text: In the US, there is an ever rising price of going to college, after school activities such as sports and being on the student council provide great ways to obtain scholarships. Scholarships are money given to a student who excels at either academics or sports. They provide a way for a person to go to college for free or a discounted price depending on what type of scholarship they get. In towns where student's families are often very poor and can't afford college, sports or academic scholarships are the only way that they will be able to go to college. Academic scholarships are the harder of the two and student council or editor of the school's newspaper is a great thing that colleges love seeing on an application.