Your cultural heritage, your sex, and your sexual orientation could end up paying for your college education. There are scholarships and grants that are reserved for specific minority groups. You don’t need to be a first generation immigrant to qualify for these scholarships; you just have to prove that you are indeed a member of the minority to qualify for the awards.

Some minority groups that receive scholarships for college include:

• African American
• Hispanic
• Native American
• Asian
• Women
• Multi-racial or multicultural
• Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT)

If you are a member of a minority group, work with the financial aid professionals at your school, to ensure your minority scholarship search is exhaustive. Talk to your counselor and ask her if she knows of any scholarships that might be available locally for your specific minority. Individual minority scholarship awards range from a few-hundred to several-thousand dollars annually.

For an exhaustive list of minority scholarships with links to their applications, you can visit CollegeScholarships.org.