Much like grants there are tons of scholarships out there for the taking. There are also thousands of websites out there, that just want your information and they’ll send you a “free guide” to all the free college scholarships out there. It is time consuming, confusing, and doesn’t get you very far. What can you do to find free college scholarships? The best place is to get scholarships from your local university. Talking to your academic counselor and financial advisor is the best way to find out what options there are for scholarships in your field of study. Here are some other options I took while in college.
Free Scholarship Competitions
The College Scholarships foundation, which can be found at www.collegescholarships.org offers competitions in:
Web Blogging – It should still be $10,000 offered to whoever maintains a weblog. Issued annually.
Politics – $2000 is given to people who maintain a Political weblog
Minority Students – $1000 for minorities who simply add their name to the list.
Female Students – Women studying in any field nationally can get free scholarship for submitting their information.
There are so many competitions like these. This site is one that I found credible, and that I have used. I did not win any scholarships but it is great to know that you can win money like this for simply submitting information. Read the fine print though, for some there is GPA requirements etc. to be considered.
Free College Scholarships for Women
Women in the workforce has been growing rapidly. At my school girls beat guys 4 to 1 in the classroom. Hey, I’m not complaining. There are also a lot of scholarships out there for women. The competition above for example, wants to help deserving female students pay for their education. There is an essay required and academic information which is common among many scholarship opportunities. Women’s groups and companies will also give female students scholarships if they fill out their form or application.
Different Types of free scholarships
Athletes - The most obvious scholarship at my school and probably yours are the athletic scholarships. They can be really competitive and political scholarships to give out, therefore we hear about them, and they are usually for a lot of money.
Minority – Probably the second highest as far as money and scholarships awarded goes to minority students. FAFSA will even help out minority students by having the race option available. You should not neglect this category. You will miss out on a lot of free money out there. Plus it seems like everyone is a minority nowadays so commit yourself to applying.
Degree’s – There are myriad of scholarships out there for pertaining degrees and majors. I am an undergrad. So all I can add to this category is primarily need based scholarships. There are subject matter scholarships which I have mentioned in other articles, but many students change their major midstream so there are not many out there.
State Funded – This one is without a doubt crucial to go for. My sister got $10,000 from Arnold and the CA state government. These scholarships are merit based, so look to provide some valuable information to your state. Here are the most common
Merit scholarships for minorities, academic talent, nurses, and funds for low-income students.
These are just a few of the different types of scholarships available to you. Don’t be conned into thinking all the websites out there are good to give your information to, but also know that you can apply for all that I mentioned right online. Free college scholarships are available. Now that you know the pertinent information get out there and apply!
