Where You Can Find Great Scholarship Opportunities

The cost to attend college keeps going up, and for many students, it can be quite a challenge to pay for tuition and other fees associated with higher education.

For the 2008-09 academic year, average annual tuition was $6,585 – a 6.4 percent year-over-year increase – for a public four-year college and $25,143 – a 5.9 percent year-over-year increase – for a private four-year college, according to the College Board, a nonprofit association that provides a variety of services for college-bound students.

Fortunately, there is more than $143 billion in financial aid available to college students, much of which comes in the form of scholarships.

Finding Scholarship Opportunities

With so many scholarships out there, searching for one that meets your needs can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack.

However, there are several resources available to college students to help them find great scholarship opportunities.

U.S. Department of Education

Most people know that the federal government is a great resource for obtaining federal student aid and educational grants, but many students might not realize that the U.S. Department of Education also provides resources to help college students find scholarship opportunities.

Those hoping to find scholarships to help pay for college can obtain a great deal of information on the U.S. Department of Education’s web site, Student Aid on the Web, which provides free information on preparing for and funding education beyond high school.

Much of the web site focuses on securing financial aid or applying for federal grants, but under the site’s “Tools and Resources” link, you can find the site’s Scholarship Search tool. There, you can access general information on scholarships, including what it takes to get a scholarship, how to apply for a scholarship and a helpful scholarship checklist.

The site also provides a search engine tool that uses keywords – such as music or biology – to comb through the U.S. Department of Education’s vast scholarship database. Students also can conduct more comprehensive searches using the site’s “scholarship matching wizard.”

Colleges and Universities

Many colleges and universities offer college-sponsored scholarships, and often, you do not need to complete additional applications beyond the standard admission and financial aid applications in order to apply for them.

These scholarships can be general in nature – either based on financial need or scholastic performance – or they can be for specific fields such as engineering or business.

A number of college-sponsored scholarships can be found online via the college’s web site – just look for any information for prospective students. You also can learn about an institution’s scholarship opportunities by contacting the school’s admissions office.

Industry-Specific Associations

Another great resource for finding scholarship opportunities is an industry-specific association. Today, you can find an association for just about any professional field. Plus, there are industry-specific associations that are also gender- or race-specific, such as the Society of Women Engineers or the African American Black Business Association.

Many of these associations offer a variety of industry-specific scholarships to students who are pursuing majors in those fields.

If you do not already know of a specific society for the field you will be studying, you should begin your search on the Internet – just search by the specific industry and the words “association” or “organization” and you should be in luck.

Your Local Library

Even in a world dominated by the Internet, there is still a lot of information that can be found in books.

Your best resource for finding books that list scholarship opportunities is to visit your local library. You should be able to locate such references by searching under “financial aid,” “student aid” or “scholarships.”