What Are the Other Kinds of Student Financial Aid?

What Are the Other Kinds of Student Financial Aid?

Now we get to what a scholarship is and what are the different kinds that exist. Scholarships are a type of merit-based or criteria-based financial aid package given to a student, either as a one-time payment or renewable in the sense that it pays every semester or school year as long as the student is eligible. Scholarship providers include the federal and state government, the school or college, or private organizations. They can be given directly to the student or paid to the school. Sometimes, not only the cost of tuition is covered, but also other education-related expenses like boarding, food, school supplies and other school fees.

Whenever the word "scholarship" comes up, we usually associate it with very high academic or athletic performance - basically merit-based scholarships or athletic scholarships.  However, there are more kinds of scholarships than just these. Let us now cover some of the more common kinds of scholarships that are available.

Academic Scholarships

This is one of the merit-based scholarships and one that usually comes to mind when we think of scholarships. These are usually given based on academic achievement or academic performance, such as having high grades or GPA in school and meeting certain criteria like having leadership positions in school or spearheading notable projects. This may also be getting outstanding standardized test results such as in the National Merit Scholarship Program, which selects their scholarship recipients based on their PSAT scores.

Athletic Scholarships

Another kind that comes to mind immediately when scholarships are brought up are athletic scholarships. These are another form of merit-based scholarships that are given to students that show a high level of performance in a certain sport. These are not just limited to famous sports like basketball and football, athletic scholarships exist in some schools even for more uncommon sports for students like golf or water polo.

Creative Scholarships

Another one of the merit-based scholarships are creative scholarships. These are usually given to students who demonstrate talent based on arts and other creative fields such as music.

Competition Scholarships

These are scholarships given to winners of certain contests or competitions. There are many organizations or schools that give out contests and award scholarship money to the winners.

Other Individual Scholarships

There are many other scholarships available such as military scholarships, scholarships for community service, for minorities, for women, for students with cancer, and many more. There may also be scholarships given by employers, companies or professional organizations for students that will enter a specific career path, such as in the medical field or military, as long as they enter into a service obligation once they finish their studies.

What Are the Sources of Scholarships and How Do I Find Them?

Some scholarship sources include the college or university itself that you want to get into, the federal or state government, certain organizations such as corporations, philanthropic foundations, and religious and ethnic groups, contests, and more. There are basically scholarships available for every type that you are interested in applying for.

There are many ways to search for what kinds of scholarships are available for you and these include:

These should give you enough to find most of the information and sources for scholarships. However, care must be taken to validate whatever information you get as scholarship scams exist. 

How Do I Apply For Scholarships?

When Should I Apply For a Scholarship?

Do not wait until you start being billed for college costs before applying for a scholarship. Some scholarships are awarded even to young children by certain contests or private organizations. Most scholarship programs are open for students 13 years or older.

You usually need the scholarship money as you enter college, so it is common to apply during your senior year in high school. However, it is recommended to start looking as early as your junior year, especially since it's more hectic during the senior year of high school with all the entrance exams, college requirements and so on. Applying during your junior year gives you more time to research, complete requirements, and apply for the scholarships you want. There are even scholarships for high school juniors available that you may want to consider.

It is also important to make sure that you apply at least 6 months prior to when you need the scholarship money as some of these scholarships take some time to process.

Scholarship applications are also not a one time thing where you only apply prior to entering college. As long as you are still studying for a degree, you can apply for different scholarships that you qualify for. As mentioned, there are even scholarships and grants for postgraduate studies. There are also renewable scholarships that give you repeated or recurring funding, sometimes even up to the entire cost of your studies.

The task of finding and choosing what scholarships to apply for may seem challenging. Then, there's the added work of having to fulfill the process and requirements for each scholarship you want to apply for. While this seems like a stressful and time consuming process, we can help in simplifying and making the scholarship application process easier and faster. We focus on all elements of the college admissions process, all in one place, and this includes all aspects of applying for scholarships. We even provide a 5 Day Scholarship Accelerator program for students going after college bound scholarships. This addresses all the tedious parts of applying for a scholarship, and turns it into a simpler and repetitive process.