Are you planning to apply for an academic scholarship? Many prospective students are looking to get into the best schools for their intended major. Yet, the fact remains: tuition is pricey and continues to climb across the board.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to land an academic scholarship so you can pay less to nothing at all for your college. This guide also includes how to become scholarship-deserving students and how to apply for an academic scholarship.
Academic scholarships can be competitive even for high-achieving students. Plus, many competitive scholarships may have requirements such as high SAT scores. Admissions to very competitive schools come with stringent guidelines that you need to follow to qualify for consideration, mainly if you apply for a full-tuition scholarship.
Let’s dive in a bit further and discuss the requirements of scholarship applications for American students.
Major Sources of Academic Scholarships
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation is one of the country’s largest sources of academic scholarships. It has over 4,000 merit-based scholarships sponsored by colleges across the country. It also includes an additional 1,000 merit-based private scholarships.
Applicants who intend to participate in these competitions through the NMSC must take the PSAT/NMSQT test in October of their junior year of high school. Another major resource that offers academic scholarship opportunities is the Stamps Family Charitable Foundation which provides scholarships that pay full tuition to many of its partner colleges and universities across the United States.
The difference between a scholarship and a grant
Keep in mind that scholarships and grants are different from one another. For example, Scholarships may require academic excellence, exceptional athletic abilities, and excellent school grades in an in-demand field of study, while grants are based on certain factors like family socioeconomic status, disability status (if applicable), and the cost of tuition of the chosen school. Grants do not need to be repaid if the student meets certain GPA requirements. But the funds allocated to need-based scholarships may be limited compared to academic scholarships.
5 Steps to Winning a Full-Ride Scholarship
Let’s take a look at the following steps you’ll want to take to win a full-ride scholarship to your top-choice schools:
Demonstrate academic excellence
It’s no secret that the highest level of academic achievement will put you in consideration for a full-ride scholarship. The higher your GPA, the better. In fact, one of the admissions requirements of many schools is acquiring a specific GPA.
Suppose you are not doing well in a specific subject. In that case, it’s always a good idea to seek assistance from your teachers or any available tutoring services (either in-school or private tutoring). Eligible students for scholarships should finish in the top ten percent of their class. Academic merit is an essential requirement for a wide variety of scholarships.
Take part in community service.
Achieving high academic marks is a must, but what you do outside of school and your community is also relevant. Community involvement is essential for the success of your application process and can be a requirement for numerous college or university scholarships. In fact, there are a total of 13 scholarships that you can apply to, where community activities are considered a plus.
Plan ahead
It’s essential to think ahead and plan out the scholarships that you need to apply for. Some scholarships will apply to specific majors. When researching the scholarships you are interested in, you must meet the requirements. This includes your intended major, academic records, service to the community, application fee, deadline, and more. The admission application requirements will allow you to determine which scholarships are a good opportunity for you.
Develop and demonstrate leadership
You can demonstrate leadership in the classroom and in extracurricular activities. Be an active participant in class, lead group projects, and build relationships with your teachers and mentors. This will be helpful for you whenever you need a letter of recommendation for a scholarship.
If you have athletic abilities, you should assume leadership roles within the team to get enough attention from scouts. This can be enough to land you an athletic scholarship that could mean a full ride the whole way through. If you are a student with excellent athletic skills, Morzep can provide the assistance of specialized coaches to help you land a scholarship to a school of your choice.
Build relationships outside of school
Focus on building relationships with your teachers and mentors, and establish rewarding relationships outside of school also. This can include your professional and personal connections. You can build a solid network that can become your support system when the time comes to apply for certain scholarships.
How hard is it to get an academic scholarship?
College tuition can be expensive even if you benefit from tax-deductible expenses. However, a scholarship can offset most of these costs. How hard is it really to get an academic scholarship? Given their competitive natures, there aren’t as many scholarship recipients as students would want. As mentioned before, every scholarship has unique criteria that you have to meet, especially if you are competing for a merit-based scholarship or you are planning to take advantage of a scholarship opportunity at Ivy League schools.
That’s why it is very important to plan and research every scholarship you intend to apply for and ask the right scholarship questions to make sure you don’t lose your chance to get college scholarships because of missed deadlines or other technicalities. Focus on every aspect of the college application process and remember that you need to send in a separate scholarship application.
You can be awarded a scholarship or get into a merit-based scholarship program and miss out on it if you don’t meet a certain requirement during the selection process. It is important to remember that you shouldn’t give up and be up to date with all the requirements in place at the time of application. Follow the five steps mentioned above and there could be a scholarship out there awarded to you that will be good for your entire undergraduate career.
Final Thoughts
If you are a parent of a high school student, talk to them about different ways to pay for college, including grants and scholarships. If you are a high school student and have yet to enter your junior year, this is a great time to prepare for one of the most important part of your high school years: paying for college.
It is never too early to start researching scholarship opportunities and incoming first-year students will benefit greatly from having the support of Morzep college coaches to show them the way and guide them towards a successful scholarship application.
The sooner you start your quest in getting an academic scholarship, the better. Be sure to excel academically, display excellent leadership skills, and build relationships with those in and outside school. While you may not land every scholarship you apply for, your efforts may be enough to land one that will reduce the financial burden on you and your parents.
