Do Not Forget About Institutional Scholarships When Looking For College Funding
When we are considering college scholarships we tend to think of scholarships as being awarded by major companies and by the larger academic bodies and these are certainly extremely good sources of funding. However, they also carry one major problem and that is that competition is fierce with hundreds of thousands of applications being submitted from all across the country. It may be a great feather in your cap to win one of these scholarships but your odds of that happening are almost as good as they are of winning the lottery.
For many students a better alternative would be to look for an institutional scholarship.
Almost all colleges will award at least one in-house (institutional) scholarship each year and a lot of the larger colleges will award more than one, generally making scholarships available within each separate department of the college. If you are enrolled at one of the larger colleges it is possible therefore that you might be eligible to apply for a number of scholarships within your own institution.
While institutional scholarships have been with us for many years, surprisingly a quite small percentage of students apply for them in comparison to the better known and well publicized nationwide scholarship programs. One thing to note here is that most of these scholarships will not cover the full costs of attending college and a large number will be restricted to cover just tuition fees, or to cover just housing costs. Even so, the sums of money available are often substantial and they will certainly help considerably when it comes to paying your bills.
Most of the bigger colleges will also have departments that are dedicated solely to student financial aid, including scholarships, and will let you have information about just what scholarships are available and how you can apply for them. This is a very good place to start as you can get a lot of information and and help to ensure you submit your application on time. You will also find that a lot of colleges have internet sites which also provide information about available scholarships, including details of the application procedure.
If you are familiar with the application procedure for nationwide scholarships, you will find that the process is essentially the same for institutional scholarships. Each scholarship will however have its own specific requirements and so you will need to ensure that you read these through carefully and follow the instructions to the letter. Additionally, be sure to check carefully to ensure that you are eligible for any scholarship before applying. Most scholarships have a list of eligibility criteria which you must meet before putting in your application and, if you are in any doubt, you should ask the awarding body before applying.
One benefit of institutional scholarships is that, as there is less competition, you do not normally need to wait too long before finding out whether or not you have been successful. A further benefit (although it might not seem like a benefit at the time) is that, if you are not successful, you will nonetheless have gained valuable experience of the application procedure at your college and will therefore be better prepared when it comes to applying in the second and subsequent years.
Just before leaving the subject of college scholarships it should be noted that these are only one alternative to the better known national scholarship programs. There are however many other sources of scholarship funding, not the least of which are the much overlooked credit union college scholarships.
Tags: , college grants, scholarship, college funding, college loans, pell grants, student loans
