to the runner ups. Sometimes the colleges give them out to students they want at their school. It depends on what school your at and what college you hope to be at someday. If I were you I would look into some colleges your interested in and see what kinds of scholarships they accept. I hope this helped and good luck with your scholarship.
Starting college in the fall and was pretty much in the same boat lol. From what I figured out, you have to apply for like need-based financial aid annually (FAFSA for example!) but most, if not all(?) merit scholarships given by an organization or the college itself you don't need to apply every year. But there are requirements that you have to meet in order to keep that scholarship for every year (like credit hours per semester or a minimum gpa)
if you have an outside scholarship that you won and you want to use it for your tuition, I had to talk to my admissions counselor at the college for that (i think you can email the admissions office but my college had the counselor's number + name available on my application)
Essay scholarships are kind of hard to win I'm not going to lie. Especially ones online because of how much competition there is. The main key to having a chance of winning one is narrowing down the competition. So looking at scholarships specifically for your state is a good start. If you're part of a minority group then there are also a lot of scholarships available to help minorities. (I use bold.org) I think the most recommended though are local scholarships since they have the least competition!!! Full-rides are possible (offered by the school), but they're difficult to win! (also i forgot to mention this earlier but you can get people online to peer review essay if you need it OR you can ask someone you know in real life to peer review you!)
My college's art department also offered me a scholarship based on my portfolio, so check your college for scholarships related to your major! They usually have like a list of the available scholarships on their website!
I'm sorry, this just keeps getting longer the more I think of things, but ask your teachers! Or your guidance counselors at the high school! (I don't know if this is common but my high school's librarian was actually the one that helped with scholarship searches) Chances are, they know something about a scholarship you can apply for!
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thank you so much, this was extremely helpful! The topic of scholarships has always confused me as there's just so much that goes into it. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge, I'll definitely start looking into the scholarships these schools offer.