Scholarships
What you should know?
It is always exciting to hear that one has received a scholarship. It’s always great news to receive money that you are not expected to pay back. With regards to scholarships, it’s important that you understand the basic structure of the system before you even start applying.
Scholarships are a financial support for students so they are able to further their education. It is offered by different institutions, schools, non-profits, community organisations, government and businesses. It is crucial to find out conditions of scholarships before you apply. Some scholarships are available to students from a specific region, going to a specific region or university, studying a specific subject, or based on other factors such as ethnicity, gender and academic / extra-curricular achievement. Scholarships can offer full or partial cover, be for the entire academic course or part, or be offered before entrance or after. Therefore, it is critical to have full information about a scholarship before application.
Scholarships are usually classified into 3 categories
Merit
This refers to both academic and extra-curricular merit. This is the section that seeks to reward those who have worked really hard and have potential with a scholarship.
Financial Need
This is meant for those who do not have the resources to go to college. The scholarship works as a tool to help students to get the required education that they would otherwise have not been able to achieve without the scholarship.
Diversity
These are the scholarships meant to help those who have been discriminated against, and encourage diversity at colleges. This includes scholarships for those of certain racial/cultural backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, and the like.
What you should know?
The three categories mentioned above often overlap with each other a lot i.e. for a merit scholarship you might have to prove financial need and for a financial need scholarship you might be required to have attained a certain grade.
Many scholarship awards have minimum requirements that you are expected to have in order to get the award in the first place, but also you are required to maintain these minimums each semester in order to retain them. Some scholarships are renewed only if you keep your grades up and meet all other expectations. While some scholarships will want you to maintain a certain grade, others will expect you to get involved with extra-curricular activities or put in volunteer hours in order to get your money. If you come to rely on your scholarship money, but have a bad semester, it can be financially devastating having your aid reversed or not qualifying for it for future semesters.