Scholarships are a big portion of the college application process for many high school seniors; college can be a huge undertaking, and some students need extra financial support to fund their education. Scholarships are an opportunity for many students to find that support.
Scholarships are money given to students to help pay for college that will not need to be paid back in the future. The money from the scholarships can be used to fund many essentials for college students, mainly education and living expenses.
The College and Career Center advisor at Antioch Community High School, Genesis Casillas, provides support for students who want to further their education. Casillas can also assist students with applying for scholarships to make the process as simple as possible.
“Scholarships are often given through different organizations to help pay for things like tuition, housing and books,” Casillas said. “Sometimes if you have leftover money with these scholarships, you are able to purchase a computer or things that you may need for your dorm room.”
There are endless ways to find scholarships, some may be directly through a college, some may be local and others may be on scholarship websites. The amount of scholarship opportunities could be reassuring, although, this also makes finding where to start on scholarship applications challenging for some students.
To make the beginning of the scholarship application process easier for students, the school provides many outlets for students to begin applying to scholarships.
“We have a site called Naviance, where they list scholarships that students can apply for,” ACHS counselor Taylor Travers said. “We make students aware of that through Google Classroom.”
Many great scholarship opportunities for students are local scholarships. This makes the possibility of earning the scholarship less competitive as few students will be applying for them.
On Mar. 1, all local scholarship applications were due by 3:30 p.m. The local scholarships include the rotary scholarship and many others. However, very few seniors ended up applying for them.
“There’s $100 million in scholarships that are never claimed each year and that could be going up,” Casillas said. “When this was all due for the local scholarship, probably a quarter of our high school seniors actually applied.”
There is never a limit for how many scholarships a student can apply for; it is even encouraged to apply for as many scholarships as possible. By applying for more scholarships, the chances of earning money for college increases.
“You can apply for 30 or 40 scholarships if you have the time to do that,” Casillas said. “Oftentimes, there are no essays. You just have to provide your information to put yourself in the running.”
Many seniors have been and are still in the scholarship application process. Senior Katie Timmer has been applying for as many scholarships as she can in order to make college more affordable.
“I have to pay for college and everything myself,” Timmer said. “I won’t get help from my parents, so I don’t want to be in debt.”
The biggest piece of advice for students who are already in the scholarship application process or are just about to start it is to stay organized, apply to as many scholarships as possible and to start the applications early.
