Yesterday, the big “oh, look, a distraction from my homework!” news was a boy in Colorado who had apparently climbed into a homemade hot air balloon and floated away.  This, of course, raised questions. The immediate question was, “is this for real?” especially after he was found hiding in his house, safely on solid ground, a few hours later.  Immediately on the heels of this first query was a second, “who builds a giant balloon in their backyard, anyway?”

While no one has had much luck answering the first one yet, maybe you’re the type of student who knows the answer to the second question.  For some people, there’s a certain allure to creating and executing plans for original creations.  While your experiments and blueprints may not have resulted in a shiny balloon capable of capturing and holding national attention for hours, your inventions can still gain you recognition, and even cash, by way of scholarship awards.  So if the saga of “balloon boy” yesterday inspired you to build your own airborne contraption, you may want to see if you can win some scholarship money by doing so.

There are numerous scholarships available for more inventive students, whether they’re interested in engineering, design, business and entrepreneurship, or just making cool things as a hobby.  Students engaging in other out-of-the-ordinary pursuits in addition to inventing may take an interest in any number of unusual college scholarships, ranging from awards for speaking fluent Klingon to awards for exceptional duck-calling.

Aspiring inventors who are looking for college aid will definitely want to check out the Collegiate Inventors Competition.  This annual scholarship offers awards of up to $25,000 for doing what you do anyway: creating and developing a new and workable idea, process, or technology.  Students more interested in building elaborate designs from shiny material, on the other hand, may find themselves drawn to the Duck Brand Duct Tape “Stuckat Prom” Contest.  This well-known annual scholarship gives one lucky couple $3,000 college scholarships for designing and wearing duct tape prom attire.  If you don’t just want to build, but want to also produce, market, and distribute your brilliant inventions, you may be a candidate for one of several entrepreneurship and business scholarships awarded each year by various foundations.  There may even be local scholarships for young entrepreneurs in your area.

These aren’t the only scholarship opportunities available to creative and enterprising students.  To see more award opportunities like the ones mentioned above, conduct a free scholarship search on Scholarships.com.

Posted: under Scholarships.
Tags: business scholarship, design scholarship, engineering, local scholarships, Scholarship Search, Scholarships

Comments (0) Oct 16 2009

Majoring in engineering can lead to a stable, lucrative, and challenging career, but it involves a lot of hard work and often more than four years of college with little free time to earn money to finance your education.  Luckily, in addition to a good job, your engineering major can also land you college scholarships, such as this week’s Scholarship of the Week.  The Scholarships.com College Engineering Scholarship offers an annual award of $1,000 to an undergraduate student majoring in engineering.  There are no GPA or test score requirements. To win, all you have to do is write a scholarship essay explaining what has influenced you to pursue a career in engineering.

Prize:

$1000

Eligibility:

Registered Scholarships.com user and current undergraduate student or high school senior who will be enrolled in a two-year or four-year college or university in the coming academic year.

Posted: under Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships.
Tags: Area of Study Scholarships, engineering, essay scholarship, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships, undergraduate scholarships

Comments (0) Aug 03 2009

While many stories right now are focusing on financial aid programs finding themselves strapped for cash to award an increased of needy applicants, this is not universally the case. Data published by The Chronicle of Higher Education shows that two federal grant programs that were added in 2006 still have more awards than applicants.  The Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grant have gained some participation, but still they’re still falling short of enrollment goals.

Both grants are intended to supplement Federal Pell Grants for students who are both academically talented and financially needy. The ACG is a grant of $750 to $1,300 for college freshmen and sophomores who have completed a rigorous high school curriculum and excelled academically, while the SMART Grant is an award of up to $4,000 per year designed to support college juniors and seniors who are enrolled in a science, math, engineering, technology, or critically needed language program.  Approximately 465,000 students received the ACG and SMART grants in the 2007-2008 academic year, up 95,000 from the first year they were offered.

In order to attract more applicants and meet their goal of doubling participation by the 2011-2012 academic year, the department is pushing financial aid administrators to become more aware of award criteria and to make sure the grants are being fully awarded.  In addition, requirements have also been loosened and students enrolled in eligible five-year programs will be able to receive a SMART grant in their fifth year of school beginning in July.

Posted: under College Grants, College in Congress.
Tags: ACG, College Grants, College in Congress, engineering, Financial Aid, math, science, SMART Grant, technology, undergraduate students

Comments (0) Jan 15 2009