The budget doesn’t add up. In the simple equation of money minus time, there’s not enough of either. Personally, it’s the single greatest reason why graduate school is hard. As a graduate student in a traditionally debt-laden field, those around me seem to treat debt as the norm. But this de facto acceptance of debt – the status quo – is no longer tolerable. Maybe, despite all my efforts, I won’t be able to balance the budget. Maybe, despite all my efforts, the loans will grow – building on the principal and metastasizing into financial prison.
Time to excise this. I’m done with debt.
As the semester wraps up, this is an inherently challenging time to look for funding opportunities – especially scholarships. But I’m desperate, and thought a look would be worth it. Most of what I found appeared to be junk or spam-related entities looking to get your email address and have you register to signup for a “No Essay” scholarship. Nonetheless, I decided to apply to everything I could in one day. Here’s what happened.
My search started and ended at FastWeb.com (Link). While this may be a great resource for a scholarship search, it’s congested with spammy advertisements for companies and colleges that will bleed you dry. In between the advertisements, there are decent scholarships. The end of spring semester is hardly a great time to start applying for scholarships, but that is all part of the experiment (look back in the fall to see what new numbers I put up!). There are very few scholarships for those in graduate studies. This, with the bad timing of the application cycle, made for a rough start.
After a little while I narrowed it down to a few scholarships that were relevant and I could actually apply to. Then, I began. In the course of 70 minutes, I applied to 7 different scholarships, which totaled $50,500. Most of the applications were short, no essay, monthly giveaways that felt like I was entering a hopeless sweepstakes. But a few of them seemed to have potential, and even made me think about what I truly believed via the essay. Over the next few months I will be scanning the web for new scholarship opportunities, and I’ll keep you posted if I receive some good news.
Scholarship Applications:
Gotchosen.com (Link)
- $40,000 Gotchosen No Essay Scholarship
- Time: 2.5 minutes (registration)
- Difficulty: Easy
- $1,000 Gotchosen Monthy No Essay Scholarship
- Time: 2.5 minutes
- Difficulty: Easy
College Prowler Scholarships (Link)
- $2,000 “No Essay” Scholarship (Monthly)
- Time: 5 minutes (mostly to register for site)
- Difficulty: Easy
- $1,000 College Survey Scholarship
- Time: 15 minutes
- Difficulty: Easy
Cappex High School and College Scholarships (Link)
- $1,000 A GPA Isn’t Everything Scholarship
- Time: 5 minutes (mostly for site registration)
- Difficulty: Easy
Do Something: Don’t Be a Sucker Campaign (Link)
- $4,000 Don’t Be a Sucker Scholarship
- Time: 20 minutes (registration and taking pictures of unplugged appliances)
- Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Delete Cyberbullying (Link)
- $1,500 Delete Cyberbullying Scholarship Award
- Time 20 minutes (essay = 500 words or less)
- Difficulty: Moderate
Total time: ~70 minutes
Total Scholarship Potential: $50,500
Did you get any of these scholarships? My son is in college and we are looking for ways to save money.
Unfortunately, Barbara, none of these scholarships were awarded to me. 🙁 What I found in applying for each of these scholarships was that thousands of others were submitting applications as well. Despite lots of potential funds, they’re exceptionally difficult to win. I you and your son the best of luck, and would highly recommend he checks out the possible scholarship aid at his local college; oftentimes, the most likely awards are there.
Sam