Your first and best source of scholarship funding for college will be the Admissions and/or Financial Aid/Scholarship Office at the colleges and universities to which you will be applying. If the prospective college offers merit-based scholarships (scholarships awarded regardless of financial need), the Admissions and Financial Aid Officers will be able to direct you in your quest to apply for those scholarships.

IF MERIT-BASED SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE, ASK THESE QUESTIONS:

1. Is there a separate scholarship application or are scholarship awards made based upon the information provided in your application for admission?

2. Do you need to submit a financial aid application as part of the merit scholarship application process?

3. Are departmental scholarships available and, if so, how do you find out about them? Is there a separate applications for those scholarships? For example, many university engineering departments have scholarships for a particular field of engineering such as geological engineering. Music and art departments may have scholarship funding for students with exceptional talent in those respective areas.

4. For art scholarships, do you have to supply a portfolio (slides of your art work)? Do you have to go to the college campus for a musical or dramatic auditions or scholarship competition?

Another source of scholarship funds is your parents' employers. Some large companies fund scholarships for the children of their employees. Have your parents ask if their employers fund college scholarships for children of employees. Normally this information is available from the Human Resources Department.

The military offers a tremendous source of college funding through the ROTC scholarship program and through delayed entry and reserve programs. See the ROTC & Academies link on this web site

Finally, there are a number of companies and organizations that offer FREE scholarship searches. Those available on the Internet are particularly helpful but BEWARE. As you know, not everything printed on the Internet is truthful AND every year companies buy lists of students' names and addresses and send letters encouraging the students and their parents to pay for scholarship searches. DO NOT PAY FOR A SCHOLARSHIP SEARCH. They can be done at no cost to the student or his/her parents by using the free online searches. Below is a short list of free scholarship searches.