Scholarships Help in Small Amounts

Sometimes people get carried away chasing after $10,000+ scholarships that require tons of effort in a national competition against tens of thousands of other applicants. At Breaking the Plate, there’s a good article on how to approach financial aid in a practical way. $100 here and $500 there doesn’t sound like a lot, but it definitely adds up.

Beyond the standard steps like filing a FAFSA, the author is taking a local approach to college scholarships. Guidance counselors and local businesses (check the local chamber of commerce for a collection!) can help you a lot, because local scholarships have the least publicity and the least competition. There’s just one extra thing: you might be eligible for local scholarships in the town you’re going to school in.

A national or international online scholarship database can be helpful in finding such scholarships. Once you fill out an individual eligibility form you can see what scholarships you individually qualify to apply for. If your moving for school, you can try using your old location and then changing your profile to the new city to see if you are eligible for awards in either place.

Obviously, there are only so many awards you can apply for and you’ll have to make a decision at some point between one or more possible applications. Try to figure out which scholarship is the best match for you and focus on the ones with smaller eligibility and less marketing. The $10,000 awards are tempting, but it won’t help if you come in 2nd place.