May is coming soon. Some schools are very good at helping kids look for scholarships; others are not. Often times home schoolers and adults need guidance for scholarships as well. So, here are a few that I have picked up throughout the years.
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Check with your school and school district. Even if you home school, the school district you pay taxes to and live in is to provide you with scholarship information.
Check with your utility companies. Each year, our water company, electric company, and telephone company give out scholarships to customers and children of customers. When I went off to college, I had a $500 scholarship from my parents electric coop. All I had to do was apply and write an essay as to what my college plans were. Call your utility companies and see what they offer.
Check with other companies in your area. Our newspaper has a writing contest for a $100 scholarship - not much, but it buys a textbook. Our grocery store has one for $500. The feed store offers one to kids entering vet school or an ag related degree. Kohl's and Walmart even offer them.
Check with associations that service the area you want to study. The hospital women's auxiliary club offers one to people entering nursing.
If you are a non-traditional student, search the web - there are some odd ones out there, designed for a specific target area, such as for widowed women with minor children, or those for orphaned children, or children of a fallen police officer.
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Many banks and credit unions offer them.
Check with your employer. When I worked for the telephone company they offered them to children of employees who had been employed for over 5 years.
Check with the university, college, junior college or trade school you plan to attend.
Interested in studying politics? Check with your state representative to see what he may be aware of.
If the senior has been in 4H, Scouts, or other clubs, check them. They offer scholarships as well.
Child of a veteran? Again, they are offered.
Apply for all that you can. You may not think small scholarships are much help, especially those of only $100 or $200. But if you get several of them, they add up!
If you have a high school senior in your household, check out http://www.fastweb.com for lots and lots of scholarship opportunities. Many require writing an essay -- if your son or daughter is good at creative writing, they will have an edge!
Look to local sources when applying for scholarships. You are much more likely to get a scholarship from the school's PTA than you are to get the scholarships given by giants like Coca-Cola and Calgon.
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It's all a numbers game. National scholarship searches will have hundreds more applicants than local organizations.
Ask a QuestionHere are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community or ask a new question.
The only help I received was after I filled out my FAFSA form for college. It helps to do the FAFSA form before March 1st to be eligible for State Grants. I try to do my FAFSA before July 1st to avoid the Federal Interest Rate Annual Increase.
My husband recently decided to go back to school. The first step is to choose "where" you want to go to school. Second is to talk to an advisor of that school about getting financial assistance. The advisor will be able to direct you to possible web locations for applying for assistance. My husband was fortunate enough to qualify for a "Pell Grant".
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With a "Pell Grant", as long as his grades stay up, his education is payed for up to a certain amount. We also ended up having to take out a "small" loan for the remainder of the tuition, and living expenses which doesn't gain interest or have to be paid on until 6 months after he graduates.
May is coming soon. Some schools are very good at helping kids look for scholarships; others are not. Often times home schoolers and adults need guidance for scholarships as well. So, here are a few that I have picked up throughout the years.
