Once you’ve been accepted to college, the next hurdle for most students and families is finding the money to pay for it. Before thinking about loans or part-time work, students should consider scholarships. Scholarship money is the best kind of support. You don’t have to work additional hours or pay it back later. You’ve got nothing to lose by applying!
Scholarships aren’t just for valedictorians or star athletes. Many scholarships are available based on geography, academic interest, musical or artistic talent, or simply above average high school grades. And they can come from all kinds of sources, from the school you will choose to the church you’ve been attending since childhood. For example, at Queens College in Charlotte, any student with a cumulative SAT score of at least 1460 (out of 2400) and a GPA of 3.0 is eligible for a Trustees’ Scholarship.
This article (and the links at the end) will help you find some of those scholarships, especially those provided by North Carolina schools.
To begin the process, you must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This is no fun, but it is the ticket to most scholarship opportunities, even if your family has a substantial income.
The U.S. Department of Education awards $80 billion a year in grants, work-study assistance and low-interest loans. The aid you qualify for depends on your Expected Family Contribution, or EFC. The EFC is the amount of money the government expects that your family can contribute to your college education for one year. The federal formula takes into account family income, assets, size of current household, and the number of family members currently attending college.
Most federal grants are available only for students with significant financial need. As a general rule, these grants will not be available to you unless your family earns less than $45,000 per year (for a family of four).
- Pell Grant: A federal grant awarded to undergraduate students.
- The Academic Competitiveness Grant: For college freshmen and sophomores who are eligible for Pell Grants and who took “rigorous” classes in high school.
- The Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant: For undergraduate students with exceptional financial need.
- SMART Grant: (National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant) For juniors and seniors who are eligible for Pell Grants and are majoring in mathematics, technology, engineering, a foreign language critical to national security, or physical, life or computer sciences. Students must also have at least a 3.0 grade point average to be eligible.
- TEACH Grant: (Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant) For students who plan to teach in schools that serve low-income students.
There are many other nationally available scholarships—for merit, athletics, or entry into a particular discipline. The following are Web sites to help you search for scholarships online. They are all free services, but most require that you set up a profile to access the information. Of the following, Petersons.com is the easiest to work with.
www.petersons.com
www.scholarshiphunter.com
scholarshipamerica.org
www.scholarships.com (this site is difficult)
The federal government has many competitions for grants, some of which are education grants, but looking for them is like searching for a needle in a haystack. You will probably do better by signing up for the sites mentioned above. The FAFSA site does have a link to additional scholarships, however, here.
And for the non-traditional student, here are some Web sites.
adultstudentcenter.com
back2college.com
If you are conservative or libertarian in your views, you may be able to obtain fellowships or scholarships and enter contests to win money for college. The Ayn Rand Institute, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and Independent Institute are just a few of the groups that offer money to college students. More can be found on the Pope Center’s Students Web page.
The state of North Carolina offers more than $600 million a year for students. The College Foundation (which is geared more to loans than to scholarships) has a small, but searchable, list of need and merit scholarships available to North Carolina students. (Merit scholarships are those given to students mostly on the basis of good grades and SAT scores rather than financial need.)
CFNC’s list represents only the tip of the iceberg; many public and private NC schools offer hundreds of scholarships. To help you find them, the Pope Center has compiled a list of available scholarship and grant money available at 26 public and 32 private colleges and universities in North Carolina. These scholarships range from very competitive full-tuition scholarships like the Park Scholarship at N.C. State and the Morehead-Cain Scholarship at UNC-Chapel Hill, to smaller, more widely available grants for students interested in particular fields of study or who have above-average academic performance. There are scholarships for freshmen entering college, current students, and transfer students.
Keep in mind that at many private schools, students who have been admitted are automatically considered for need and merit-based scholarships—if they have filled out the FAFSA form. Students must apply separately for others.
Students should also investigate scholarship opportunities available through their parents’ employers, memberships or club affiliations, churches, or resources accessed via the Internet. In addition, many occupational groups support students who are interested in pursuing a career in their field, such as nursing, teaching, engineering, or business.
Even a small scholarship or grant is worth the effort. Every dollar of scholarship money is a dollar that you won’t have to earn working part-time or a dollar you won’t have to repay-with interest-after you graduate!
For public colleges and universities, click here.
For private colleges and universities, click here.
Both lists are on excel spreadsheets. Each school is on a different tab.