Capturing Private Scholarships

If you’re motivated, billions of dollars in private scholarships are waiting for you to chase after them. Luckily, all this money isn’t just reserved for the egghead kid who will eventually have to decide whether he or she will turn down the admission offer from Harvard or Yale. Plenty of regular kids can earn them too. But ultimately, only about 7% of students win one.

Before learning more about private scholarships, however, you need to appreciate some of the harsh realities about these prizes. Private scholarships are often only awarded for one year. So if you work
really hard to win scholarships to cover your freshman year, you will still have to deal with three years of colleges costs.

But here is what can be most discouraging: Enterprising students
who capture a scholarship can jeopardize a portion of their financial
aid award. Federal rules require that a school consider outside scholarship
money when calculating its financial aid package. Let’s say, for
instance, that a family’s expected contribution to a school is $15,000
and the cost of the college is $25,000. The school offers a financial aid
package of $10,000 to fill the gap. Now let’s suppose that the student
wins a $2,000 scholarship. The school would reduce its financial aid
package by $2,000.


When this occurs, it’s better if a college reduces the size of a loan
in a package rather than grant money that needn’t be repaid. Some
schools will and some won’t. It makes sense to ask financial aid officers
at the institutions that interest you about their policies regarding private
scholarships.

Frankly, it will often be more worthwhile for students to look for
merit awards from individual schools. The school scholarships are often
far more lucrative than what you can expect with a private scholarship,
and they typically last four years. A study conducted by the
Institute for Higher Education Policy concluded that the average private
scholarship for undergraduates is worth $1,982.

Finding Private Scholarships
Typically, the best known scholarships are also going to be the
hardest to win. Brilliant kids who have the most remarkable resumes
are going to snag national scholarships such as the Coca-Cola Scholars
awards, the AXA Achievement Scholarship, Gates Millennium
Scholars, and the Intel Science Talent Search. Most of the kids who
contemplate applying for these sorts of mega awards will be wasting their time.

So what about everybody else? Here’s the best way for a child to
proceed:
Aim lower. Find loose scholarship cash by hunting in your own
community and region. Do your parents’ workplaces offer scholarships
to children of employees? Some unions also kick in money for
the right kid. Service organizations are another good vein to mine.

Here are some to contact:
• Lions Club
• Kiwanis International
• Rotary Clubs
• Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Rebekah Lodges
• Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks
• Optimist International
• Soroptimist International


Community foundations are overlooked local resources. These local
foundations—there are more than 650 scattered across the country—
play matchmaker between generous benefactors in an area and
deserving charitable projects. Contact the nearest community foundation
to see whether it operates scholarship programs. To find them,
visit the community foundation locator sponsored by the Council on
Foundations and the Community Foundations of America at
www. communityfoundations.net.

Also check for scholarship treasures in your high school’s guidance
department. Periodically ask the counselor for any new scholarship
possibilities. Visit the resource desk at the local library.

The most successful treasure hunters will be the ones who approach
the scholarship process as a part-time job. Finding scholarships,
filling out applications, and writing essays can ultimately be
more lucrative than a job at Baskin-Robbins.

Explore free online scholarship tools. Online scholarship locators
will simplify your job. Once at the free sites, you can personalize
your search by typing in your interests, accomplishments, and
other unique aspects about yourself. The database will compare your
profile with the requirements of countless scholarships and spit out a
list of possibilities. To generate more leads, vary the information you
supply on different attempts.

Here are three prominent scholarships search sites:
• Fast Web, www.fastweb.com
• College Board’s Scholarship Search,
http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_ss/welcome.jsp
• Scholarships.com, www.scholarships.com

Check for oddball scholarships. Are you left handed? Juniata
College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, will award up to $1,000 to lefthanded
students through its Frederick and Mary F. Beckley Scholarship.
Loyola University in Chicago offers an incredible deal to
students who are Catholic and have a last name of Zolp. A lucky Zolp,
sounds like a Dr. Seuss character, will receive free tuition for four
years. That’s not the only surname scholarship. Texas A&M University
bestows a full-ride scholarship to any student with the last name of
Scarpinato. Harvard oversees a bunch of surname scholarships.


It’s unlikely you can think of any activity—impressive or not—that
can’t lay claim to its own scholarships. At DePauw University, female
music majors who can sing or play “The Star Spangled Banner” with
sincerity are eligible for the Icy Frost Bridge Scholarship. The teenage
couple who creates the neatest prom outfits that are held together
with Duck Brand Duct Tape wins a big scholarship. Ursinus College
in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, bestows its J.D. Salinger Award to creative
writers who are oddball geniuses. Also in line for free cash from
various scholarship sponsors are surfers, golf caddies, twins, vegetarians,
duck callers, bowlers, pagans, and kids who can bake incredible apple pies.

Check with the college. Colleges routinely dispense scholarships
that alumni or other supporters of the school have established,
in some cases decades ago. You shouldn’t confuse these scholarships
with merit awards that a college or university may automatically bestow
if an incoming student meets certain academic criteria. Schools,
for instance, may be sitting on pots of money for kids who have devoted
hundreds of hours to community service or for students who
want to major in languages and study overseas. Many colleges and universities
post these scholarship opportunities on their Web sites, but
it can pay off to also contact the schools.

Beware of scholarship rip-offs. A ripe breeding ground for ripoff
artists are free college financial seminars. Legitimate professionals
won’t promise that your child will win a scholarship or grant. Be skeptical
of any testimonials that you hear from audience members. They
could easily be planted in the room to generate sales.

How do you know if you are dealing with a shyster? According to
the Federal Trade Commission, here are some of their telltale promises:
• The scholarship is guaranteed or you’ll get your money back.
• You can’t get this information anywhere else.
• I just need your credit card or bank account number to hold this scholarship.
• The scholarship will cost money.
• You’re a finalist in a contest that you never entered.


Learn more about scholarship scams at the Federal Trade Commission’s
Web site at www.ftc.gov/scholarshipscams. To file a complaint
with the FTC call (877) FTC-HELP. Other contacts, if you
suspect a scam, are the local Better Business Bureau and your state’s
department of consumer protection.


Action Plan
Unless your child is a stellar standout, focus on regional or local
scholarships. Typically these outside scholarships won’t be as lucrative
as merit awards that schools distribute.
Source: The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price

PRIVATE SCHOLARSHIPS

There are millions upon millions of dollars in scholarship money sitting out there just waiting for the right match between the intent of the donor and the skills or attributes of the recipient. There are scholarships intended to boost particular skills; for example, an engineering association may sponsor scholarships for students who enroll in mechanical engineering programs.

There are scholarships aimed at cultural or ethnic groups; within the bounds of civil rights laws, private groups can offer grants to minority groups or immigrant students who come from a particular part of the world.

Many unions and professional associations offer scholarships to the
children of their members. Some companies help pay the college costs of
the children of employees. (Don’t overlook one of the greatest benefits of
working for a college: most offer free tuition to children of employees, and
there is a growing trend toward interchangeability of that benefit among
groups of schools.)

Finally, don’t overlook your own backyard. Your student’s high school
academic adviser should be able to provide a list of scholarships and workstudy
programs sponsored by area businesses, service groups, and individuals.
As an example, my hometown has a large pool of money—a combination
of private bequests and contributions by taxpayers who send an additional
check along with the annual property tax payment (they really do)—that is
offered through the high school and distributed at graduation.

Where to Find Private Scholarships
Let me start by saying that any book you might purchase that claims to
list thousands of private scholarship programs you can apply to right now and
go to college for free! is probably not worth the paper it is printed on. First of all,
there is a nearly continuous stream of changes in these programs from month
to month and year to year. Second, even if you expect that 50 percent of the
scholarships listed in a book are no longer offered or have changed substantially,
the publication is probably missing hundreds or thousands of new programs.

The best way to find private scholarships is to beat the bushes yourself:
contact your student’s guidance counselor, ask any association or group to
which you belong, consult area service groups, and do a search on the Internet.

Beware of scholarship Web sites or consultants that offer to match you with a grant
program after you pay a fee. In most cases, you can find the same scholarships
by searching on your own.


The best time to start looking for a local or association scholarship
is a year or two before your student will actually be making application to
college. Once you find a scholarship your student is eligible for, spend the
time to carefully read all of the fine print. See if there is something in your
child’s background that can be highlighted to bring the application to the
top of the pile. Find out whether your child would be a strong candidate
for a particular scholarship if he or she were to perform a particular type of
community service or commit to a highly specific major in high school or
college. By checking early, you’ll have a year or more to prepare.

Work your way down this list (adding any other sources that you
know about) and make contact a year or more before you begin the college
application process:
• Unions. Funds may be available to help young members, or the
children of members.
• Professional associations. Special-interest groups may offer
funds to the children of members, sometimes aimed at
encouraging more graduates in a particular field.
• Service clubs. For example: Elks, Jaycees, Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary
International, Sertoma, and Zonta, among others.
• Employer programs. Some companies offer financial aid to the
children of their employees, or may offer to assist with nightschool
or part-time tuition for workers of any age.
• Local governments. Some towns, villages, and cities collect
contributions from residents and use them to award scholarships
to local students.
• Local school districts. In some areas, the schools themselves
oversee endowments or one-time contributions from area
businesses and groups aimed at assisting students in need or
those who have demonstrated exceptional civic involvement.
• Corporate scholarship programs. Some of the country’s
best-known companies as well as hundreds of other lesserknown
businesses disburse scholarships each year. Look for

advertisements and promotions in stores and on the products
you purchase.
• Private foundations. There are thousands of privately
administered scholarships, worth millions of dollars. Many
of these grants are aimed at special interests of the donors:
minorities, persons with special needs, and immigrants, for
example. Other programs may be aimed at encouraging students
who promise to deliver needed services to remote areas; an
example is medical scholarships that are based on the student’s
promise to work as a doctor or nurse in underserved areas.
Read More: PRIVATE SCHOLARSHIPS