If you are trying to put together a funding package for college then a college scholarship should be top of your list since this is money which you do not have to repay.
Scholarships come in all shapes and sizes and are not simply for academic high-flyers or students with exceptional sporting talents, but are available to just about everyone in any circumstances from children from specific geographic locations to the children of local widows. The big problem with scholarships is simply finding them.
Now it is true that the majority of scholarships are aimed at academic high-flyers with good grades but this is often simply the starting point for selection and, in order to beat others competing for these scholarships with similar grade point averages and SAT scores, you will often need to produce something else to set yourself apart such as an award or achievement or a record of community service.
At this point it is therefore often a good idea to talk to your school counselor who should be able to point you in the right direction. However, do not simply take his or her word for it and, armed with the basic information which they provide, hop onto your computer and search around yourself for the latest up-to-date information.
Two excellent places to start your search are CollegeAid.com and FastWeb.com both of which will provide you with long lists of scholarship programs, together with the amount of each award and brief details of each scheme including the application requirements. You will find that you can narrow your search quite quickly here and reduce your list to manageable proportions as, while some schemes will simply require you to be a US citizen or to have (or be about to obtain) a high school diploma, others will have much more specific and narrower requirements.
You will find some amazing categories of scholarships including those for male students who are residents of western Pennsylvania, students on active military duty in the pay grades of E-4 through E-6 who are studying in an information technology related specialty and the children of an eligible Alabama veterans who are attending college in Alabama. In short, there are scholarships available for a very wide variety of different applicants.
Some scholarships will simply require you to meet particular criteria while others will require you to compete for the scholarship, for example by writing an essay of anywhere between 250 and 5,000 words detailing your personal achievements and outlining why the grantors should award you a scholarship.
One important point to note is that while all scholarships are free in the sense that they do not need to be repaid, some are taxable. The general rule is that a scholarship will not be taxable as long as you are a candidate for a degree at a recognized educational institution and all monies received are used to pay for tuition and other fees directly associated with your enrollment as a student, including payment for such things as books, supplies and other equipment required by your course.
So, whatever your circumstances, there is a good chance that you may be eligible for scholarship funding and the only way to find out is to do your research and ask around.
TheStudentLoansCenter.com provides information on all aspects of college financing including grants for college and getting student loans with bad credit
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