College Scholarships

Scholarships are a great way to help finance your college education. Like grants, scholarships never have to be repaid. So the more scholarship money you receive, the better. And there are literally billions and billions of dollars of scholarship money available. The amount vary, of course-some are a few hundred dollars, others thousands, and some elite scholarships even pay for all four years of tuition, room and board, and even living expenses. But scholarships are different from grants. Grants are usually awarded based on the factor of demonstrated financial need. Scholarships are usually given on the basis of merit, which means they are not strictly need based, although financial need is a consideration in awarding some scholarships. Scholarships are usually considered a reward, a way of encouraging high grades in school, community service, leadership, outstanding achievement in a particular field, etc. You should try to get as much scholarship money as you can, to lower the amount you may have to borrow. And with billions of dollars in scholarship money available, the odds are very good that you can qualify for some of it. Let's look at scholarships in general, and some different scholarship programs.