There may be millions of dollars in unused scholarships; money that piles up every single year because the sources of the scholarships are unknown about. Yet at the same time, there are so many disappointed students that didn’t get to go to school because they couldn’t afford it. Some of them did eventually go to college, but they had to take out a large chunk of student loans they will be responsible to repay.
The reason that there is a gap in the two is that there isn’t really a bridge to get those in need across to the other side to where the money is. Things have gotten better than before, but there is still too much money that people just don’t know about. If you plan to go to college, you should be getting busy well in advance looking for the unused scholarships out there.
Getting Unused Scholarships for Everyday Students
The biggest problem is that people fail to recognize all that is offered in terms of those unknown scholarships. They often assume that if they didn’t graduate at the top of their class or they aren’t an amazing athlete there aren’t any funds for them. That simply isn’t true though and getting that message out there is important.
There are tons of unused scholarships offered for those that have a learning disability, that are first generation students, based on financial need, and more. There are some really crazy scholarships too, such as those for making a dress out of Duct Tape or being above a certain height or even below.
How to Find Unused Scholarship Money
To find unused scholarship money, you have to be able to use resources to your benefit. Find out if the locations where you or your parents work offer college scholarships. Talk to the financial aid office to see what they can offer you when you are accepted to a particular college. You may stumble across some easy scholarship money this way.
Contact your community organizations to find out what is out there. If you are involved in clubs at schools there could be funds through them. Sometimes your heritage, a particular area of study you are going into, or a particular goal you have for the future could be what it takes for you to be approved for various forms of unused scholarship money.
The internet is a great way to connect with money in unused scholarships. You do need to make sure you don’t get scammed though. Every single year the Federal Trade Commission investigates such fraudulent claims especially in regards to unclaimed scholarships. There are entities out there that tell you they can hook you up with unused scholarship money. They make money by asking you for membership fees, application fees, and more. They make you elusive promises but in the end they are just going to take your money and run. They may try to look legitimate though by sending you information about a variety of easy scholarships which are unclaimed. However, they send the same list to everyone and they haven’t done any customized searching on your behalf at all.
Unused Scholarship Money are Unknown Scholarships
If you want to really find unused scholarship money out there, you have to do the leg work on your own. Be dedicated to spending time searching for what you may qualify for. Make a list of things that you may be able to use as benefits for you to go to college. For example your leadership skills or the fact that you are going into a field that there is a huge demand for workers in. The more you apply, the more you increase your chances of getting funding through unused scholarships to pay for your education.
Don’t forget to look into the special interest categories as well. That is where you will be able to find lesser known means of getting unused scholarship money for school. It is a good idea to sign up for alerts too so that you can get information about unknown scholarships and their upcoming deadlines. The unknown college scholarships may be the best places to find any unused scholarships to apply too simply because not as many people know about them to apply.
It can be useful to set up a separate email account just for that information. Then you don’t have to worry about scholarship information getting mixed up with your regular email. You will get a lot of information sent to you daily which can and will get bothersome.