Page 26 - EQ Mag-2019

COLLEGE SAVINGS RESOURCES
Navigating the
Scholarship
Landscape
by Mia Bradford
rants and Scholarships are considered gift
aid because students do not have to pay
Gthem back. However, it is important to
understand the requirements of the grants and
scholarships so that students can maintain those
that are renewable throughout their academic
careers. Especially with scholarships, it is important
to know the duration of the scholarship so that this
does not affect affordability after the freshman year.
25 www.equitymovement247.com
The great news is that there is no limit to the
amount of scholarships a student can obtain.
Students can begin applying to scholarships as
early as Kindergarten. You can find scholarships for
students under 13 on the finaid.org website. Please
beware of scholarship scams. My family was a
victim of these scams and we paid for access to a
scholarship database and it should never cost
money to apply to a scholarship. READ the user
agreement as I have heard that a couple sites which
I will not name re-sells student's personal
information to third parties and the students are
spammed afterwards.
When students apply to the university, they may be
automatically considered for awards directly from
the school. However, they can obtain scholarships
from many sources. Although it is great to have
students apply for the larger scholarships like Coca-
Cola, Jackie Robinson, Foot Locker, etc. especially
if they are a competitive applicant, it is also a good
practice to have them apply to local scholarships. I
usually have my students ask the adults in their
families to see if their employers, unions and civic
organizations offer scholarships. There are also
local organization such as the chamber of
commerce, fraternities and sororities, unions, and
civic organizations that offer scholarships and
though smaller in number, they begin to add up and
can make a significant difference in the student’s
ability to attend college. Many of these
organizations do not have enough applicants and
I’m sure you’ve heard that many dollars in
scholarships go unclaimed. One key practice, as
you become familiar with scholarships and their
eligibility requirements, is to have students apply
only for scholarships where they meet the criteria.
Sean Spears posted an article in USA Today,
highlighting the following 10 websites as the best for
scholarships.
PETERSON'S
“The site boasts $10 billion in scholarship awards
and has an impressive collection of articles, test
prep resources and more.”
UNIGO
“ Unigo has plenty to offer beyond just scholarships,
including jobs, internships, college profiles and
rankings, articles and a textbook store. When it COLLEGENET.COM
comes to scholarships, the site offers both profile- “You can search by keyword or create a
based matching as well as easy-to-browse personalized profile to get filtered results. From
categories.” there, you can create, manage and save lists that
FASTWEB you can return to later.’
“Fastweb, a subsidiary of Monster, hosts more than SCHOLARSHIP MONKEY
1.5 million scholarships that amount to more than “Scholarship Monkey offers three search options:
$3.4 billion dollars. And it's all so well organized!
The search platform's filters make it hard not to find personalized search, search by keyword and lists of
scholarships. Results from any of these searches
exactly what you're looking for.” can then be further filtered by college, but
unfortunately not by any other criteria.”
CAPPEX
“Cappex has a large scholarship database and
they're not afraid to brag a bit: "We've Got More
Than $11 Billion in Scholarships."
CHEGG
“It acquired scholarship match service Zinch in 2011 Your resource towards financial health
and now hosts scholarships totaling over $1 billion.
Its interface is simple and the mandatory sign-up
process is well worth the time. What's more, it has a
"top scholarship picks this week" category, which
highlights opportunities you may have otherwise
missed. And on top of the scholarships, Chegg
offers homework help, tutoring, test prep,
internships and (of course) textbooks.”
THE COLLEGE BOARD
“The College Board offers much more than an
extensive list of scholarships. It also has test prep,
articles and college search tools, among others. And
its "scholarships, other financial aid and internships EQUITY
from more than 2,200 programs" totals nearly $6
billion.”
NICHE MOVEMENT | MAGAZINE
“It's neatly organized into categories that make it
simple to start finding and applying for scholarships.
You can browse by categories - including, but not
limited to, sports, interest area, career and major.”
SCHOLARSHIPS.COM Download the app
Scholarships.com's tagline says it all: "With more
than 2.7 million scholarship and grant opportunities
worth more than $19 billion, just about everyone is
bound to find something."
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