Paying for college tuition these days is not an easy task. Tuition fees increase every year. Add to that a stable family income, and tuition fees will seem daunting. Fortunately, there is a solution: funding your education through scholarships can make paying for graduate school so much less stressful.
And today, students and their parents can use as much help as possible to cover the cost of college tuition. According to the College Board, the average cost of a year at a private school now exceeds $25,000. Four-year public universities are more sensible, but even expensive: According to the College Board, students attending one of these schools cost an average of more than $6,500 a year.
You may doubt that you are offered a scholarship. You may never have succeeded in any sport in high school. Maybe your grades were good, but not very good. You may never have been a bright star in music, speeches or debates.
Don’t panic. There is a good chance that you will be able to qualify for many excellent university scholarships.
Indeed, current university scholarships are not awarded solely on the basis of academic or extracurricular achievements. Some organizations provide scholarships to new students who have devoted a lot of time to volunteering. Others issue scholarships to high-rated students who work as cadets at a local golf course. Still others award scholarships to students interested in careers in real estate, theater or law enforcement.
There are even very strange scholarships. For example, the Klingon Language Institute awards a $500 scholarship annually to encourage students to learn languages. Klingon, of course, is the language the captain speaks. Kirk’s biggest enemies in Star Trek. Loyola University of Chicago is the site of the zolpa Scholarship. Depending on your surname, it is easy to earn: the scholarship is given to Catholic students who attend school and have the surname “zolp”. There are even scholarships where the qualification is left-handed!
Many scholarships, not based on academic or athletic ability, pay little. Some may simply donate enough money to cover the student’s room and meals. But the good news is that students can apply for as many of these relatively unknown scholarships as they want. By collecting scholarships from a variety of sources, students can ease the financial burden of paying for college tuition.
Remember, unlike loans, scholarships do not need to be returned after graduation. Also remember that most scholarships are not paid every year simply because no student claims for them. That’s why it makes sense to think about funding your education by funding students by completing as many scholarship applications as possible.