The Truth About Scholarships
The majority of people believe that the way to offset college costs is through scholarships. There are a few problems with this:
1. Less than 1% of students going to college get a full-ride scholarship. Those who do, still have to pay for room and board, so this means that it is not technically “free” and you may still have to take out loans.
2. Students don’t know where to find scholarships. Loans seem to be the majority of how students pay for school. While this isn’t all bad, students should take advantage of the scholarships that are out there.
Perna writes, “Educational debt is the fastest-growing debt category in America today, and as of 2020, the average borrower owes almost $38k in student loans” (2021).
Finding and applying to scholarships takes work. This is hard to do since we know students are already busy trying to get through high school, get enough sleep, take accelerated courses, and maintain a job, sports, and leadership roles. However, students do need to put the work in if they expect to get scholarships. Contrary to our desires, scholarships do not fall from the sky or grow on trees. There are ways to get help with searching for scholarships.
According to Forbes, 100 million dollars of scholarships go unclaimed every year (2021). This means that scholarships are out there and students either aren’t taking advantage of them, or don’t know where to begin looking for them! This is encouraging-there are scholarships for you and you don’t have to graduate with so many loans. There are ways to save for college if you begin looking. You can start applying for scholarships as early as middle school! Most scholarships, however, are catered toward Seniors. You can really start putting the work in around Junior year searching for scholarships and start to apply summer after Junior year.
If you want more information on how to skip the time of searching for credible scholarships, you can email me and I would be happy to provide more information!
References:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markcperna/2021/11/01/100-million-in-scholarship-money-goes-unclaimed-every-year-does-it-have-to/?sh=7b18d8ad3b6f
