What You Need to Know: Scholarships
Scholarships are a great tool to help you afford college. However, not all scholarships are the same. In this article, we’ll dive into the different types of scholarships and some terms related to scholarships that may help you understand the scholarships that you are awarded or are available for you to apply for.
Types of Scholarships
Merit-based Scholarships
Merit-based scholarships are those awarded to students based on their academic performance, standardized test scores, GPA, class rank, extracurricular activities or other merits.
Need-based Scholarships
You may be awarded a need-based scholarship if you demonstrate financial need. This is determined by factors such as family income, assets, and the cost of attending a specific school. These factors are typically obtained from financial aid documents such as the FAFSA, the CSS Profile, or institutional financial aid forms.
Athletic Scholarships
Athletic scholarships are typically awarded to students who are talented athletes that excel in a specific sport. They are common at colleges and universities that offer competitive sports teams. For more information, read our article What You Need to Know: College Athletics to get a better understanding of the process to obtain this type of scholarship.
Institutional Scholarships
Institutional scholarships are awarded by the specific college or university to which you have been accepted. They can either be awarded based on merit, or need.
Some of these scholarships may be offered to you by a specific department within the institution (for example, an honors college scholarship, or a scholarship from a specific academic department). Scholarships from an institution may also recognize leadership or achievements shown within your extracurriculars within your application. Keep in mind that some institutional scholarships you will need to apply for, while others you will automatically be considered for as a part of the application review process. These scholarships are only able to be applied should you attend the college or university that awarded the scholarship.
Private Scholarships
Private scholarships are financial awards from private organizations. Private organizations may include foundations, businesses, or individuals to help support students within their educational pursuits. Unlike institutional scholarships offered by specific colleges or universities, these scholarships can be taken with you regardless of where you decide to go to college.
Private scholarships are typically focused on a specialized category like STEM, community service, arts, writing, etc. You can find private scholarships locally and regionally within your communities, or even nationally.
Local and regional scholarships
We recommend that when you start looking at scholarships that you start locally and regionally. You can start looking for these scholarships by first connecting with your school counselors. Some other places to look would be: community events and fairs, local newspapers, local nonprofits, and local government websites.
While the scholarship amount for a local or regional scholarship may be smaller than national, the money adds up!
National Scholarships
National scholarships may cover some of the same areas as local and regional scholarships and may offer a higher scholarship value, but they are typically highly competitive. These are the types of scholarships that you can find by doing a simple internet search or by searching scholarship databases through sites like College Board, Scholarship America, Fastweb, Bold.org, and Going Merry.
When reviewing your financial aid packages and scholarships, it is important to read the fine print so you know more about the scholarship and are able to plan for what affordability might look like in the future. Here are some things to watch out for:
Renewability. This refers to whether a scholarship can be awarded for multiple years or if it is just a one-time non-renewable award. This may depend on specific conditions.
Conditions. Some scholarships may be conditional. Meaning, it may depend on your GPA, the major you’re pursuing, availability of funds, enrollment status, code of conduct, or in some cases repayment conditions if you fail to meet specified criteria.
