Qualifying for scholarships:
Is it doable?

I used to think that qualifying for scholarships is a difficult thing to achieve. I also had the notion that scholarship awards are only for the very talented or very smart people. While there is some truth to this, there are other ways to get scholarships. Granted that the ones you will get probably won't pay for the full cost of your tuition but, at least, you can use your scholarship awards to pay for some expenses. A lot of these small scholarships are granted to people who apply and meet the requirements of the award.

These types of scholarship awards are available whether you're in a community college or university. Each school has a scholarship office wherein you can get a list of awards that are being offered accompanied with the requirements to qualify for them. There are usually two kinds of scholarships: specialized and general (note: I designated these names for clarity of discussion only).

Specialized scholarships are only available to certain 'types' of people such as students under certain academic majors or students with the required number of volunteer hours etc. These scholarships are usually given by the alumni of the academic department or an organization that supports them. They are created to encourage students to continue their education in that major or for other students to transfer to that particular major. To qualify for these scholarships, students would have to have certain volunteer hours that are related to their major in addition to having good grades (usually about 2.5 GPA and up). You can also go to your academic department or advisors to see if they have such scholarship offerings.

General scholarships are available to most students. I say 'most' because these awards are usually need-based. This means that students must demonstrate some financial hardship in order to qualify for them. Some of them may base the scholarship amount on a student's estimated contribution as determined by the FAFSA while some do not. Qualifying for these types of scholarships is usually easier compared to the specialized ones since you can apply from any academic major.

Both scholarship types may require letters of recommendation from teachers/advisors, a personal statement, and your transcript (if the institution does not have access to it). The purpose of these requirements is to show the scholarship committee that you deserve a scholarship because you are a good, hardworking student. The committee wants to see that you will succeed even more because of the additional help you will get from them.

If you are unsure about the requirements for certain scholarships but you feel that you have some chance of getting some, apply for them anyway. I can't tell you how much financial aid I have received from applying to these types of programs.

There are also many places on the web where you can find scholarships and one of them is Fastweb. However, I can't recommend their service since I don't have personal experience in applying to any of their scholarships. My suggestion is to subscribe to their newsletter or create a profile so that they will automatically send you updates and new scholarships when they become available. If you meet the requirements for some of them and you have some spare time, sending in your application would not hurt. In my experience, one chance is better than having no chance at all.