Students seek scholarships to cover cost of college

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Photo by Northern Arizona University

A plethora of scholarships that students can find and apply for can be found online.  

Monica Inoue, Spiritual Life Editor

Writing numerous college essays and filling out necessary information found in each application, applying to college has become a familiar process for most seniors. At this time of the year, most seniors stress out about getting accepted into college, but soon, the tables will turn and seniors students and their families will stress out about affording college. With an increase of college graduates graduating with debt, students might feel yet another form of pressure from the college application process. However, fortunately, scholarships and other forms of aid are available for students to lessen some of the financial burdens.

“Scholarships are important because college is important,” Ashley Knepler ’16 said.  “One person may not be as economically as well [off] so to them scholarships are incredibly important. Overall, scholarships make college more affordable for most students.”

Types of scholarships range in different amounts of money that the school can give up and may have certain requirements according to the scholarship. Federal scholarships and generic private scholarships should offer merit-based scholarships since schools should reward people who have different talents.

“Scholarships should be rewarded to a well-rounded student,” Hayley Heffron ’16 said. “The student should not just be all about sports or all about academics.”

Scholarships favoring academics would most likely favor students who focus solely on school work. Scholarships that are based on merit, however, reward a student for being well-rounded in various ways. A merit-based scholarship can express a student’s overall strengths and weaknesses by demonstrating their involvement in activities both inside and outside of school.

“I think the criteria should be mostly merit based because it shows how well the student does [in various aspects],” Knepler said.

Currently, the University of California system offers different amounts and types of scholarships.  For instance, UC Davis has more than $6 million worth of scholarships that range from $100 to $13,000 a year. Its undergraduate scholarships are mostly awarded based on merit.

“[For merit-based scholarships], I think students should get them for their grades, extracurricular activities and volunteering,” Sue Han ’17 said.

Those three categories are standard for merit scholarships as they demonstrate the type of person he or she is.

On the UC Davis website, the college writes: “Scholarship criteria may also include participation in extracurricular activities; specific college or major; career interests; geographic origin; high school or community college attended; parentage; perseverance; and many other personal characteristics.”

With a vast amount of scholarships available, a person can find almost any scholarship for which he or she can meet the scholarship application requirements.

In addition to merit, financial aid or financial scholarships should be available to qualified students.  Financial aid should not be a handout to anyone, however.  A student should get financial support based on his or her merit as an eligible and overall well-rounded student.

For the UCs, financial aid that is determined through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA) or California Dream Act Application and state grants are available for students who meet the qualifications.

“All UC Davis and outside agency/private scholarships are posted to the recipient’s UC Davis student account,” the UCs write on their financial aid and scholarship page. “When credited, the scholarship will first cover any unmet need; then, it will replace a student’s Self-Help expectation, followed by loans and Work Study. Grants and other gift aid will be reduced last, if necessary.”

While merit-based scholarships are the preferred route for most colleges, some colleges do not even offer them.

Competitive schools such as Ivy Leagues do not need to provide merit-based scholarships since they already chose competitive students with many merits. With such a selective admissions process, students have to be at the top of their class, and even then, there is no guarantee that the student will get accepted into such a competitive school.

Harvard’s website states the school’s policy, “Our scholarships are based entirely on need, not merit.”

“I understand that Ivy Leagues do not have merit-based scholarships,” Miya McLaughlin ’16 said. “If they did, they would give it only to the super brainiacs, which would happen once in a blue moon.”

The reader of the scholarship application usually takes into account the parent’s financial contribution and a student’s school work and awards they may have earned during high school.

With such selectivity, Harvard would not benefit from offering scholarships based on merit and academic excellence because they already have the best of the best. For most students, it is already competitive to get the acceptance letter without competing for a scholarship.

“[Financial aid is important] because I feel that Ivy Leagues already have the top-notch students,” Knepler said. “It would be nice if they could offer some financial aid to all students since financially their prices are high.”

“I think it would be cool if there were a scholarship that teachers could nominate a student,” McLaughlin said. “That way the scholarship is geared toward a particular student.”

An interesting scholarship would be one with a person nominating a student based on his or her merit, which would offer admission people a different perspective on the student. With a teacher nomination, the teacher would highlight various qualities of the student he or she is nominating.

“I’m from a middle-income family,” Han said. “So I’m planning on applying for scholarships. I need to strive academically not only for myself, but for colleges, too.”

Scholarships are everywhere. Students are encouraged to be on the lookout for scholarships designed for current high schoolers, college applicants or other categories. Online scholarships and scholarship applications such as Scholly can help students find scholarships that they meet the requirements, giving them a potential opportunity to save some money for college.