Getting a college degree can increase your lifetime earnings substantially— but even better is getting someone else to pay for it. We’re talking, of course, about scholarships. We’ll discuss strategies to find college scholarships on this Faith and Finance.
Getting a college degree can increase your lifetime earnings substantially— but even better is getting someone else to pay for it. We’re talking, of course, about scholarships. We’ll discuss strategies to find college scholarships on this Faith and Finance.
College is expensive. The College Board reports that in 2023, in-state students at a public four-year school will spend close to $11,000 on tuition and fees. That’s for just one year, and doesn’t include room and board. Students at a private, four-year college will spend almost $40,000 on tuition and fees alone.
With those expenses, it’s not surprising that the average student owes close to $30,000 when leaving school. But you don’t have to be the average student.
Many organizations are willing to help you pay for college through scholarships … if you meet their qualifications.
Rob West’s wife Julie had her own “application assembly line” going, and she was able to land $170,000 in scholarship money.
Of course, that took a lot of work, but look at it this way, you can either put in the time and effort now applying for scholarships … or you can borrow and work very hard later to pay back the money.
We’re hoping that you’d rather do the work now, so we’ll give you the names of online sources for scholarship money.
SCHOLARSHIP SOURCES
Our first source for scholarship money is Fastweb. They host more than 1.5 million scholarships totaling nearly $3.5 billion. To get started, you create a profile at FastWeb.com. A search feature helps match you to scholarships that meet your individual needs. It also keeps track of where you’ve applied— a handy feature.
Now, the College Board is best known for testing materials, things like the SATs and other exams, but they also want to help you pay for college once you get there. On their site you can apply for scholarships and internships. They have leads to about 2,200 programs offering nearly $6 billion in college aid every year.
Another great site is Niche.com. Like the name implies, they help you find not only money, but also colleges that cater to your specific major and interests.
And of course there’s Scholarships.com. They have a huge database with more than 3.5 million scholarship and grant opportunities totaling almost $20 billion. You can browse by category or set up a profile to help you find scholarships specific to your interests.
Cappex is another great source. They have leads on $11 billion in scholarship opportunities. Their site also has a tool to help you calculate the odds of getting into a school of your choice before you even apply. Chegg is another good one. They’re best known as an online textbook store, but they can also point you to about 25,000 different scholarships. And they have a “top picks of the week” feature to help improve your odds of landing one.
Now, keep in mind that a lot of these scholarship opportunities are merit-based, meaning the higher your grades, the better your chances of landing that kind of scholarship.
But what if you’re more athletically inclined? There’s a site to help with that. Unigo lets you search for athletic scholarships as well as a wide variety of funding opportunities offered by specific schools and companies.
And let’s not forget about Peterson’s, which is best known as a clearinghouse for information about colleges and universities. They also host about $10 billion in scholarship opportunities.
Now, this one’s interesting, because we usually associate federal aid with borrowing, but the Labor Department sponsors a website called CareerOneStop, which allows you to search more than 8,000 scholarships, fellowships, and grants. And that’s money you won’t have to pay back.
One final idea: Check with the financial aid office at whichever schools you apply to. Sometimes they have scholarship money available, too.
A final note— if you get discouraged at any point, just remember Proverbs 22:7, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.” It’s a good incentive to find those scholarships and borrow as little as possible.
On this program, Rob also answers listener questions:
How should you transfer funds from one retirement account to another?
How do you determine if real estate is a wise investment for you?
When is it wise to invest in I-bonds?
Remember, you can call in to ask your questions most days at (800) 525-7000. Also, visit our website at FaithFi.com where you can join the FaithFi Community, and give as we expand our outreach.
