Education Articles from College Matching Service

• Merit-based: These awards are based on a student’s athletic, academic, artistic or other abilities, and often factor in an applicant’s community service record and extracurricular activities. The most common merit-based scholarships, awarded by either private organizations or directly by a student’s intended college, recognize academic achievement or high scores on the ACT and SAT standardized tests
• Need-based: These awards are based on the student and family’s financial record and will require applicants to fill out a FAFSA to qualify if the scholarship is a federal award. Private need-based scholarships will also often require the results of a FAFSA, which calculates a student’s financial need through a formula looking at the expected family contribution and cost of attendance at the intended college
• Student-specific: These are scholarships where applicants must initially qualify by race, gender, religion, family and medical history, or many other student-specific factors. Minority scholarships are the most common awards in this category, and not all are based in the United States. For example, students in Canada may qualify for a number of aboriginal scholarships, whether they study at home or abroad
• Career-specific: These are scholarships awarded by a college or university to students planning to pursue a specific field of study. Often the most generous awards are given to students pursuing careers in high-need areas such as education or nursing. Nursing students are in high demand, and many schools will give future nurses full scholarships to enter the field, especially if the student intends to work in a high-need community

Presently, different types of scholarship programs are available for current college students and prospective students. Students can apply for these scholarship programs and win money to finance their college study. Different scholarship programs have different requirements. Even if you don’t have top and the best grades, you must not give up your search for scholarships. There are high chances that you may get qualified for scholarships which you never ever considered. Let’s discuss a few types of scholarships that can help you to fund your college.

Types of Scholarships

Athletic Scholarships: Athletic Scholarships are dedicated to men and women involved in sports. This type of scholarship is mainly sponsored by the athletic departments of the universities and colleges. Big schools and universities will take top positions in popular sports. If you fail to compete in that arena, try to look for smaller universities and colleges having ambitious sports program.

Academic Scholarships: Students, who show good talent during their academic years, are awarded this type of scholarship. Academic Scholarships go to students having highest test scores, best grades and challenging course loads. Although, few private organizations also sponsor academic scholarships, they are mainly awarded by state governments and universities and colleges themselves. If you have excellent academic skill, you can certainly apply for these scholarships.

Scholarships For Disabilities and Students: If you have long lasting medical condition or a disability, you are most probably eligible for these scholarships. You can get information about Scholarships for Disabilities and Students from office of disability at your university or college.

Community Service Scholarships: During your high school years, volunteer to serve in libraries, retirement homes, animal shelter, local hospitals or any other places that require volunteer personnel. You will surely find chances for serving the community that matches your interest. Many scholarship programs search for students having strong background in the community service.

Contests: There are several topics of contests, some may award to best speeches or essays written on any given subject. Others may award students for internet or technological projects. You must search for contests which award scholarships if you have flair and talent in any such areas.

It is not right to think that scholarships are awarded only to best students. There are numerous scholarship reward programs that might fit with your qualification. Never give up your search for scholarship, only because you don’t possess the top grades.

Nursing Scholarships

Nursing is a career that is currently in demand and appears to be on the rise for the next few years. Any time a career field is in demand, there are an abundance of scholarships that help to meet this demand. Right now there are hundreds of nursing scholarships that are available to students interested in pursuing nursing.

A trend that has been advancing in the scholarship world is that nursing is now being considered an acceptable criteria for hundreds of medical related scholarships. As you know, many scholarships have strict criteria that the student must meet in order to submit an application for the scholarship. As demand rises, scholarships start to broaden their criteria. This is what is happening for nursing scholarships and grants.

What can nursing scholarships be used for?

As with most scholarships, they can be used for any education related expenses. This includes tuition, room and board, food, books, equipment, and much more.

The purpose of a scholarship is meant to help the student with financial aid so that he/she can afford the things necessary to achieve success with their nursing education and their nursing career. Some scholarships stipulate that the money must be used for specific purposes, but others allow the student to decide what the money is used for.

How do I find nursing scholarships?

The most efficient way of finding scholarships is to have the ability to filter scholarship results based on criteria that you meet. If you are attending a 4 year university full-time with a grade point average of 3.4, an ACT score of 26, and a nursing major, you should be able to see which scholarships you qualify for, rather than having to search for them.

By using our nursing scholarships search, you can see all of the nursing scholarships and filter them by grade point average, education level, enrollment, state of residency, and more.

This allows you to quickly find nursing scholarships that you qualify for.

You can also use Google to search for nursing scholarships. The problem with this is that it forces you to look at scholarships on an individual basis. Not only is this time consuming but it is extremely inefficient. Because scholarships have strict criteria, you most likely will not qualify for the majority of nursing scholarships you find.

This is why having the ability to narrow a scholarship database down by criteria that you meet as an individual can save you a lot of time.

Why are scholarships so difficult to find?

I remember how difficult it was for me when I was trying to find money to fund my education. I asked my adviser to show me where I can find scholarship applications. To which she replied, we have a scholarship book! Her tone was one of excitement. She handed me a book full of hundreds of scholarships alphabetically. As I began to read through these, I quickly realized that the majority of these had strict criteria.

After an hour of searching through a book of scholarships, I found one scholarship that I qualified for and had a shot at getting. The scholarship was only for $2,500. My tuition was around $12,000. Just finding enough scholarships to fund my education was going to be extremely time consuming. Furthermore, filling out scholarship applications is time consuming!
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Congratulations! As you are preparing for your college career, you are creating the foundations for a wonderful journey that will impact the rest of your life.On average, college graduates earn a substantial percentage more in lifetime income than non-graduates, and you will be able to utilize your college education to find a job that is great for you.

However, on the way to obtaining your college degree, there are several hurdles to overcome. The
greatest hurdle for some applicants is securing the financial resources needed to pay for a college education. This guide will provide you with the insight to know where and how to obtain “free money,” in the form of scholarships and grants, which will pay for your education and launch your career.

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