Throwing Away Free Money

As the semester is coming to its end, juniors and seniors are both getting anxious about their futures in college. Students must keep their grades up and extracurricular activities in good condition. Seniors must apply to colleges and finally figure out how to pay for those colleges. How many students have fifty-thousand dollars in their back pockets? The truth is that many students COULD have that much money sitting in their hands, but only if they apply themselves. Scholarships provide this payment, but only to students willing to put more effort into their high school careers.

There is a variety of scholarships out there, and any student can apply to a good number of them. It is as easy as going to a website and finding which scholarships apply to you. College Board (www.collegeboard.com) and Fast Web (www.fastweb.com) websites are both instant ports to the world of free money for college.

“We created this online tool to help you locate scholarships, internships, grants, and loans that match your education level, talents, and background. Complete the brief questionnaire and Scholarship Search will find potential opportunities from our database of more than 2,300 sources of college funding, totaling nearly $3 BILLION in available aid.” This message is found on the opening scholarships page on the College Board website and shows the sheer amount of money dedicated to college-bound students!

Anyone can do it: just go to one of the websites and fill out any space that applies to you! The search is extremely specific, and though you do not have to fill in every blank, it helps to narrow the search to its essentials. Scholarships range from academic to athletic to military background and all the way to ethnicity. Any one of these categories can give a student the upper hand when applying to these “money-makers.” There are even scholarships from elementary schools! Many elementary schools offer scholarships to the alumni of that respective school for academic success. The reason people never get these is because no one even knows about them!

Scholarships offer an easy way to pay for college. However, people involuntarily turn their backs on many due to their lack of knowledge about these programs. Students fail to see that when they turn their backs on scholarships, they are turning their backs on free money. Scholarships exist to make it easier for the student looking towards college, and reward those who deserve them!