Anne Kim is right in her recent column about scholarships that ran on the NEXT page.
In addition to (or perhaps instead of) applying for loans and working umpteen hours at part-time jobs, students should apply for scholarships. Yeah, they require forms, essays, resumes and letters of recommendations (piles and piles of paper). But that’s better than working 20 hours per week to earn extra cash -- or graduating with a hefty debt.
From personal experience, the best time to apply for scholarships is the senior year of high school. Community and state organizations, the government, clubs, private businesses and even schools themselves offer scholarship money. They’re extremely generous. They WANT to help you go to college, with less financial burden.
And contrary to a major misconception, these scholarships aren’t just for low-income students or minorities. An entire category -- called “merit based” -- exists for those willing to apply. These scholarships are awarded solely on achievements and/or writing/interview ability.
Some of these “merit-based” scholarships look for commitment to a particular field of interest, such as the environment, academics, athletics or community service. Heck, there's even scholarship contests that ask you to make prom outfits out of duct tape (wacky).
I applied for the Washington Thoroughbred Breeder’s Association Scholarship (totally random, but absolutely awesome) and numerous others. Without the help of such scholarships, I'd be like many of my "starving college student" peers.
In college, scholarships are available from specific departments within the school. However, the number of private scholarships decreases while the competition increases.
If you’re a student in high school and need money, make scholarship-searching your part-time job for the year. It's the best, and perhaps the easiest, one you could ever ask for (at least in my opinion, it's easier than scooping ice cream at Baskin Robbin's or making Subways, both of which I tried, despised and will never do again).
Besides once you’ve got the paperwork down, you can often use it for multiple scholarships. Try to compete for school and local scholarships, or very topic-specific scholarships; those are generally more accessible than national merit scholarships to which many, many students apply for.
Be proactive.
Respond
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