The value of merit scholarship awards and initiating the scholarship search

It’s March. All of my college-bound seniors have had their college applications submitted for many weeks now. Some have received great news in the early decision and early action rounds: acceptances to New York University, The University of Rochester, The University of Chicago, The University of Pennsylvania, Fordham, Cornell, Babson, St. Michael’s, Franklin Pierce University, Curry College, Lesley University, Boston University, The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, The University of Wisconsin at Madison, Purdue University, and the University of Massachusetts, just to name a few. Others have received acceptances to fine arts schools like The School of the Visual Arts in New York, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Savannah College of Art and Design. I’m proud of my students.  Each and every one of them worked hard this year and they’ve already started to see the fruits of their labor. I know that we have a lot of great news to look forward to as the April 1st regular decision notification date approaches.

With the economy still in rough shape, many families grapple with how they will be able to fund their children’s educational bills.

Along with acceptances, came scholarship news as well, for many, these scholarships were welcome surprises coming directly from the colleges to which they applied—and the big surprise is this: many of my students never submitted formal applications for these scholarships at all! Certainly these scholarship offers will help bear the brunt of what is now a very daunting tuition reality, even at the state level.  With the economy still in rough shape, many families grapple with how they will be able to fund their children’s educational bills. For many middle class families, there will be no need-based financial aid available. So merit scholarship awards provide a really great college funding alternative. Unfortunately few families really consider this alternative seriously enough to strongly encourage their students to apply for the 3 billion dollars or so out there in scholarship money that is awarded anually to students of all ages.

I think this hesitation to really seek out and apply for merit scholarship money comes from a lack of knowledge, first and foremost. Then there’s the really daunting process of identifying appropriate scholarships and then sifting through all the requirements and components of the application prior to getting started on the actual application work. Yes, it can be time-consuming and yes, it’s a lot of work, but the reality is that at the end of the process of searching and applying for merit scholarship money, there’s great potential for families to save thousands of dollars in college tuition. And even the small awards add up!

By the time a student has become a junior and senior in high school, there have been so many scholarship opportunities that have already been missed!

What is shocking to so many families with whom I work, is that they can initiate a scholarship search very early on in a student’s academic career. There are poster contests and science contests and other project-based scholarship opportunities out there for students who are enrolled in elementary and middle school programs. By the time a student has become a junior and senior in high school, there have been so many scholarship opportunities that have already been missed! To maximize scholarship potential, it is wise for families to start looking early to get their students involved in such competitions at a younger age. On many levels, getting your student involved in such projects at an early age is an empowering experience, and sends the message of how worthwhile it is to spend the time and effort outside of school working on projects that can boost a student's self-confidence and save your family a whole lot of money in the long run.

What are the other advantages to starting a scholarship search early, or applying for scholarships at all? Firstly, it’s an opportunity for a student to feel empowered, validated, and celebrated by people/organizations and groups outside of his or her comfort zone and family. There’s nothing better for a student, as he or she begins the work of understanding who he/she is in the greater community and world, than finding that validation from outside of his/her immediate world. Secondly, it’s an opportunity to grow intellectually and to start considering deeper questions about the self, future goals and to do some introspective work. For most students, this doesn’t happen until the end of the high school years or early into the college experience. The value that comes with such self-reflection is so important and worthwhile. Finally, it’s an opportunity for the family to come together and to engage in a really interesting project that is potentially going to help the student grow, mature and celebrate him/herself with a sense of purpose and meaning. These reasons in and of themselves are more important than the incredible monetary savings that can come from such a process.

With the scholarship application deadlines occurring in 2 periods of time: between January and early May and then again between September and mid-December, the late spring and the whole summer provide students and families with a wonderful opportunity to do the hard work of identifying scholarships and beginning the application process during a not-so-busy time academically. In my office, we’re getting ready to roll out this year's scholarship search and application program to families interested in getting started--and we're offering programs that suit different age levels and goals. Whether it’s working with a family one-on-one, or whether it’s in a much larger group setting, our mission is to make sure that the information and the step-by-step process is accessible and easy to follow. The key to a successful scholarship search seems to be in understanding that it’s hard work, but it’s certainly not an impossible task to identify, apply for and win scholarship money.

If I have students with whom I am working, who are receiving scholarships as seniors, to colleges to which they have applied, without even going through the formal process of applying for merit scholarship money, how much more might these students have earned and applied towards their college funds if they had worked towards applying for scholarships even as early as freshman year in high school? I think you’ll agree that if anything, it’s worth investigating and thinking seriously about. And if you need some help and advice along the way, come visit us at Starr & Chapman, Inc. We’d be happy to send you a schedule of our workshops or to send you some information about our scholarship search program.

Christine Chapman is the Director of Client Services for Starr & Chapman, Inc. in Sagamore Beach, MA. She maintains the blog College Chat with Christine Chapman on CapeCodToday.com. Follow Starr & Chapman, Inc. on Facebook here.