In pop culture and everyday vernacular, the idea of a scholarship is often used as a golden ticket that is rarely received and incredibly difficult to earn.
“I’m just hoping my kid gets a scholarship because we can’t afford college.”
“I wrote over 100 scholarship essays, so I have to win one of them!”
“Did you hear that Barry got a baseball scholarship?”
“Did you hear that Sally got a music scholarship?”
For many, the scholarship amount is assumed to be significant and sometimes used synonymously with a full-ride scholarship. My favorite examples of this are the 17-year-old boys who go around telling their friends they got a baseball scholarship, when in fact it was a $3,000 scholarship that is given to anyone who can write their name on the application.
The truth is that some scholarships can be anything from a full-ride (student pays nothing for tuition or room and board) to a $100 essay contest winner.
So how do we get a scholarship? (the big $$$ scholarships)
Many people think about writing countless scholarship essays for private organizations and donors. This can and should be explored; however, what I want to highlight is the reality that the majority of scholarships are awarded simply by filling out your college application and the FAFSA.
Take a look at some of the numbers from the College Board’s Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2024, and you can see where grant amounts are coming from.
This has never been more true than now. In 2010, institutional grants represented only 35% of the total grant aid, compared to 52% in 2024.
This is important because, in broad strokes, the name of the game is not trying to write a million scholarship essays, get recruited for an athletic scholarship, or find some kind of niche academic or extracurricular scholarship to apply for. Rather…
….it is more about applying to the right schools in the first place.
The colleges, themselves, will be the ones rewarding the most grant aid for students. And what factors determine who gets these scholarships? This is based on an array of factors, the most important being grades and test scores.
Getting good grades does more than get people a gold star in this state of college admissions. It equates to scholarship money!
Some colleges, especially private colleges like the one I worked at, awarded most merit-based scholarships based on grades and test scores. The higher your grades and SAT and ACT scores, the higher your scholarship bracket.
Institutional grants can also be based on financial need. So if you are a parent who is worried about the cost of college, know that both private and public schools offer need-based scholarships in the form of institutional grants and through federal and state grants.
Where Do I Start?
If you want to get an idea of the price you may pay for a certain college, the Net Price Calculator Center is your place to start.
