A simple Google search for “college scholar- ships” yields about 87 million results. Many of those websites are smaller search engines, designed to help high school students find scholarships for which they can apply (based on their interests, colleges of choice and the amount of work required for the scholarship application).
“A scholarship is generally money that you do not have to pay back,” said Sonia Logan, a Northwood guidance counselor. “And it is generally funded by a group or an organization of people that has an interest in, let’s say, Northwood. They want to give back to the community, so they decide to establish a scholarship.”
High school students around the nation are feeling the pressure to snatch up as many scholarships as possible to make college more affordable. Some of these awards are merit-based (granted because of academic achievement) and others are need-based (granted because of a student’s financial need). More than $46 billion of scholarship funds are given annually, collegeplanningservices.org states.
Logan will not know the total amount awarded to Northwood’s class of 2015 until the senior demographics sheet is completed. However, she says that grants and scholarships awarded to last year’s senior class neared a total of $2 million.
This semester, senior Tyler Whitaker was awarded the prestigious State Employees Credit Union Foundation “People Helping People” scholarship. The prize is for $10,000 in total, spread out over four years of college. Whitaker says he is “blessed” to have won it. He plans to use the scholarship money at UNC-Charlotte.
“I tried really hard to benefit my community, and I’ve put in a lot of volunteering hours in my community,” Whitaker said. “I’ve given to them, and they’ve given back, and I just think that it would help me out tremendously. I really tried to focus on that when I was writing my essay.”
Senior John Atwater has applied for six scholarships so far and has received two: the Chancellor’s Science Scholarship at the University of North Carolina and a smaller scholarship related to his grandfather’s alma mater. He has been awarded approximately $41,000 from scholarships.
“My sister got a full ride, so I was kind of forced to apply to as many scholarships as she did,” Atwater said. “But it’s also intrinsic motivation: I don’t want my parents to have pay for stuff they don’t have to. I would like to help out my parents any way that I can because they have gotten me this far and I might as well help them with this extra step, because college is expensive. The more people want to go to college, the higher the demand and [prices]. Anything to help [my parents] out for getting me to where I am today is motivation enough.”
Senior Alex Bortey, who has applied for over 15 scholarships and has received some, says the demanding nature of some applications do not put scholarship-seekers on a level playing field.
“There are hardworking students at this school who deserve scholarships a lot more than the students that actually get them, which is a little bit ridiculous,” Bortey said. “It could be a possible time management situation, where [the students] don’t have the time necessary to fill it out. They could work full time after school, and they work every single day to help provide for their family, so they don’t necessarily have that time to fill out scholarship forms, or write essays, or get them checked with teachers. They have, in essence, no free time, so I think that it’s not exactly fair to have a long demanding task where, if you don’t finish it, you’re out of luck.”
According to an article written by Stephen Burd for Washington Monthly, another growing trend is for colleges to award a larger number of smaller scholarships to wealthier students rather than award a smaller number of large scholarships to underprivileged students.
“If a school offers a single low-income student a full scholarship of $20,000, the school may feel good about itself, but it’s out $20,000,” Burd wrote. “But if it can attract four affluent students to its campus instead, by offering them each a $5,000 discount off full tuition, it can collect the balance in revenue and come out way ahead financially.”
Logan said she was not aware that this was going on, but says that the time commitment involved with scholarships is similar to being employed.
“Start with what you think you’re going to major in, and get online,” Logan said. “Google it, look for scholarships that you have an interest in; if you play the violin, look for scholarships for violin players. Look for scholarships for short people, left handed people, right handed people. Finding a scholarship is like an extra job. It’s not easy, but it can be well worth it.”
Inequality in the scholarship world can blossom in other ways. Senior Eli Emerick says finding scholar- ships that fit his demographic is difficult.
“I would say that [scholarships for Caucasian males] are out there, but you’ve got to look,” Emerick said. “They don’t really present themselves to you.”
Logan suggests starting searching process sooner rather than later.
“If you’re a rising senior, I would say start July 1 and apply, apply, apply, everywhere that you can apply,” Logan said. “Northwood offers local scholarships, and you should start applying second semester [of your senior year], around March. That’s when most of the local businesses that are going to offer a scholarship for our students; that’s when they send their information.”
Quantity is important in the scholarship application process.
“You can’t just apply to one,” Logan said. “You have to apply to a lot of scholarships. You might get a lot of rejections, but then you might end up getting a big one.”
– By Adrianne Cleven