College Brain Fart

• 2/14/2008 - Scholarship-Bonanza

Ben Kaplan, you have NOTHING on me.

College is expensive, even if you attend a community college for a while. Books alone cost hundreds of dollars a term, and I have had more than one panic attack at the idea of taking out student loans. Of course, student loans are a decent option when compared to just not going to college and entering the work force degree-less. But no one wants to spend ten or more years paying off loans for four years or education. I am not an exception to that.

Therefore, I've been searching like crazy for scholarships. It's not a simple process if you have no guidance, but because I've suffered through it alone, you get to hear about how to do it best. Congratulations.

First of all, I'm going to recommend a website that's helped me a fair bit - FastWeb. This is a scholarship search designed to seek out awards that best match students based on many criteria - from parents to languages to hobbies, it can find a scholarship for anything. There's even a scholarship specifically aimed at women 5'10" and over. But you need to keep in mind that this site will try to offer you things like Seventeen Magazine subscriptions, inductions into the ROTC, and try to get you to join certain services at other sites. I ignore them, but do as you like.

Also, I find a good way to search for scholarships is to narrow down what you'll be using them for. One example is Study Abroad. I typed up "study abroad scholarships" in a Google searchbar and up popped a great site for it - IEFA. This site allows you to search by major, country, and award type. This is a good resource for students considering international study, but who might not be able to afford it. Just be sure to read what it says the requirements for the award are - many are for graduate students or post-degree people. There is likely nothing as frustrating as completing the process to apply only to find you're ineligible. The same goes for any site you find or look for. You can also check out the college board for information about scholarship opportunities.

While researching a school, you can access what kinds of scholarships they offer, too. Portland State, for example, gives out a number of scholarships to students of merit and of financial need. I also found, after struggling for about a month to decide what I was going to sell to afford studying abroad, that the school also offered scholarships particular to the international program that would cover almost my entire cost. The chances of a college not having affiliated scholarships are low, so poke around the sites for a little bit to see what you find.

Then there's word-of-mouth. I was getting frustrated with being unable to find a scholarship directed specifically at books (since I can deal with my tuition just by ripping my hair out and working), so I asked one of my teachers if he knew of any. He was able to immediately point me to a scholarship, and I've since taken to asking teachers what they know and checking out what the people in the counseling and advising offices have to offer. Most of the time, it's impressive!

But above all, just keep looking. Don't be afraid to apply - for all you know, you might be the only applicant and get the award by default! And if you don't get one scholarship, apply for another. Applying in numbers can help increase your odds, but only if you're diligent enough to put effort into the application process.

So, why did I decide to cover this today? Well, I guess it's because just yesterday I found out about a scholarship through Intel that I might qualify for, so I'm excited. But you know, I'm also rather hungry, and I have a class starting in twenty minutes. I need to go eat. Either way, catch you later.

-Rem