If you haven’t already been seeking out and applying for scholarships, what better time to start than National Scholarship Month? November was designated as National Scholarship Month by the National Scholarship Providers Association to bring more awareness of scholarship opportunities to the college-bound or those already pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees. The organization works with scholarship providers to make them more effective in providing you with scholarship opportunities and exposing college students to the number of awards out there.

National Scholarship Month was switched from May to November in 2008 for a reason. Now is a great time to start applying for awards, as by next spring, many scholarship deadlines have passed and funding has already been disbursed. And even if you have several months to get ready for a scholarship application deadline, apply early. Scholarships are constantly being added and created, and in a tough economy, best practice will always be to apply early and apply often to get the most out of your scholarship search.

Browse through our site for tips on applying for scholarships to improve your chances of padding your financial aid package with scholarship money. One of the biggest misconceptions out there is that your chances of winning a scholarship award are slim to none. But someone wins each award, right? Why shouldn’t it be you? For an idea of the kinds of awards you could win if you put the time and effort into your scholarship search, see our Success Stories page. Many of those students applied to a lot of scholarships before winning one, or had the same apprehensions you might have about your chances to win an award. Now they’re enjoying life on campus with less of a reliance on student loans and a new confidence that they were chosen to win these awards from large pools of applicants.

Celebrate National Scholarship Month by starting with a free college scholarship search, where we’ll come up with a list of awards that you’re specifically eligible for and have a good shot at landing. Make your search as specific as possible, as there are awards available to students based on almost any characteristic you can think of. Play up your academic strengths if that’s where they are. If you have a unique hobby, use that to your advantage, as there are awards out there that could reward you for your interests. And be sure to keep your profile up to date. If you improve on your GPA, for example, you could be eligible for a number of new scholarship opportunities you weren’t eligible for before.

Most important of all, go into the scholarship search with confidence. There are awards out there for you, so start looking and apply for scholarships before the school year gets away from you. Happy National Scholarship Month!

Posted: under Scholarship Applications, Scholarships.
Tags: Scholarship Applications, Scholarship Search, scholarship tips, Scholarships

Comments (0) Nov 10 2009

For those of you who know you want to be educators and have a strong opinion on unions, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research has an award that you could be eligible for, whether you’re an undergraduate or pursuing an advanced degree. The institute’s $1,000 Applegate/Jackson/Parks Future Teacher Scholarship and this week’s Scholarship of the Week is available to any undergraduate or graduate pursuing a degree in education at any school in the United States. The award is named after three Michigan public school teachers who were fired for their refusal to pay union dues.

Much of the weight for this prize will be placed on the no more than 500-word essay you come up with demonstrating an interest in and knowledge of the Right to Work principle as it applies to educators. As with many career-specific scholarship opportunities, applicants must also show the potential to successfully complete a college-level program in education, as the award will be helping you become a future teacher, after all.

Prize:

$1,000

Eligibility:

Undergraduate and graduate pursuing a degree in education at a college in the United States. Officers, directors, and employees of the National Institute for Labor Relations Research, the National Right to Work Committee, Members of the Selection Review Committee, and their families are not eligible.

Deadline:

Applications will be accepted now through Dec. 31. Requests for applications will be sent via regular mail until December 15 and cannot be requested after that date.

Required Material:

An online application, which includes an essay, and current transcript. The scholarship will be paid to the institution of higher learning which the recipient plans to attend, and the recipient will be required to provide a copy of his/her transcript from that institution at the end of the academic year.

Further details about the application process can be found by conducting a free college scholarship search on Scholarships.com. Once the search is completed, students eligible for this scholarship award will find it in their search results.

Posted: under Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships.
Tags: Scholarship of the Week, Scholarship Search, teachers

Comments (0) Oct 19 2009

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

While most scholarship application deadlines occur between January and March, a number of large scholarship awards for high school seniors have deadlines that fall much earlier in the academic year. To make sure you’re not missing out on major sources of college funding, be sure to start your scholarship search when you start your college applications, if not sooner. If you haven’t gotten around to applying for scholarships yet, check out these awards with approaching deadlines for motivation. You may want to mark them on your calendar and clear some space in your schedule to apply.

Horatio Alger National Scholarship Program
Deadline: October 30
Dollar amount: $20,000
Who qualifies: High school seniors who plan to enter college next fall and to pursue a bachelor’s degree. Students must be U.S. citizens with grade point averages of 2.0 or higher and critical financial need (typically, a family adjusted gross income under $50,000).

Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation
Deadline: October 31
Dollar amount: $20,000
Who qualifies: Current high school seniors planning to enter college in the fall. Must have a minimum high school GPA of 3.0.

VFW Voice of Democracy
Deadline: November 1
Dollar amount: $30,000
Who qualifies: Any high school student in grades 9-12 who composes a taped response of 3-5 minutes to the question, “Does America Still Have Heroes?” Entries should be submitted through your high school or the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post.

Intel Science Talent Search
Deadline: November 18
Dollar amount: $100,000
Who qualifies: High school seniors who have individually completed a research project in science, math, medicine, or engineering. More information on qualifying projects is available on the contest website.

AXA Achievement Scholarship
Deadline: December 15
Dollar amount: $25,000
Who qualifies: High school seniors who plan to enroll as undergraduate students at a two-year or four-year university. Winners will be chosen based on outstanding achievements in school, work, or their community.

These are only a few of the scholarships for high school students in our database, and only a few of the awards with upcoming deadlines.  For more information about these and other scholarship opportunities, conduct a free college scholarship search.  If you qualify based on the information you provided, you will see a link to the award in your search results.

Posted: under High School, Scholarship Applications, Scholarships.
Tags: high school student scholarships, Scholarship Applications, scholarship information, Scholarship Search, Scholarships

Comments (0) Oct 14 2009

Are you an aspiring politician, skilled speech-writer, or an excellent orator?  Perhaps you just want to learn more about the United States Constitution and share what you’ve learned.  If you’re passionate about government or public speaking, or if you’re looking to improve your knowledge of each while potentially winning scholarships, this week’s Scholarship of the Week is worth checking out.

The American Legion National Oratorical Contest is an annual scholarship for high school students.  It’s divided into local, state, and national speech competitions, with scholarship opportunities existing at the state and national levels, and potentially the local level, as well.  The top scholarship prize is $18,000 and the contest is open to students in grades 9-12.  The goal of the contest is to develop a deeper knowledge and appreciation of the Constitution of the United States on the part of high school students.

Prize:

State/department winners will receive $1,500 and go on to compete in the national finals.

National prizes are as follows:

• 1st place - $18,000
• 2nd place - $16,000
• 3rd place - $14,000

Eligibility:

Currently enrolled high school students, grades 9-12, who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.  Contestants must either live or attend school in the state where they enter the competition.  Students can only compete in one state.

Deadline:

Varies.  Local contests occur during fall/winter, with state-level competitions concluding before March 8, 2010.  The national finals will take place April 9-11, 2010.

Required Material:

To be eligible for department and national finals, students must enter through their local American Legion.  Dates, locations, and contact information for local contests can be accessed through the American Legion website.  The contest will have two parts: a Prepared Oration and an Assigned Topic Discourse.  The Prepared Oration must be on some aspect of the Constitution of the United States with emphasis on the duties and obligations of a citizen to our government.  The same oration must be used in both the department and national contests.  The possible topics for the Assigned Topic discourse are available on the American Legion website.

Further details about the application process can be found by conducting a free college scholarship search on Scholarships.com. Once the search is completed, students eligible for this scholarship award will find it in their search results.

Posted: under Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships.
Tags: high school student scholarships, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarship Search, Scholarships

Comments (0) Oct 12 2009

Many college scholarships focus on high school seniors, but there are scholarship opportunities for younger students as well.  This week’s Scholarship of the Week is one such opportunity, the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program.  These scholarships are awarded to students in grades 5-12 who have served their communities in a significant way in the last 12 months.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards were created in 1995 through a partnership between Prudential Financial and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.  These community service scholarships give young people who show an early commitment to helping others a chance at national recognition, as well as up to $6,000 to pay for school and an additional $5,000 to benefit the charity organization of their choice.

Prize:

Five high school and five middle school National Honorees will receive $5,000 scholarship awards and an additional $5,000 donation to a charity of their choice.

102 State Honorees will receive $1,000 awards and will go on to compete in the national contest and participate in an awards ceremony in Washington, DC.

Eligibility:

Students in grades 5-12 who are legal residents of any US State or the District of Columbia who have engaged in a volunteer activity in the last 12 months.  Applications must be certified by a school principal or the local head of one of several officially designated certifying organizations listed on the contest website.

Posted: under Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships.
Tags: community service scholarships, high school student scholarships, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarship Search, Scholarships

Comments (0) Sep 28 2009

According to newly released data, default rates on federal student loans continued to climb in 2008, reaching a nine-year high of 6.7 percent, most likely as a result of the recession.  The annual cohort default rate, released by the Department of Education on Monday, covers federal student loans that went into repayment between October 2006 and September 2007 and had gone into default by September 2008.

The 2007 cohort default rate was 1.5 percentage points higher than the rate for the previous year, as significant increases took place across the board.  Defaults were higher in the bank-based Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program than in the Federal Direct Loans Program, which is typically the case, but the discrepancy between the two grew this year.  A total of 7.2 percent of loans in the bank-based system were in default, compared to 4.8 percent of the loans in the Direct Loans program.  The numbers for 2006 were 5.3 and 4.7 percent, respectively.

Much of this discrepancy can be attributed to a higher percentage of students at proprietary schools participating in the FFEL Program, as these schools carried a default rate of 11.1 percent, compared to rates of 6.0 percent and 3.8 percent at public and private colleges.  Still, the lower default rate in the direct lending program is likely to be brought up as Congress debates moving all lending from FFEL into Direct Loans.

Default is defined as failure to make payments on a student loan according to the terms of the master promissory note the borrower signed, and federal student loans are considered in default only after several months of missed payments.  This means that 6.7 percent of students in this cohort had stopped making payments for 270 days or more within 1-2 years of their first loan payment coming due.  It’s likely that the cohort default rate numbers released paint an optimistic picture of the number of borrowers currently having trouble making payments on student loans.

New repayment options may help troubled borrowers, though, and several have been introduced in recent months.  One is the federal Income-Based Repayment Plan, which allows students to make payments they can afford and forgives all remaining debt after 25 years.  Borrowers worried about repayment can also look into loan forgiveness programs offered in exchange for public service, which have been expanded under the Higher Education Act and national service legislation.

The best way for students to avoid the prospect of defaulting on loans is to limit borrowing as much as possible.  Put some serious effort into a scholarship search, and consider affordability when doing your college search, as well.  Practices such as keeping your options open and landing a scholarship can go a long way towards reducing your loan debt and your risk of being unable to pay once you graduate.

Posted: under College News, College and the Economy, College in Congress, Student Loans.
Tags: College in Congress, college news, College Search, default, Direct Loans, FFEL, financial tips, loan repayment, Scholarship Search, stafford loans, Student Loans, Tips

Comments (0) Sep 15 2009

Often, scholarship opportunities also serve as opportunities for students to think about and respond to pressing issues of the day, and one of the problems weighing most heavily on society in the last year has been the global economic crisis.  While the recession has begun showing signs of abating, it is still creating serious problems in several areas of life, ranging from paying for school to owning a home.

Homeowners have been facing threats of foreclosure due to a combination of factors related to the recession, and this problem could still get worse before it gets better.  The real estate website Foreclosure.com is sponsoring a scholarship essay contest that invites college students to propose solutions to the ongoing spike in foreclosures.  With a $5,000 top prize for the scholarship essay that best explains “how to solve the foreclosure crisis,” the Foreclosure.com Scholarship Program is this week’s Scholarship of the Week.

Prize:

Top prize: $5,000

Four runners-up: $1,000

Eligibility:

Students who are currently enrolled in or have been accepted to an accredited college, university, law school or trade school in the United States.  U.S. citizenship is required.

Posted: under Scholarship of the Week, Scholarships.
Tags: college scholarships, essay scholarship, graduate student scholarships, Scholarship of the Week, Scholarship Search, Scholarships, undergraduate scholarships, writing scholarship

Comments (0) Sep 14 2009

Unless you’re lucky enough to happen across an extremely obscure and unusual scholarship with only one or two qualified applicants, you are going to have to face some competition to receive a scholarship award. In the case of essay scholarships that are easy to enter or that come with a substantial award, you may be facing quite a lot of competition. In fact, with many scholarship competitions, you may be up against so much competition that there’s no guarantee a reviewer will even have time to completely read and digest each scholarship essay submitted. This makes your essay’s introduction vitally important.

The first sentence of your scholarship application is your first, best and possibly only chance to capture your reader’s attention. To have the best chance at winning scholarships, you need to know how to start your essay off right. The following are some tips to help you craft an eye-catching introduction that gets your foot in the door and gets your application the attention it deserves.

Put it in your own words.
While starting with a quote is a common technique in speaking and some writing, it may not work best in a scholarship application essay. Leading with a quote shows the reviewer that you know how to read, but it doesn’t tell much else about you or your ideas. Use your own words to begin, and if a quote supports or enhances your argument, consider bringing it in later in the essay.

Avoid clichés and tired phrases.
One of your essay’s goals should be to distinguish you from the competition, and it won’t do this if it rehashes the same overused expressions that everyone else employs. Keep in mind that the scholarship reviewer will be reading hundreds or even thousands of applications. What seems clever or cute the first time doesn’t seem that way after the 50th or 100th iteration. A good rule to follow is that if a phrase belongs on a bumper sticker or in an e-mail from your mom, it likely does not belong in your scholarship essay.

Establish a personal connection.
If your experience gives you a unique perspective on the essay’s topic, show your reader this. Most people are suckers for personal anecdotes, provided the stories are interesting and well-told. Make sure the story you tell fits these criteria and actually enriches your essay and contributes to your overall message. Don’t get melodramatic and don’t bog down your introduction in an overly long, detailed or irrelevant narrative, but if you’ve got a good story to tell to frame your essay, use it.

Say something new.
Are you arguing something that falls well outside the typical series of canned responses? Consider leading with your thesis, or at least some of the information or realizations that guided your essay towards its thesis. There’s no better way to stand out from a pile of fairly standard responses than to have something fresh and thought-provoking to contribute with your scholarship application.

With a solid introduction and a thoughtful and well-written response, you’ll be well on your way to writing a scholarship-worthy essay.

Posted: under Scholarship Applications, Scholarships, Tips.
Tags: applications, essay scholarship, Scholarship Applications, Scholarship Search, scholarship tips, Scholarships, Tips, writing scholarship

Comments (0) Sep 11 2009

With college football season underway, it’s a good time for high school athletes starting their senior years to be making their decisions on whether they’ll be pursuing sports on the college level. Athletic scholarships go a long way toward making those decisions easier, and even in a struggling economy, sports programs continue to set aside funding to better their teams. Better yet, even those who aren’t the top soccer, baseball or tennis player on the roster are eligible for scholarship opportunities offered by local groups outside of the NCAA awards looking to reward students who balance their schoolwork with athletics.

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune points to several tips for talented athletes in the market for scholarships, including making yourself known to coaches and schools early and often and making sure your grades are where they should be. Most athletic scholarships require a minimum GPA for eligibility, even if you’re the star of your basketball team. And even if you do get that coveted sports scholarship, you’ll be expected to maintain a decent GPA to be eligible for continued funding and a spot on the team. Student athletes should also keep an open mind about schools they’re targeting. Big-name schools are much more competitive, and unless you’re one of the top athletes in your field, they may offer much less play time even if you do make the team than smaller colleges outside of Division I. A college search is a good place to start to learn more about colleges offering your sports program.

It isn’t easy to be recruited for a full ride at a top university. A strategy of more students recently has been specializing in one sport, or getting involved in sports outside of football, baseball and basketball that get less attention to stand out more in the competitive world of sports scholarships. New sports scholarships in fields like lacrosse, for example, are becoming more common, and with new scholarships, the competition is often much less fierce than with more popular, established award programs.

For those who excel in both sports and athletics, straight academic scholarships may prove to be a good option as well, especially if you’re a good essay writer.

Posted: under Back to School, High School, High School News, Scholarships, Sports, Tips.
Tags: athletic scholarships, athletics, College Search, Scholarship Search, Sports, sports scholarships

Comments (0) Sep 08 2009