Written By: Mualla Icel, Freshman at Saint Louis University, FLI Program Participant
(This content has been edited for clarity and grammar)
Create accounts on these scholarship finding websites:
RaiseMe
MyScholarshipCentral
Niche.com
Creating accounts on these scholarship searching websites will make it easier for you to find a scholarship match that correlates with your individual identities. Most scholarships that don’t require standardized test scores like the ACT or SAT require individualized essays about the individual student. Writing essays is a skill that a student needs not only for the college application process but also to win scholarships. The essays that students write for colleges and scholarship applications are individualized descriptions of a specific moment in a student’s life that sparked an interest in applying for college. Well-descriptive and planned-out essays tend to be the most beneficial at the end of the process.
Another critical factor that most scholarships require with essays is GPA and extracurricular activities from high school years. GPAs are important for college administrators to select students with a 3.0 GPA or better for merit-based scholarships which can be full ride or half of the tuition of scholarship. That’s why it is advised to keep a good academic record throughout high school to maintain a good GPA (above a 3.0). Alongside GPA, engaging in school clubs and activities is also a part of building a strong extracurricular resume. The most critical part of extracurricular activity involvement is to have leadership roles within school and community clubs. College administrators not only look for hardworking students, but also for students that take leadership roles within their school community, or community in general. In general admissions, people are looking for young people with a bright future in academics, and a well-rounded person as an individual- outside of academics.
While in search of scholarships it is also important to note the different kinds of scholarships given to incoming freshman college students in respective universities and colleges. One type of scholarship given to incoming freshman students is the one based on the race/ethnic background of the individual student. There are many different varieties of scholarships for students from different cultural backgrounds. In addition to scholarships based on ethnic/racial backgrounds, there are also many scholarship varieties based on community service, athletic, and the big corporation-provided scholarships.
Community service scholarships are generally specific communities giving scholarships for students that can not afford college/university tuition. Athletic scholarships are opportunities for all students that have played many sports throughout their high school years. Lastly, big corporations provided scholarships including corporations such as Mcdonald’s, Coca Cola, Starbucks, and more. For food service-induced corporations like Mcdonald’s and Starbucks, these corporations provide scholarships for their employees that are high school seniors, going into college as freshmen.
To conclude, academics and extracurricular activities that include leadership roles are key factors to winning scholarships. Along with these factors, three useful search engines to help the process of finding potential scholarships are mentioned above. It’s a common prejudice to assume all college students are in thousands of dollars in debt. Although for some college students this might be the unfortunate reality, some college students only pay a quarter of the price, if not pay a single dime towards tuition money.
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