Scholarships

Key to Know: Scholarships are everywhere! According to Brain Track (one of Google News’ picks as a worldwide news source), over $3 billion in private scholarships is awarded each year in the United States. Scholarships are financial awards for further education based on an amazingly wide variety of criteria. These criteria reflect the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award, so there are literally thousands of different kinds of scholarships. Check out the summary below to find some that are right for you:

Scholarship Basics A scholarship is an award of financial aid which assists a studentin pursuing higher education. Scholarships are given based on requirements accordint to the values and purposes of the donor or creator of the scholarship. Herer are the most common types of scholarshiops:

Merit: Merit awards are earned as a result of a student's particular abilities in the areas of athletics, academic studies, or artistic or other specific talent. They may also - increasingly in fact - be given in response to the student's history of community service and/or other relevant extracurricular activities. The most common merit-based scholarships – whether they are given out by a private entity or by the student's intended college or university, are given for academic excellence as reflected by the student's grade point average (GPA) or especially impressive scores on the ACT and SAT standardized tests.

Need: Need-based awards are given according to the applicant and family's financial resources and require students to fill out a FAFSA to qualify if the scholarship is a federal award. In fact the FAFSA should always be completed and submitted as it is also used by many, many state aid programs and private institutions. The FAFSA uses a formula to assess a student's financial need considering the expected family contribution and cost of attendance at a specific college.

Student-specific: Student-specific scholarships require that applicants first qualify by race, gender, religion, family and medical history, or a wide range of other applicant-specific Criteria. The most common scholarships in this group are those given to minority students.

Career-specific: Career-specific scholarships are awarded by educational institutions to support students enrolling in particular areas of study. Typically the largest awards are given to applicants in critical, high-need areas like nursing or education. Nursing students are currently in high demand. As a result, some schools will provide full scholarships to those wishing to enter the nursing field, especially if the student also intends to work in a high-need location. Some scholarships include an obligation on the applicant's part in return for the financial aid provided. Recipients might, for example, be required to work for a particular employer for a specified period of time or to work in rural or remote areas. If they don't fulfill the relevant obligation, they have to pay back an amount equivalent to the support they received. The programs offered by the U.S. military sometimes carry these types of requirements.