Written by Kaashvi, Dartmouth College

Welcome back to The College Countdown! If this is your first time stopping by our blog, I am Kaashvi, your friendly neighborhood college admissions enthusiast and your guide through this series. Whether you’re a returning reader or a newcomer, I’m pumped to have you join us for this thrilling journey. Now that the monopoly the topic of college interviews had held over this series for the past several installments is over, we are ready to shift gears and talk about the next big thing on hand: affording your college education.

It’s mid-September of your senior year of high school, and you’re not even halfway done writing what feels like a hundred essays for your early applications. And then suddenly, the question of paying for college hits you square in the face. That’s why most of you are here. Some of you are rising seniors who are just starting to make your college lists and want to understand how scholarships work into it all. A few of you might also be here after receiving an acceptance letter with an unaffordable financial aid package to look for additional funding options.

Regardless of why you are here, you’re all likely feeling a little confused and overwhelmed about this aspect of the process, and I completely understand that. It’s not like schools are teaching classes on filling out your CSS profile or applying to scholarships. This guide is here to help you through exactly this. The basics of covering your cost of attendance comes down to three things:

Finding and applying for scholarships,
Shortlisting schools that should be affordable for your family, and
Filling out forms for financial aid (FAFSA, CSS and ISFAA).

In today’s issue, I’m talking all about different kinds of scholarships. But before we get into the nitty-gritty of the matter at hand, you need to ask yourself: what does practically affording a college education mean for you? For me, as a low-income, international student, it was a lot about making it less stressful for my parents to pay for tuition and accommodations. For most of my friends, it was to graduate either debt free or with a minimal amount of debt that they could repay within a few years of graduating.

Once you have your goal in mind to push you, you need to decide who you feel should be included in the conversation about financing your education. Your team can include just your parents but if you want more hands on deck, you should also consider approaching your school’s guidance counselor, a teacher or coach who you trust, an older sibling or cousin who has gone through the process recently, a relative or even your college’s financial aid department. As long as the people on your team are willing and able to support you and provide advice, you’ll be able to figure out the complexities of paying for college.

Now let’s address the elephant in the room: what are scholarships?

Remember when you were a kid and your parents told you to always look both ways before crossing the street. Good advice, right? Well, there’s a small thing they might’ve missed: sometimes, there are people out there looking to hold your hand and help you cross the street

safely. This is the kind of help you should definitely accept. To get it, instead of looking both ways, all you need to do is look in the right place.

Scholarships are exactly that—unexpected, but welcome monetary assistance from those who see something in you and want to help you and other students like you succeed. These awards are offered by colleges and different kinds of organizations to help ease the burden of college costs for thousands of students across the country every year.

Okay, but how are these scholarships awarded? Recipients of scholarships usually have one or a couple things from this list going for them:

They have a great academic standing. This means that they have high GPAs, competitive test scores for their school, a rigorous course load and a strong aptitude for a particular subject.
They have some kind of a unique ability. This could be athletic prowess, artistic skills or talent in another area like music, writing or leadership. If they are recognized by some entity for it, even better.
They have a certain kind of background. Some scholarships are limited to students of specific demographics. This includes their geographical location, ethnicity, race, sexuality, economic situation, being a first-generation student or the child of veteran parents.
They are determined to participate and see everything right to the end. This one is pretty self explanatory.

Does any of the above describe you? If yes, keep reading to find out how you can make the best of it.

Strategy for Applying to Scholarships

With so many different ways you can earn merit aid and even more people who are willing to sponsor your education, looking for scholarships can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack and then needing that needle to deactivate a ticking bomb. Okay, I’m being a little too over the top, but for some of you, the stakes are really that high. But with the right strategy, we can defuse this scholarship-seeking bomb, no problem.

Reusing essays and letters of recommendations

Most scholarships will ask for essays ranging anywhere from 250 to 1000 words. But this doesn’t mean you have to write ten (possibly more) completely new essays if you’re planning to apply to ten different scholarships. You can probably repurpose your personal essay and supplemental essays on your major, leadership and community service to fit the given prompt. If you can’t, a lot of scholarships will ask the same question over and over again. This means, back to saving the environment with the standard reduce, reuse and recycle.

As for the recommendations, the most convenient thing to do is reuse one of the letters you submitted for your college applications. Just notify your teacher in advance of when and what you’ll be needing the letter for and they can just alter some details to meet your needs.

Writing your resume

Resume is just a fancy word for a paper with a list of things you’ve done throughout your four years of high school typed up to look organized. Don’t let it intimidate you. Typical resumes adults use to apply for jobs are only about a page long. That’s not all we’re looking for here.

It’s completely alright to have a standard one-page-maximum resume (full-length article on this coming soon), but for the purposes of applying to a lot of scholarships, having an additional resume with a somewhat detailed description of all your activities and positions can save you the hassle of typing the same thing over and over again. Here’s one of the ways you could frame it:

Activity Name: Summer Research at the Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo
Position: Researcher, Licensed Scuba Diver
Description: I published a research paper on 'Biomimetics: Utilizing Microbial Driven Engineering Processes'. Practically applying my observations, I designed a $32 algae water purifier with HEPA filter. I was also a beta tester for virtual reality scuba gear. Logging a cumulative nine hours underwater, I earned my diving certification. Though, living in a foreign city by myself for the first time did present a steep learning curve.

Focusing on fit for scholarships

Applying for way more (at least four times) scholarships than you expect to receive is the best way to improve your chances of striking gold. You probably won’t be the only qualified candidate in the pool so don’t put all your eggs in one basket by only applying to a few highly selective scholarships. It would be a lot smarter to apply for a $1,000 scholarship with only a handful of applicants rather than a $10,000 one with millions competing.

The second thing to consider when selecting scholarships is how specific they are because depending on how you fit the criteria, it can boost your chances of winning. For example, if you’re involved in your community and are over 6 feet tall, you’re a perfect candidate to receive the Tall Clubs International Scholarship. Or, if you’re a student from an underrepresented background pursuing a degree in urban studies, you have a great shot at winning the Concrete Rose Scholarship.

But, don’t send out twenty applications just for the sake of sending out as many applications as humanly possible. Always prioritize quality over quantity in this regard. It is worth investing time to personalize each application to the missions and values of the scholarship because it puts you in the good books of whoever’s reading your essays. You can find this ‘confidential’ information simply by looking at essays of past winners, foundation history of the scholarship and things they say they’re looking for in an applicant.

Asking for help

Remember the people you selected to be a part of your college affordability discussion team? It’s time to rally them to help you look for scholarships. But first, you have to do something for them. Prepare a list of some values, nouns and adjectives that describe you. For example, South African, long distance runner, first-generation college student, woman in STEM, single-parent household, etc. This can make it easier for them to find scholarships that are a fit for you.

Next, just shoot everyone on the team an email or text to get them in the loop. It can read something like this:

“Hey guys, I’ve been reading up on scholarships that can help pay for college. I am thinking of applying to about eight scholarships to secure a total of $6,000 by the end of October. From the stuff I’ve read online, it looks like it’ll take me the same amount of time to find the scholarships as it takes to apply for them. I was hoping you guys could help me look for them. I have a list of descriptive words about me and websites all ready to use. Thank you so much for supporting me with this!”

This message shows your initiative, gratitude and planning. Who wouldn’t want to help?

Making a spreadsheet to keep tabs on your applications

Once all the deadlines start to loom over, things can get chaotic very fast. That’s why making a spreadsheet to track all of your scholarship applications and requirements is a game changer.

If you’re getting help from your college affordability discussion team, you won’t have to meet with five different people to exchange information. Everyone can just add their information onto a Google Sheet whenever they get the time. It’s also super helpful to keep track of all the scholarships that are a great fit for you but won’t open for another couple months and those that you may be eligible for in the future.

These are the headings I added to my tracker: name of the scholarship, link of the website where I found it, eligibility check, requirements for applying, amount of the scholarship and due dates.

Types of Scholarships

All kinds of merit-based aid can be divided into three categories: institutional (from the college you’re applying to), private (by a third party) or local.

Institutional scholarships

You’ve probably heard some kids say that they got a full-ride scholarship directly from the school they applied to. A full-ride means that college is basically free for them. This dream scenario falls under the category of institutional scholarships and this is the first place you should look. These scholarships are offered to students after they’ve already been accepted to incentivize them to attend that college.

They usually offer the biggest bucks and make up the bulk of all scholarship dollars awarded. Vanderbilt and the University of Southern California are two such private colleges that offer a range of signature scholarships. Emory University’s Emory Scholars Program and Duke University’s Robertson Scholars Leadership Program are also great examples of generous merit aid scholarships that cover the entire cost of attendance for a select few students. A majority of public schools also offer such scholarships to both in-state and out-of-state students; UMich, Georgia Tech and UIUC immediately come to mind.

They are also largely renewable as long as you meet the specified requirements for renewal (like for the Ingram Scholars Program at Vanderbilt, it is maintaining at least a 3.0 GPA and fulfillment of community service). Usually, the money offered by the college remains the same for every year of your degree, so you won’t have to go out and look for other scholarships after your freshman year.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, that’s because there are some downsides as well. These full-ride scholarships are extremely competitive. To land one, you’re expected to be in the top ten percent of the students accepted to the school. If you’re the school valedictorian with a shiny 4.0 GPA and a perfect SAT or ACT score, you might have a great shot of getting such a scholarship at one of your safety schools, but the odds are somewhat lower for your reach schools. While most private schools do give out scholarships to a big portion of the accepted class, they are more like discounts to offset the sticker price and aren’t significant enough to cover costs.

Another thing to keep in mind is that in order to be eligible for these scholarships, you have to submit your application by the early action deadline. This can be anywhere between late October to early December. Like, in order to be considered for merit scholarships at USC, you need to apply to the school by November 1 which is the early action deadline. At Emory, you have to turn in your application by November 15 for scholarship consideration, even if you’re applying for the regular decision round. As you can see, it’s very easy to confuse deadlines and miss your shot.

USC and Emory both automatically send in your application for consideration if you apply by the correct deadline. Those scholarships don’t require any additional essays and LORs. While other schools like Duke and Vanderbilt require you to write and submit a different set of essays to be eligible for review. At some schools, you might even be invited to apply to specific scholarships based on the quality of your application.

The best way to figure out if the school you’re applying to offers such merit-aid is by scouring through their website. You can even contact the school’s financial aid department with any questions that you might have (just don’t call them until you’ve made the effort to look them up first).

Private scholarships

These are also called national scholarships. They aren’t awarded by a specific college but by private companies and organizations. Think Coca Cola Scholars, Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway, the Gates Scholarship and Burger King Scholars, to name a few.

The biggest pro of private scholarships is that there is an endless list of opportunities available. This means there’s likely a scholarship out there that fits your unique profile perfectly. These also aren’t attached to a specific college either and will follow you wherever you decide to enroll.

Another great thing about these scholarships is that you’re not restricted to accepting just one. If you’re selected for several (it’s less probable but still a possibility), you can combine them to cover your entire college bill.

However, like everything else, private scholarships come with their own set of challenges. The first one being easily finding them. There’s just no one searchable database that lists every single private scholarship. This is mainly because every scholarship has different lifespans—while some have stuck around for decades, other smaller ones have opened up and closed within a few years.

Even if you’re ready to dig through multiple websites, the odds of finding scholarships that are a perfect match for you can be quite slim. I’m talking one-in-fifty slim, that is, if their deadlines have not already passed. And to top it all off, if it’s a one time award, the effort might not seem worthwhile at all.

So, the question remains: how many should you apply to? I could stand here and tell you to spend every spare second of your day applying to scholarships (many students actually do this), but I won’t, because that is not the best use of your time. These scholarships are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to financial aid; there’s so much more to financial aid (full-length article on need-based aid coming soon) which is a lot more straightforward than navigating the Wild West of online private scholarships and yields way more money for a large majority of students.

I found most of the scholarships I applied to by simply Googling them. Scholarships 360, Petersons, Going Merry are some places where you can start. If you’re using sites like Unigo, sign up with a separate email. You’ll thank me later when you don’t have to delete fifteen emails a day from your primary email account. The r/scholarships subreddit is a very underrated resource.

Local scholarships

These are regional awards from organizations in your direct community. Think about what is close to you: churches, local businesses, school-affiliated organizations, parents’ place of employment, Rotary clubs, Lions clubs, Kiwanis clubs, etc. Some high schools in my city had dedicated funds to give out scholarships to graduating seniors from all over the city.

These awards are typically smaller in amount (a few hundred dollars) and lesser known, but that also means that they have less applicants, and therefore, less competition. Reaching out to civic organizations and businesses to enquire about scholarships they award can be a bit too

time-consuming, but the actual process of applying is a walk in the park since all the required materials can be recycled over and over.

But there’s the catch with these scholarships as well. They aren’t usually renewable and are more of a one-time deal. They can help you with buying things for your freshman year as you transition into college but after that, you’ll have to figure out another way to get financial support.

Talking to your guidance counselor can help you keep tabs on a lot of different local scholarships you might not have known about otherwise. If your high school offers scholarships, your counselor is the best person to contact to understand your eligibility for them. These are low hanging fruits and if you’re reading this, chances are you’re among the cream of the crop for these awards.

Here’s another pro-tip: participate in local essay contests. These aren’t exactly scholarships but it’s still a way to earn some extra money to finance your college education. For such contests, there’s very little competition, so it can be worth taking the time to write quality essays. A friend of mine was able to collect over $3,000 in scholarship money from such seven contests and the best part is, he wrote only three 500-word essays.

The last suggestion I have for you is, ask around in your friend circles from school, residential area and workplace about scholarship opportunities. You can start by checking at your parents’ place of employment and any social organizations your parents might be a part of. From there, branch out and look up if any companies in your area offer scholarships. Some religious organizations also have funds for higher education. This won’t take more than sixty minutes out of your time and could yield some really high probability scholarships.

And there you have it—the ins and outs of applying for scholarships. I want to leave you with some quick pointers. Never pay for a scholarship search engine. It’s a scam, don’t fall for it. Don’t strike scholarships that are a perfect fit for you off your list just because you think the award is too small. If you remove ten such scholarships, you could potentially be saying goodbye to a couple thousand dollars; money adds up. Lastly, your private scholarships won’t actually increase your overall aid. Colleges usually replace their grants with your external scholarships, and that ends up being of no benefit to you.

Good luck and apply away to those scholarships! I want to thank all of you for joining me today and sticking around till the end. I’ll see you soon with a new article. Until next time, keep dreaming big!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hey there, college-bound crew! I’m Kaashvi, an undergraduate student at Dartmouth College from India. I’m the brains (and heart) behind the College Countdown series here at The Ivy Institute and I am stoked to be your guide through this process.

So, a little bit about me: I was a STEM kid through and through in high school and all my classes were the highest level ones offered at my school and graduated at the top of my class for three consecutive years. Outside of class, I was involved in activities that let me nurture my love for inventiveness, responsibility and storytelling. From designing a vehicle to aid oil spill cleanup to working as an elected representative for the youth advisory council to volunteering at the local deaf school—I devoted a lot of my time to projects that were true to my values.

When I’m not typing away at my keyboard, dishing out college advice to people in my inbox and on this blog, you can catch me exploring new hiking trails, whipping up some questionable (but oddly delicious) desserts at my bakery or getting lost in a gripping mystery novel.

As an international student, the application process wasn’t just about finding a spot at a prestigious university but also about finding a place that felt like a second home. Now that I’ve made it out alive to the other end (with a boatload of stories to tell), I'm here to spill all the tea on how you can do the same. With some guidance and a whole lot of oversharing, together we’ll crush this admissions game like absolute pros.

Catch you on the flip side,

Kaashvi