Owen Building, Exmouth Campus, University of Plymouth. (Photo courtesy Derek Harper)

There’s a lot of emphasis on applying for college scholarships before you head off to college, and that’s certainly important. But did you know there are plenty of scholarships available to students who are already a few semesters in to their college experience? In fact, you may not even be eligible for certain institutional scholarships until you can demonstrate that you’ve maintained a certain GPA for two consecutive semesters at your university.

The first scholarship I ever received was the Associated Student Government (ASG) Scholarship from Texas State University, San Marcos. It was a total fluke that I found out about it, too. Up until my junior year, I never lived in the dorms. Instead, I commuted an hour to and from school and worked every other day in a different city, so I didn’t have much time to get involved with anything on campus. But around my junior year, I moved to an apartment near Texas State, worked closer to school and started to get involved on campus in different ways, including writing for the student newspaper.

One day when I was waiting to meet with an advisor, I thought I would ask the lady at the desk if there were any scholarships available for current students. She said, “Absolutely!” and brought me a massive three-ring binder full of scholarship information. I was flabbergasted and immediately kicked myself for not looking into this sooner in my college career. Many deadlines had already passed, but I found that the deadline for the ASG scholarship — worth between $500 and $2,000 — hadn’t passed.

I learned that the ASG scholarship was geared for students just like me: middle-class students who work their way through college and whose parents struggle to help pay for school. The criteria for undergraduates were that I be a sophomore, junior or senior, have maintained a 2.5 or higher GPA, be enrolled full-time and be engaged in Texas State through one or more organizations. I had to write a brief essay to explain why I thought I deserved the scholarship.

I approached the essay honestly, explaining my struggle to keep my grades up while working close to full-time as a cashier at Home Depot to pay the bills. I also explained in the essay that despite my limited time, I still committed to write articles for the student newspaper to boost my potential for a career in journalism in the future. Before submitting my essay, I had some volunteers at the writing center look it over to make sure I hadn’t made any spelling or grammar errors that could put me out of the running. I submitted my application and essay and hoped for the best.

I honestly didn’t think I would end up getting the scholarship. Weren’t there tons of middle-class students who had more compelling stories than me? After all, working parents were eligible for the scholarship too. But sure enough, a few weeks later, I was informed that I had received the scholarship, which would be doled out over the next two semesters! I was ecstatic (and so were my parents).

By the time I learned about how many institutional and departmental scholarships were available to upperclassmen, I was already well into my senior year. The lesson I took away from getting the scholarship is to not stop the scholarship search after you’ve been in school for a while. You may be eligible for scholarships that weren’t available to you as an entering freshman!

Donna Reish
Waco, Texas
The author received a bachelor’s degree in print journalism and a minor in writing from Texas State University, San Marcos, in 2006. She is a freelancer writer who has a passion for writing about careers, frugal living, finance, health, parenting and education, such as advice regarding the best universities for students.

This article is part of the BetterGrads special series “Scholarship Stories.” Contributors are asked to tell their personal experience with scholarship searches, applications and opportunities. If you’d like to submit an article for this series, please read our editorial guidelines and let us know here.

Author Michael Roppolo with his family at a scholarship awards ceremony he'll never forget.

Senior year means many things to many high school students (prom night, senior ditch day, college plans, etc.). Many students mistakenly see it as the easiest year of their high school career. For many parents, it means thinking about the future financially. Seniors often don’t think about applying for scholarships because they feel it’s a waste of time, and there’s only a small percentage of who will win.

I was no exception. To me, senior year was all about preparing for college. It meant (still) getting good grades, studying for hours for the SATs and ACTs, and getting into the college of my dreams: Rochester Institute of Technology. No way did I think that I was going to have to make time to write several dozen applications for scholarships alone.

My parents had other plans for me, however. They had me apply for every scholarship that I was eligible for. They made it explicitly clear that they weren’t going to help me pay for college unless I got some scholarships. Be it because of my Italian descent, my various disabilities, or my major… if there was a scholarship, I had to go for it.

Every month, my mom would force me to go hunt for scholarships. It wasn’t that it was hard to find them (my school had several applications available in the guidance office) or even that they were hard (many scholarships used a similar topic), but I just felt that it was a waste of time. My parents believed in me, but with all the other people applying, I did not think that I was going to win any.

I will admit that at first, I was rather lazy while searching for scholarships. I didn’t want to give up weekends to write multiple essays. All I wanted to do was my homework and chill out in front of the TV. However, with my mom and dad breathing down my neck (and countless arguments), I soon sought some more scholarships. I was mindlessly writing essays, still thinking it was pointless. By the end of April, I had applied to well over 35 scholarships!

One day in May, I received an invitation to my high school’s annual awards ceremony, during which students are given their scholarships that they applied, or were nominated, for. That night as I was getting ready, I remember thinking to myself, “Why am I going to this? I’m not going to get any scholarships.” Still apprehensive, I went with my family to my high school. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened that night.

Being hard-of-hearing, I asked some of my friends to tap me on the shoulder if they heard my name. The first time my name was called was for an elementary school alumnus scholarship. Applause filled the auditorium from my family and teachers. I approached the principal, shook his hand and quietly returned to my seat.

My name was called an additional three times before I started to see that maybe there was a possibility that I would win some more scholarships than I originally thought. After countless wins, I realized that my parents were right. As long as I tried, I could do it.

I missed my name a few times (I knew I had won some more scholarships when I saw my aide waving her arms and pointing towards the podium), but each and every time there was a thunderous applause that followed. By the end of the night, I had gone up to receive my award so much that I was exhausted.

Afterwards, my family, friends and teachers showered me with hugs. I felt proud of myself for having won so many scholarships. Everyone knew that I could do it, but I had to have faith in myself. Now, nearing the end of my first year of college, I am so glad that my parents pushed me.

Michael Roppolo
Rochester, New York
The author is a freshman journalism major and history enthusiast at Rochester Institute of Technology. Currently, he writes for Rochester’s weekly magazine, Reporter Online. He hopes to one day work for a magazine that combines his love of history with his love of writing.

This article is part of the BetterGrads special series “Scholarship Stories.” Contributors are asked to tell their personal experience with scholarship searches, applications and opportunities. If you’d like to submit an article for this series, please read our editorial guidelines and let us know here.

The best way to approach writing a scholarship essay is to type what you really feel. Gregory Szarkiewicz

Dr. Seuss once wrote, “Be who you are and say what you feel.” The same applies to scholarship essays. To write powerfully, students must know and describe themselves honestly. With my experience in writing, it is the most important advice I can give.

I was a high school junior when I began applying for scholarships. Living in a middle-class family with three siblings, I knew such aid would benefit me; however, I feared I wouldn’t receive it. I didn’t show much financial need, and I wasn’t very active at my school or in my community (which was my mistake). As a result, I wasn’t a likely candidate for many national scholarships. Instead, I mainly set my sights on local merit-based scholarships (specifically, those offered at my future college and within my county).

Surprisingly, my financial stability and lack of extracurricular activities weren’t my biggest challenges when writing scholarship essays. What made the process difficult was that I didn’t know myself. I hadn’t taken the time to analyze my passions, goals, or the experiences that shaped me into who I was. All I knew was that I was a girl who wanted money for college. I didn’t understand how important such analysis would be until later.

I began to build my scholarship template by noting all the scholarships I discovered through my school or from websites. They totaled about 50. I spent hours and hours applying for all of those scholarships, writing essays that I felt weren’t really about me. They were about who I thought scholarship committees wanted me to be: a person who had the most epic experiences.

At school, I hadn’t had any personally moving experiences. I played tennis and was in Art Club, but I couldn’t write passionately about those in an essay. To put it simply, it didn’t sound real. I would write about the thrill of being part of a team or the compassion I felt when making ceramic bowls for the homeless, when in reality, my feelings weren’t that deep. Being part of a team was great, but I mainly played tennis for the game. And as an Art Club member, I never met the people I made bowls for. Trying to portray such experiences in an essay was difficult because they weren’t strong enough to write about.

After applying for about 50 scholarships with no success, I decided to change my ways. I didn’t want to just give up. I started thinking about who I was and what my actual goals were, and instead of writing about ceramic bowls, I wrote about that. I wanted to be real with myself. I wasn’t very active. I didn’t have many activity-related experiences to rely on, so I didn’t force it. Instead, I looked at the big picture—my life overall, not just high school. In doing so, I realized my liking for history and biology.

I wrote about my childhood and how I used to dissect worms or the trips I took to various historic sites. I wrote about my plans of pursuing either history or biology in college. I wrote about careers that interested me (such as pharmacy and archaeology) and my intentions of looking further into them. I wrote about who I was and what I felt. Then, I won a scholarship. And then another and another.

What I encourage students to do is to write essays about activities that matter to them. If experiences aren’t important to the writer, then they shouldn’t be written about. It is easier to write about true feelings than those that are nonexistent.

Arie Gainey
The author is a sophomore at Lone Star College and is majoring in clinical lab science. She has worked as a biology tutor and loves Animal Planet’s hit TV show, Wild Recon.

This article is part of the BetterGrads special series “Scholarship Stories.” Contributors are asked to tell their personal experience with scholarship searches, applications and opportunities. If you’d like to submit an article for this series, please read our editorial guidelines and let us know here.

This could be you! (photo courtesy ronocdh via Flickr)

College applications are so predictable across the board that long ago, The Common Application was created.

The Common App (as it’s commonly known) offers students a one-size-fits-all application that asks for academic achievements, SAT/ACT test scores, an essay, recommendation letters, basic demographic information, completed courses, declaration of major… the basic things most schools want to know.

It’s accepted by more than 400 schools and was used by more than 2 million applicants as of 2010 in an effort to prevent the repetition of submitting the same info over and over again to an array of schools. Each school may require some extra stuff (e.g. an essay about why you want to come to their campus, specifically), because they need some sort of litmus test for how strongly students feel about their institution.

As “how do I get in?” quickly turns into “how will I pay for it?” come spring semester, another question arises:

Why doesn’t a Common App for scholarships exist?

Scholarships come in myriad forms: school-specific grants, government funds, private foundation awards, performing arts residencies, research fellowships, study abroad opportunities and scores of whimsical competitions, like the Duck brand duct-tape-prom-dress contest.

But are they all similar enough to warrant a consolidated app?

In terms of basic information, yes. Nearly all scholarship applications ask for the same basic information (name, address, academic background, etc). Filling out the same information for each different scholarship form can be tedious and time consuming, factors that can discourage students from applying. However, many scholarships tend to focus on one, specific aspect of the student’s life, and thus, the amount of supplemental materials may far exceed the ones usually required for college admissions.

It may be useful to split scholarships into two loose categories: need-based and merit-based (and duct-tape inspired) scholarships.

• While nearly all scholarships look at a student’s merit, some require the extra condition of proof of financial need. Perhaps need-based scholarships would be best served by a common app, as this would allow students to fill out tedious financial details (family income, projected expenses, etc.) all at once. The consolidated app–perhaps one day merged with the FAFSA–could be sent as a baseline application for multiple need-based scholarships.

 

• For strictly merit-based awards (regardless of students’ financial situation) a common app may not be so simple. Super-specific scholarship eligibility can range from being part of a particular ethnic group to fluency in the Star Trek language, Klingon. Even letters of recommendation for specific merit-based awards often require unique tailoring, so a common app might only serve the most basic information.

Even so, a single, common scholarship app could encourage students to get on the scholarship bandwagon in the first place. One of the most common reasons I hear from students about why they don’t apply for scholarships is, “I don’t have time.” A one-stop app for basic information might squash the entrance barrier for students who have lots on their minds. Time isn’t cheap, and neither is college.

The enticement of a single app may saturate the applicant pool, but I say go for it! More competition means a higher standard for prospective scholarship winners, which may not be a bad thing.

And even if tons of students submit a common app for an array of scholarships, it doesn’t mean they’ll all take the extra step to provide the scholarship-specific letter of recommendation, specific essay or, in the aforementioned example, a duct-tape prom dress.

As they say in Klingon, Qapla’! (Sucess to you!)

By U.S. Department of Education (Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

That’s right, taxpayers. A new report shows that states appropriated almost $6.2 billion for four-year colleges and universities between 2003 and 2008 to help pay for the education of students who did not return for year two. Specifically, the study shows that states sent $6.2 billion in general funds and $1.4 billion in grants to colleges and universities for first-year students who did not return. The dollar figures are taken from government data and aggregated by the nonprofit American Institutes for Research.

Looking further into the matter, some experts believe the root cause can be pinned to one core issue: state imposed budget cuts. According to California Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, state-imposed budget cuts that have slashed classes, increased student fees and reduced staff are more of a hindrance.

And how does this impact students? An economist might look at this situation and argue that the marginal cost of students continuing their studies after their first year of college far outweighs the marginal benefit of these same students continuing their studies after their first year of college. In other words, it’s likely that students will not feel incentivized to continue their academic pursuits, knowing that massive loans, coupled with the absence of required classes to transfer to 4 year colleges, will only set them farther back.

And it’s clear that students are not the only ones who are suffering. An appropriation of $1.4 billion dollars of tax-payer funds to cover the cost of grants for students who do not return after their first year results in an enormous loss in social welfare to taxpayers too.

So, what’s the point then of continuing to learn when both students and tax payers suffer? Well, there are several reasons, but all fall under the umbrella concept of learning for the sake of learning. As cliched as this sounds, students fall into the trap thinking that any educational opportunity beyond high school is the sole ticket to a rewarding and fruitful career and lifestyle.

And that’s problematic-this attitude that higher education is the only solution, rather than a key piece to the solution. In a youtube video that I have grown to love, Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, discusses a case study, where MIT students were subjected to a series of tasks, some rudimentary, some highly cognitive. The students’ reward was based on their performance. Those students who demonstrated below average performance received a a small monetary reward, followed by larger rewards for the middle tier and elite performers.

And what did this experiment reveal? For rudimentary tasks, the carrot-on-a-stick model works well to optimize student performance. In other words, a greater reward results in more output by the performer. However, the model breaks for highly cognitive tasks. Put another way, when students did not have to perform a basic mechanical task, their performance in response to these financial incentives dropped significantly.

Pink’s video presents a potential solution to the collegiate attrition problem: change the way colleges market higher education, and perhaps students will feel incentivized to continue their studies after year one. For instance,  placing a greater emphasis on the learning for the sake of learning instead of rehashing the same old study highlighting the financial benefits of higher education, may incentivize students to return after year one.

And how does Mr. O’Connell recommend we begin to resolve the issue? “The fact that we have these numbers helps with accountability and transparency,” he said. “We should do exit interviews with students and learn why they leave education.”

That’s a start, but it’s obvious that it will take more than exit interview or survey for any real change to occur.

Last week, Gawker ran an article citing the top ten traditional universities that have the highest student debt. The data was pulled by a recent study by the Department of Education, which actually revealed that the top three institutions with highest student debt are actually for-profit schools, which are often criticized for not leading to lucrative-enough careers. Controversial legislation has even been passed regarding this issue.

What’s a for-profit college? Think DeVry and University of Pheonix. These schools offer a range of degrees (think X-ray technician certifications to master’s degrees) and are run by private, profit-seeking companies or groups, which makes them an easy target for public criticism.

However, this list focused on the traditional institutions that rack up the most student debt, as a large part of the U.S.’s college-going culture seeks admission to these revered schools. It’s important to note that these prestigious universities, also, do not leave students’ wallets unscathed. Here’s the list, via Gawker:

1) New York University: $659 million
2) University of Southern California: $631 million
3) Penn State University: $590 million
4) Ohio State University: $560 million
5) University of Minnesota: $495 million
6) Arizona State University: $479 million
7) University of Texas: $474 million
8) Michigan State University: $433 million
9) Indiana University- Purdue University: $421 million
10) Rutgers: $398 million

It all comes down to the same basic question in the end. What’s an education worth?

In America, the answer to that question often comes in the forms of decades-long repayment plans to student loan agencies.  Fortunately, more and more programs that aim to educate students about student debt are beginning to sprout up. Check out the student loan resources we’ve cited in recent articles about student debt.

For now, all we can do is educate and spread the word about managing student debt, since higher education isn’t free. If it was, for-profit schools wouldn’t even have a chance.

In light of graduating season, there’s a buzz in the air among many recent grads about repaying student loans. Those heading straight to graduate school may have a few more years of deferment, but those leaving academia begin repaying loans right away. Among my circle of friends who attended both public and private schools, payments seem to be around $70-$200 per month. With a common student debt loan upwards of $10,000 (and that’s being conservative), repayment periods tend to span at least a decades. A decade after college, I’d like to own a home and have a family. Surely, I don’t want to still be making monthly payments for classes I took while still a teenager.

Fortunately, it may not have to be that way. Several new developments have been sprouting up across the country geared toward forgiving student debt, exchanging volunteer hours for loan repayment and other like-minded initiatives. Some require long-term commitment, such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program which only forgives your debt after you’ve already made payments for a decade. Yeesh.

But… Other, newer developments are tackling the country’s growing student debt with more innovative solutions. A recent BusinessWeek article titled Kill Those Student Loans Goodbye gives the example of SponsorChange, which partners college graduates with sponsors in a give-and-take program that exchanges volunteer service for student loan repayment funds. While at first glance, it may seem silly to volunteer for a little money to pay off your loans when you could just get a regular job, but SponsorChange seems to be aware that many recent grads can’t get jobs. Plus, with the fuzzy feeling one gets from being a do-gooding citizen, I approve.

The article lists other ways to forgive (or at least partially forgive) student debt, some of which I’ll summarize in minute detail here:

AmeriCorps — Volunteer full-time for a year in exchange for a small living stipend and $4,825 toward student loan or future tuition.

Peace Corps — Volunteer in a foreign country for two years minimum in exchange for up to 70% federal Perkins student loan forgiveness (depending on length of service) and a $6,000 readjustment stipend when you move back home.

Teach Grant — Teach for four years in a low-income area to receive up to $4,000 in loan repayment grants per year. (Warning: Teachers who don’t complete the four years lose the grants, which get piled on top of their existing loan!)

Teach for America — Teach for a minimum of two years in exchange for a salary, benefits and $4,725 in loan repayment or future tuition funds. (This one sounds like the best bet for educators, in my humble opinion…)

These are just some of the premier programs, most of them government-sponsored, offering student debt help in exchange for some type of service. It will be interesting to see if more non-profits like SponsorChange begin to emerge as more college graduates look for alternative ways to transition out of university life. Perhaps this trend is not only a response to our weakened economy but will actually affect it such that more non-profit organizations operate at the core of our society. Perhaps volunteering will become the norm and full-time employment the exception. Perhaps education will find a way to become service-oriented rather than financially-oriented.

Just a thought.

Think again.

Check out other BG articles on financial aid here.

© image by Nick Schwartz

When the dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale writes about college acceptances, it’s certainly worth a read. Jeff Brenzel recently posted on The Huffington Post his advice for students when they have been accepted to college. I thought that this was a great idea since even though it’s extremely important to discuss dealing with disappointment and roadblocks, it’s just as important to discuss what to do with those acceptance letters.

Brenzel advises students not to dwell on rejections, but I would argue that it’s okay and even healthy to allow a little “mourning time” for those skinny envelopes. Even though I was careful to apply to a mix of “reach” and “target” colleges, I was still very disappointed when I didn’t get into a few in particular. It wasn’t about one school being better or superior to others, it was about spending so much time learning about each school, imagining my life there, working hard on the application, and then having that taken off the table rather abruptly. So I think that it’s okay to spend a little time lamenting those rejections before moving on. I browsed the websites one more time, bid adieu to the viewbooks, probably cried over one or two, and then I was able to focus entirely on the colleges that did accept me.

I’m glad that Brenzel discusses the weight that we so often give to  selectivity reports and ranking lists. He advises that students eventually push those aside and make a more holistic decision and I completely agree. My choice came down to Bryn Mawr College and Occidental College and I had a hard time because nobody from my high school had ever even applied to Oxy, so I felt like I was deciding between a total unknown and a well-known, prestigious women’s college. College rankings are like opinionated classmates, teachers, and guidance counselors that come with fancy numbers and percentages to back up their statements. Listen to them, understand them, but don’t let them make the decision for you. It took a lot of effort and energy to view Oxy in its own light, but I’m so glad that I did.

One of the things that helped me do this was overnight stays at each my final two contenders, which Brenzel also advises. Visiting a college as a prospective applicant and visiting as an accepted potential student are extremely different experiences. For one thing, you no longer have to take notes on average SAT scores and application requirements—this time it’s completely about what you want to know and get out of a campus visit. When I visited Bryn Mawr and Oxy post-acceptance, I had a list of specific questions regarding academics, study abroad possibilities, campus housing, academic advising, and much more that I just couldn’t get into on such a detailed level when I was still applying to college. If an in-person visit is out of the question, many admissions offices will help accepted students get in touch with current students with similar interests so that they can ask questions and gain further insight into student life at that particular university.

Last but certainly not least, I wholeheartedly agree with Brenzel’s recommendation that students (and their parents) scrutinize the financial situation for each school. This is one thing that I did not do thoroughly and it complicated things further down the road. Clarifying my situation early on would have made matters much easier after I enrolled.

What do you think of Brenzel’s article? What advice would you add?

As February gets underway, we can anticipate many important milestones: Valentine’s Day, the day after Valentine’s Day (hello, discounted candy!), President’s Day weekend, and of course…the college admission decisions that will start cropping up in mailboxes/inboxes across the country. It’s nerve-wracking, tense, and exciting all at the same time.

My own experience with this time turned out much differently than I first anticipated. For one thing, after submitting my applications I had more time to really consider what I wanted in a college. I know that this sounds very counter-intuitive, but I had loved some big universities just as much as the small colleges throughout the college search and I applied to a mix of both. Specifically, George Washington University was high on my list for its location, the Elliot School of International Affairs, and the fact that going there would mean meeting many other students whose interests were similar to mine.

By the time the fated decision letters arrived, however, I had decided that I needed to be on a smaller campus. College would already be overwhelming whether I went to the school with the largest student population or the very smallest. So even though I’d applied to several medium-to-large universities that appealed to me very much, I had a strong feeling that I would aim to end up at a small liberal arts college. I never regretted applying to that range of schools because it never meant that I would not have had great experiences there; it’s simply that sometimes we need to go through the entire process, start to finish, in order to gain clarity on what will be the best decision.

Of the schools that accepted me, I zeroed in on Bryn Mawr College, and Occidental College. Oddly enough, Oxy was one of the first schools I ever seriously considered while Bryn Mawr was literally my last tour and application. They differ greatly and yet I was equally drawn to each of them for different reasons. I did overnight visits at both schools and e-mailed with professors from departments that interested me. I hemmed and hawed. I majorly freaked out about the decision and consulted with just about anyone who would listen. As cliché as it sounds, I eventually put away the reasoned lists and comparisons and went where my heart took me.

Ultimately, I was very happy with my final choice—though honestly, I know that I would have been happy with many of the schools to which I applied. After all of the stress of applying to schools, we sometimes forget that it can also be very difficult to hold the decision-making power. Here’s what I learned:

• making pro/con lists is great—but don’t underestimate the value of that classic “gut feeling” (that’s what tipped the scales for me)
• tour guides and overnight hosts are helpful, but it’s crucial to talk to as many students as possible to get a genuine feel for the college and its student body
• food is key: try out as many eating locations on campus as possible and be sure to ask about vegetarian/vegan/kosher/allergy accommodations if that’s a factor
• clarify financial aid information

And most importantly…everyone will have an opinion and it’s definitely good to listen to the input of family, friends, teachers, guidance counselors. Listen. But then make your own decision.

How did you make your college decision? What measures were most helpful in the process? Least helpful?