It’s college application season. High school seniors are busy writing admissions essays, collecting letters of reference from their teachers and narrowing down their lists of reach, target and safety schools. All this, in addition to normal class studies, senior activities and maybe even a part-time job. It’s a lot to say the least.
Most kids are focused on getting into college, as they should, but that’s only half of the journey. They can’t go to their dream school, or any school for that matter, if they can’t afford it. That’s where you can help parents. While the kids are focused on getting in, you can be focused on how to pay for college. One of the best ways to help pay for college is through scholarships and grants. It’s doesn’t get better than free money to reduce the cost of attending.
Some Facts & Tips on Grants & Scholarships
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Don’t Wait Start Applying Now – One of the biggest myths about scholarships is that you need to know which school your child will be attending before you can apply. This is not true. Outside of institutional aid (money offered directly from the school) there are quite a few private scholarships can be won without knowing which school the money will ultimately go to, and some can be won by students as young as 13.
- Set up a 529 Plan for your child and have all winnings deposited there for later use. If you start early enough, your winnings can grow tax-free and you’ll have even more money to help pay for college.
- Be Sure to Fill out the FAFSA® - The first step to accessing federal and state financial aid is to complete the FAFSA® (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). In 2024 over $4 Billion in Pell Grant money went unclaimed simply because eligible students did not complete the FAFSA form.
- The FAFSA opens on October 1 each year. Be sure to complete it as soon as possible as it’s common for state universities to distribute financial aid on a first-come first-served basis. Once the money is gone, it’s gone.
- Dedicate Time to Apply – Outside of the FAFSA, another way to get money for college is to roll up your sleeves and start applying for scholarships. There’s a lot of money out there for the taking, over $8 Billion each year, some of which sadly goes unclaimed.
- Set aside time each week, maybe an hour or so, and use that time to apply for scholarships. The effort will be a marathon, not a sprint, so prepare yourself and your child that results will come in time, after lots of persistence and dedicated effort. Only 7% of students receive private scholarships, which is most likely the outcome of most students giving up too soon, starting too late or not even trying at all. For those that plan and persist, the reward could be lots of scholarship money.
How and Where to Find Scholarships
Google the word scholarships and soon you will be overwhelmed by the thousands upon thousands of results. It can be easy to get lost during a scholarship search. Here are some tactics to help you whittle down the results to the ones best suited for your child.
Create a Very Specific Search Based on Your Child’s Unique Characteristics
There are scholarships for everything – literally everything. From scholarships for students who can knit, to scholarships for those who are good at crossword puzzles to even a scholarship for making your prom outfit out of Duck tape. Whatever your child’s talent, interest or hobby there’s probably a scholarship for that.
Start by sitting down and taking an inventory of your child’s unique characteristics. Do they play an instrument, participate in sports, or spend weekends playing video games? Do they speak another language, do they have a twin, are they left-handed? Interview family and friends to help compile the most comprehensive list you can and use that as your starting point to start looking for scholarships.
For example, there is a scholarship for residents of Southern California that are also twins or the parent of twins. The odds of winning this scholarship are greater than trying to win the Coca Cola scholarship which most anyone can try for. If you have time, apply for the Coca Cola scholarship too, but know the $20,000 prize and the brand name recognition undoubtedly generate lots and lots of submissions each year, making this one a tougher one to win.
Use AI to Help Narrow the Search
AI can be a very helpful tool to help find scholarships, specifically ones best suited for your child. To use AI most effectively, you can start by creating a master prompt for your child. A master prompt helps train the AI about your child, what they like, how they spend their time, school activities, interests and so on. This will help the AI to understand the specific knowledge they need to most accurately identify scholarships for your child.
Be sure to keep the information specific to the activity or attribute but also generic, as to protect your child’s identity and privacy. A profile could look like: 18-year old boy, with a 3.5 GPA, debate club president, who has played tennis since the age of 5, wants to study cybersecurity, is an avid reader of mystery novels, a budding cook and lives in the southwest. It can be as detailed as you would like.
Once the AI has a solid grasp regarding your goals, instructions and parameters, you can ask it to identify scholarships to apply for. You can have them filtered by due date, dollar amount or ranked according to fit, with the highest qualification matches first and so on. This can be a real time saver as the AI can scour the internet efficiently on your child’s behalf.
Work Smarter Not Harder
Everyone knows applying to scholarships can be a tedious task, so why not take advantage of some of the basic functions on your computer to help you. There are number of scholarships that are quick and easy to apply for, called “no-essay”. They are exactly like their name implies, they don’t require anything more than to complete a simple form to enter. Furthermore, these no-essay scholarships are often given away monthly. While they are harder to win, due to the ease of entry, they are worth a few minutes each month because at the end of the day, someone will win and that could be you.
To help make the process of entering most efficient, identify 10-20 of these no-essay scholarships and bookmark them in their own folder on your computer browser. Then once a month go in and apply to all these scholarships (assuming all of them are monthly scholarships). Take advantage of autofill to help you fill in the basic information into the form, such as name, email, school and GPA (don’t worry if you don’t know the school – just put the one you’d like to go to). Between the bookmarks and autofill, you should be able to apply to quite a few scholarships inside of an hour or so each month. For just a little effort, you might find yourself with some extra scholarship money for college.
Edvisors is a great place to start when looking for these types of scholarships. Their Featured Scholarships page offers several no-essay scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 and more in college money.
Getting through college admissions season and heading off to college can be both exciting for the opportunity and terrifying because of the cost, but with the right strategies, families can tackle both admissions and affordability. While students focus on getting in, you parents can work to reduce the financial burden by exploring scholarships and grants. Remember, persistence and planning are key. Dedicate time to apply for scholarships and utilize resources like Edvisors to help with the effort. With teamwork and determination, the dream of an affordable college education can become a reality.
