Val Johnston
A huge worry for high school seniors is college. A lot of students opt for community college before making the transfer to settle in more easily, where financial aid covers costs, but tuition is still extremely high when attending college and payment is one of a students’ biggest fears. Nobody wants to go into debt with tons and tons of loans, and leave with a degree and thousands of dollars owed to the government, so looking into scholarships is a brilliant option. There are scholarships for all kinds of different things. Scholarships generally aren’t hard to obtain, but it’s about finding the right one, the best one that a student can in order to help them out. When most people think of scholarships, they think of sports or music, but that isn’t the only case. Scholarships are offered for a wide variety of talents and even random things.
Scholarships for high school seniors are not difficult to find. A simple google search will show you endless results. There are the obvious ones, such as the Army ROTC scholarship. This particular one is a full scholarship. The army pays completely for schooling and isn’t available just to a short list of specific schools, it is available to many students at a huge list of colleges through the US. Then there are less known but just as helpful scholarships, like the Healthy Lifestyles Scholarship, which began in 2008 in memory of occupational therapist, Joan Whitworthe. It is a scholarship of $5,000 available to not only seniors, but first year college students under 25. All you have to do is submit an essay, under 1,000 words, describing why a healthy lifestyle is important and then a second 500 word essay talking about your own ambitions and plans. Scholarships are not as difficult as some people think they are and they are very helpful. The cost of tuition, books, and general life adds up. Few people leave college with a degree and no debt at all, but a scholarship can help to lessen that by quite a bit.
People also often assume that scholarships are only offered to students with outstanding GPA’s and through the government, which is also false. Tons and tons of independent companies offer scholarships for students who excel in other areas besides academics. A perfect GPA isn’t a necessity to be eligible. It never hurts to just apply, at the very least. You never know what you may end up getting rewarded with and even if it “isn’t much”, that not much is still going to be a great aid. Applying can be a process of hard work and a lot of writing, but it is worth it in the end. Many people are misinformed about the requirements for scholarships and what it takes to get one and who can even get one, most people don’t realize the variety of scholarships available and all the ways that a person is eligible. High school seniors should always look into their options and pursue whatever is available to help them out with their future.