Scholarship tips!

Many of you are already thinking about next semester, and ways to cut costs. First, congratulations on your foresight! This is a great time of year to be thinking about that and as long as you act on those thoughts it puts you far ahead of the game. Keep it up and next fall will be a breeze. 

So you’ve got your loans, and you’ve got your institutional funds, and depending on how your FAFSA worked out you might have some federal and state aid, but there’s still a gap you’ve got to cover. The first place your brain ought to go to is more scholarships. Now, the school doesn’t have any additional funds beyond what your department might have for their yearly evaluations, but this is where outside scholarships come in. In a previous post we talked about where to start your outside scholarship search. Check out the links there and get looking!

This week we’ll talk about how to tell if what you’re looking at is real. As always, you can email any scholarship offers you’re not sure about to staff in the financial aid office and we’ll be more than happy to have a look for you, but here’s a quick primer so you guys know what we look for when we determine whether or not you should consider that scholarship an option.

1) Who’s offering the scholarship? 

There are a wide variety of groups who offer scholarships, but they tend to fall into one of two categories: Not-for-Profits/Foundations  and Individuals/Private Companies. Generally speaking, a scholarship that comes from a foundation tends to have fewer tricky terms and conditions, as they’re not trying to sell a product directly, and therefore tend to be a little safer. A scholarship that comes from a private company or individual – such as a law firm or a store – tends to have more terms and conditions that apply to whether or not they can use you and your submission for sales, with or without your permission, and as brand endorsement. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but they can be more complicated and we really suggest looking carefully at their rules before you apply.

2) What are the terms and conditions? 

Do they acquire ownership of whatever you submit? Can they use your name and photo to endorse their product? Do they plan on displaying your submission? When do they send the funds to the school? Are you required to go to any events if you win? The answers to these questions are typically not indicative of scams, but can sometimes sound fishy or entail things you may not want. Make sure you read them carefully. If any terms and conditions ever mention fees, read those sections carefully and keep in mind that these fees could be signs of a scam.

3) Are applicants required to pay anything?

Sometimes scholarships will have an application fee. This is generally for bigger events, like competitions or portfolio reviews, or in instances where they have to pay judges to read scripts, and generally in all cases that are more like competitions than scholarships. Fees like that – typically around $25 – are fine. However, you should never be required to purchase anything or pay an unreasonable sum of money. Generally speaking, any scholarship that requires a purchase or large fee to enter is not a legitimate scholarship.

4) What information do they ask for on the application? 

Scholarships tend to ask you for your name, age, and address. Sometimes they’ll ask you for your family’s financial situation if one of their conditions is financial need, but generally the scholarship will want you to send copies of your financial aid letter or a paper that the financial aid office fills out. They should never ask you for your social security number, credit card, or bank account information. Never fill these sections out and if you see a scholarship with them, please send it to us so we can warn others! Please ask us if you’re ever unsure about questions the scholarship application is asking.

Got a couple dozen scholarships you want to apply for? Overwhelmed by a variety of deadlines? No problem! Check back in Thursday for tips on how to approach the task.