Scholarship Opportunities

The scholarship search takes time, but it has the potential to be the best-paying job you’ll ever have. You may earn $1000 in 100 hours at a part-time job, but a scholarship may earn you $1000 in 5 hours.

1. Start locally. It is easier to compete against your hometown for a scholarship than to compete at a national level! Your scholarship search should start with your guidance office or career center at your school (homeschoolers, you still can and should take advantage of the resources at the local public school!).
2. Expand your search to the internet. At Northwestern, we recommend that families DO NOT pay for any scholarship search sites as there are plenty of great FREE sites! We suggest:
• fastweb.com
• scholarships.com
• schoolsoup.com
• go.salliemae.com/scholarship
3. Zinch.com is a unique search engine that will double the scholarships you win if you apply through them. This is legitimate!!
4. Many scholarships WILL NOT be on the search engines, so make a list of
• EVERYTHING you’re involved in
• EVERYTHING you like
• EVERYTHING you’re good at
• EVERYTHING that relates to you (as in, your hometown, religion, political party)
• EVERYTHING that you want to do
• EVERYTHING that you’ve won
• EVERYTHING your parents AND grandparents have been involved in (ex., American Legion, Navy)
Then, find all the synonyms you can think of for those things (ex., instead of just “horse,” one of our students used the following: equine, equestrian, horse training, stable, ranch, farm, animal, vet, veterinary, vet tech, horseback, horsemanship, agribusiness, agriculture, livestock, pony, ponies, horses, dressage, jumping, natural horsemanship, Tennessee walking Horses, etc).
Now Google every one of those words with the term scholarship, grant, fellowship, and award. This will take a long time, but these are the scholarships you’re highly qualified to receive and that few people will apply for.
5. Scholarship providers want to fund people who are going to do great things; therefore, you need to know 1) what you are passionate about doing and 2) why it is going to change the world. Spend time in prayer over this. As Christians, we know that what God has called us to is life-changing—whether that is in the field of medicine, education, business, or the arts.
6. Choose wisely which scholarships to apply for—if you are very specifically qualified for it, apply for the scholarship! If you are sort of qualified, consider it. If you are qualified and so are 15,000 other students, skip it.
7. Keep a master database of all your awards, activities, honors, club positions, leadership activities, club involvements, community service/volunteer hours.
8. Expenses for scholarship applications (postage/envelopes/etc) are tax-deductable, so keep track of them!

Be sure to create a profile for yourself on the following scholarship search sites. They are FREE and might lead you to some good money for college!
Fastweb
Sallie Mae
CollegeBoard
Scholarships.com

Outside scholarships:
AES Engineering Scholarship
Incight Scholarship for students with disabilities Best Buy Scholarship
Twin Cities metro track/CC runners
B. Davis Scholarship
Big Sun Scholarship for Athletes
Abbott & Fenner Scholarship Program
Three Sentence Essay Scholarship AXA Achievement Scholarship Jaycee Scholarship Discus Award (note: this is just the title of the award; it is not actually an award for discus throwers!)
Courage to Grow Scholarship
Philanthro Scholarship