Seeking scholarships? Four tips to help your search
Your child doesn’t have to be a class valedictorian, elite athlete, or musical virtuoso to land a college scholarship. While there are millions of scholarships available, earning one requires persistence. In addition to finding the scholarship opportunities that most closely match an applicant’s qualifications and needs, there’s the follow-through: completing applications, drafting essays, asking for recommendation letters, and getting it all in by the application deadlines.
Here are four tips that could help you and your child search for and land a scholarship.
Tip 1: Start early
Your high school student doesn’t have to wait for senior year to start searching, since many scholarships are awarded to juniors. With loads of opportunities to search through, the earlier your child starts, the better the chances of finding suitable prospects. Consider setting aside a Saturday morning once a month to review the opportunities and help your child with the applications. Try to avoid procrastination, and keep in mind that scholarship award announcements often come several months after the application deadline passes.
Tip 2: Use free, online search engines
Be wary of any websites that charge a fee, whether it’s to apply, run a search, or submit a scholarship application. You don’t have to pay for searches; many online resources offer free search engines. A few of the more popular include:
- The U.S. Department of Labor’s CareerOneStop search tool lists more than 9,500 scholarships, fellowships, grants, and prizes.
- Scholarships.com has more than 3.7 million awards in its database, representing nearly $19 billion in financial aid.
- Scholarships360.org offers a database that’s searchable by state, academic interests or majors, extracurricular activities, demographics, GPA levels, award amounts, and other criteria. You can also target your search to include only scholarships that don’t require a written essay with the application.
- Fastweb.com allows users to create an individual profile that automatically identifies potential scholarship matches among its 1.5 million opportunities.
Tip 3: Apply for many
There’s no limit to how many different applications you can send out. Don’t automatically rule out smaller scholarships. A $100 award may not seem worth the effort, but combined with several other smaller scholarships, it may add up nicely.
Tip 4: Check locally
Your child’s high school guidance counselors may also be able to identify local awards, and area businesses and civic organizations often offer scholarships to local students. Ask your employer’s human resources department if your company has any opportunities. Check out your local library; it may have listings posted on bulletin boards.
A sampling of unusual scholarships
Among the myriad scholarship opportunities, most prioritize academic achievement and community service. However, for students who may have a tough time standing out using such traditional criteria, other scholarships seek to reward less conventional achievements. Here are a few examples.
- Minecraft Scholarship: Apex Hosting, a server host for the popular video game, offers a $2,000 annual award. Applicants must write a short essay about how Minecraft can positively influence education and career development.
- Create-a-Greeting-Card Scholarship: A greeting card company, The Gallery Collection, offers a $10,000 prize to the student who creates a greeting or holiday card judged to be the best among the submissions.
- Zombie Apocalypse Scholarship: UNIGO, a scholarship search company, awards $2,000 to the student applicant judged to have written the best short essay about their plan to survive a scenario in which zombies invade their school.
While scholarships can be a key part of the puzzle for funding a college education, they're just one important component of a comprehensive plan. A financial professional could help you implement a plan for sending your child to school, including setting up a specific savings vehicle, such as a 529 education savings account.
Important disclosures
Important disclosures
We are providing links to third-party websites solely as a convenience to you, as these websites may provide useful content. John Hancock is not affiliated with any of the links. We do not control the content on the third-party websites, do not guarantee any claims made on them, and do not endorse the website, its sponsor, or any of the content, policies, activities, products, or services offered on the websites or by any advertiser on the websites. We disclaim any responsibility for the website’s performance or interaction with your computer, its security and privacy policies and practices, and any consequences that may result from visiting the website. These links are not intended to be a recommendation and do not guarantee that you will obtain any of the scholarships listed within.
This material does not constitute tax, legal, or accounting advice, and neither Manulife John Hancock nor any of its agents, employees, or registered representatives are in the business of offering such advice. It was not intended or written for use, and cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding any IRS penalty. It was written to support the marketing of the transactions or topics it addresses. Anyone interested in these transactions or topics should seek advice based on his or her particular circumstances from independent professional advisors. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
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