When I worked in higher education, I coordinated a grant that supported hundreds of first-generation and Pell eligible students.  One of the things that I really came to understand first-hand working with these cohorts was that they struggle to manage the financial aspect of college.  They weren’t alone.  The majority of college students (85%) in the US receive financial aid of some sort.  Money is one of the leading reason that students drop out of school.  Of the students I worked with, those that progressed beyond their first year of school were usually dependent on student loans.  In addition, they found out too late (when their first bill is past due) that financial aid wouldn’t cover all of their costs.  When it was time to begin their second term, they panicked because they still owed a balance from fall or they realized what their loan balance would be when they graduated.  It was surprising to me that students who were struggling financially but performing very well academically didn’t realize that they have options to pay for school beyond financial aid.

• Merit scholarships:  Schools offer merit scholarships to academically high performing high school students to attract them to their institution.  This can lower the total cost to attend significantly.  Students who are offered a merit scholarship when they are admitted to school must meet certain academic criteria for the scholarship to continue.  This sometimes leaves students who weren’t offered a scholarship at the time of admission (and these are usually the students who need it the most) and students who had a rough first semester having to pay full costs to continue.  But….what students don’t know is that if a student loses their scholarship after their first term because they didn’t meet the academic requirements to continue the scholarship – or, if they were not awarded a scholarship to begin with and earn excellent grades their first term, they can apply for the scholarship.  If they lost the scholarship, they can request to have it reinstated.  This usually requires a written letter of explanation regarding what happened first term and what is being done to avoid the same outcome second term.
• School Scholarships:  Every school has a portfolio of scholarships they manage.  These scholarships are typically funded by outside sources like alumni.  Each scholarship has specific criteria that must be met (i.e. first-generation STEM student, child of a specific fraternity or sorority, LSA endowed scholarships for LSA students, etc.). Scholarship applications are submitted to a specific office on campus for review.  Institutional scholarships like these mostly have application due dates early in the second term (January or February) and are awarded for the following fall term.
• Municipal Scholarships:  Many towns, cities, and school districts offer scholarships.  They are usually reserved for graduating high school seniors, but it is not unheard of for the scholarship donor to allow students from the area to apply once they are at school if they are performing well academically and run into problems covering tuition.
• State Scholarships:  Another place to look for scholarships is on your state government’s website.  For example, in Michigan there is a database “MI Student Aid” which offers place-based scholarships (from your town, city, county, etc.).  States will also offer scholarships for students who meet certain criteria like being the child of a veteran who is disabled or deceased, or scholarships for occupations (think nursing, medical techs, etc.) that are in demand in the state.  Students may be able to find local, state and federal scholarships for minority students through your state site as well.  Students should be able to find hundreds if not thousands of scholarship opportunities on their state site.
• Collegescholarships.org  provides a database of over 20,000 scholarships. These scholarships have different sorts of criteria like being a child of a national organization member like the NAACP, or a doctoral student specializing in Jewish studies.  Notice that these scholarships are very specific and will require a bit of searching – but with over 20,000 scholarships available, students can find at least a handful of scholarships for which they can apply.  Deadlines for these scholarships varies.  Some have specific deadlines and others offer rolling deadlines.  Therefore, it is important to be on top of the scholarship search – beginning as early as possible.
• Scholarship America hosts a variety of scholarships offered by companies, foundations,  or other groups that want to support students but don’t want to have to administer their own scholarships.  What’s nice about this organization is that some of their scholarships include social and cultural support – something that has been found to really benefit certain cohorts of students like those who are the first in their family to attend college, minority students, and students whose families fall into lower income brackets.
• FastWeb has a database of millions of scholarships.  Using the FastWeb site requires individuals to create a free account.  Once registered, FastWeb may pepper a user’s inbox with lots of promotional communications. That being said, they claim that FastWeb users find close to 100 scholarships on average (worth over $600,000 on average) for which they qualify.  There are more individuals utilizing this service than the others I have mentioned so far and applicants have to really watch application deadlines, but diligent users of this site can reap significant rewards.

There are other places to look for scholarships on the web, but buyer beware – this can come at a cost.  Individuals should never have to pay to apply for a scholarship.  Also be wary of services that offer to help students find scholarships for a fee.

The key to finding and securing scholarship money is to treat the process of searching for and applying to scholarships as if it were a job.  Spend dedicated time each week searching and applying.  Keep track of the scholarships in a document of some sort (I used excel sheets with my students).  Make sure to include the name of the scholarship (with a link), amount, criteria, due date, and award date.  This will help track deadlines and applications more easily.  Scholarships provide “free money” to students.  They don’t have to be paid back and they can greatly offset college costs.  Perhaps teaching college bound high school students how to conduct an effective scholarship search should become part of their required curriculum.

*A note to administrators:  Help students find and apply for scholarships if you want to keep them enrolled.  If your institution serves first-generation and Pell eligible students, it is very helpful to provide them with an overview of how much the first term will cost, how much aid they will be receiving and the balance that they will owe after aid.  If you really want to help students, you can make recommendations about how they might lower their total bill (i.e. switching from a single room to a quad in the residence hall).  When we did this with our first-generation Pell eligible students, we lost a few when they enrolled in the spring because their families determined that college was not an option financially at that point.  However, we had fewer students drop out at the end of the first term.  This means that we had fewer students incurring debt and being forced to drop out due to cost.

For more student success tips, follow me on Instagram @ChristinetheCollegeCoach.