It can be tough to know what to think about unclaimed scholarships. On one hand, you feel that it is frustrating that such unclaimed scholarship money may have been out there and you didn’t get to use it for college. On the other hand, there is talk about such scams you have to be aware of. What many people think of with unclaimed college scholarships is that someone is just trying to make money, promising them something they really can’t provide.
Don’t pay for Unclaimed Scholarship Money
There are some unclaimed scholarship money out there, but you should be looking for them on your own. Don’t pay a service to do the work for you. When you go that route, you may as well kiss your money goodbye. They are going to give you the same information they give to everyone else. There is also a very good chance that the information isn’t current or accurate.
As a good rule of thumb, you should never be paying for the ability to find out about unclaimed or unknown scholarships. You should never be changed any processing fee either for submitting your application or so it can be reviewed.
It is important to talk about why there are unclaimed scholarships out there. It has to do with the stigma for unfound scholarships. People often don’t apply if they don’t have a very high GPA or they aren’t an outstanding athlete. They don’t think that they are going to be the one that will get accepted, so they simply don’t apply. This could be an unclaimed scholarship.
Unknown Scholarships are Unclaimed Scholarships
Other obscure scholarships aren’t claimed because they aren’t as well known. You have to really dig deep to find them. They won’t be found on page one of the search engine results. However, if you go about 10 or 15 pages deep you will start to find unknown scholarships offered that people don’t know so much about.
Smart Searching may be Key to an Unclaimed Scholarship
Use various messages too online that you can use to gain access to unclaimed scholarships. For example, you can type in certain words into search engine boxes. You can also search by a particular hobby or interest that you have. It may surprise you to learn that there are unkown scholarships offered for those that like to knit or those that enjoy reading books. There are even those offered only for left handed individuals so narrow down the search and you will find more.
The idea is to get your hands on those lessor known scholarship details for those that very few will be applying for. Chances are you will have far less competition getting a unused scholarship for someone that is over 6 foot 5 inches than you will getting one for people that have a 2.5 GPA or higher.
You may love to skateboard, and there may be unclaimed college scholarships for that. You don’t have to limit athlete funding just to playing college sports such as football or basketball. There are so many amazing scholarships out there that you may be able to apply for, but dig deep with your search browser to find them.
Applying Correctly for Unclaimed College Scholarships
Once you find them, make sure you look over all the criteria. You don’t want to blow your chances of being awarded such funds and find out later you never really had a chance because you failed to read the proper application guidelines and incorrectly filled out your scholarship forms. Make sure you complete the application completely. Turn it over to make sure there isn’t more that goes on the back side of it. A late application or one with missing information is going to be completely ignored. Make sure you mail it in plenty of time for arrival.
You want to make sure you are able to submit the necessary documents along with the application. If they want references, an essay, examples, of leadership, etc. you must include them. Finally, don’t overlook the application deadline date for submitting it. Believe it or not many scholarships are unclaimed simply because students failed to complete applications properly so no awards were given out that year.
It can take time and effort to find those unclaimed scholarships, but don’t give up. The end result is that you could end up winning a significant amount of money to be able to help you pay for the cost of your education. The cost of schooling continues to go up, but with great unclaimed college scholarships you can reduce the burden on your end.