Tag Archives: scholarship

Debunking 6 Scholarship Myths

 

truthEveryone has his or her own opinion about college scholarships. But the truth is most of those opinions are incorrect. Don’t believe what you hear from skeptics. Here’s the real truth about scholarship myths.

Myth 1

“Only low income families get help paying for college.”

Truth: Absolutely FALSE!

There are all sorts of reasons for scholarship awards: academics, special interests, talents, achievements, personal qualities, activities, skills, family heritage, geographical location, and the list goes on and on!

Myth 2

“Most scholarships are for athletes or minority students.”

Truth: Categorically FALSE!

Minorities and athletes encompass only one small portion of the scholarship landscape. For instance, there are scholarships for surfers, filmmakers, horse groomers, southpaws, and even descendants of revolutionary war and civil war vets; just to name a few.

Myth 3

“Only the smartest students win merit awards.”

Truth: Completely FALSE!

Many of the best scholarships are designed for students who devote time to music, performing arts, foreign languages, community service, web design, science projects, leadership, amateur radio, writing, photography, oratory, and even part time jobs.

Myth 4

“Once you’ve graduated from high school, it’s too late to apply for a college scholarship.”

Truth: WRONG!

Even if you’re already in college there are still scholarships to apply for. They may be a bit harder to find, but they are out there.

Myth 5

“Past actions and choices pre-determine scholarship success.”

Truth: FALSE if you utilize this tip!

Turn weaknesses into strengths. What your teen does from this point on can make all the difference. You can’t change your past but you can certainly use it as a tool to show others that you learn from your mistakes and rise above them.

Myth 6

“It’s best to just apply for a few awards because that maximizes your odds of winning.”

Truth: Extremely FALSE!

It’s a numbers game; apply for as many as you can. You never know which application will hit pay dirt.

Before you dismiss searching for scholarships, you should know all the facts. Don’t believe what the skeptics tell you. There are too many students attending college on scholarships to believe any of these myths.

 

Scholarship Friday: Introducing the MatchMade Scholarship

 

matchmade scholarshipIn today’s world of college finances, student loans, and high dollar tuition, parents are searching for ways to reduce out of pocket expenses with scholarships. Many scholarships available to students are simply for high school seniors. Some are only available to current college students. And others are restricted to a small demographic of the population.

Here’s a unique scholarship opportunity for a specific demographic-children or step-children of Match.com matches. According to Match.com, more than one million babies have been made by Match.com connections. To celebrate these connections, they are introducing the MatchMade Scholarship.

What do I “love” about the MatchMade scholarship?

  • It’s eligible to a large demographic and age group (13-20).
  • It’s a yearly scholarship which means your kids can reapply each year from 13-20.
  • It’s a large award-$50,000 to the Grand Prize Winner and $5000 to the parents for a MatchMade getaway.
  • It’s not an essay.
  • It’s a video.
  • The 10 finalists are picked by Match.com, then the public decides by using video sharing.

What are the details and how can your child enter?

  • Those who enter must be between the ages of 13-20.
  • They must be born to parents who met or re-married through Match.com.
  • They must submit a 1-2 minute video telling about their parents love story.

What are the important dates to remember?

  • The scholarship contest began May 5th and goes through June 30th; kids can submit their videos through MatchMade.com.
  • In July, Match.com picks the finalists.
  • On August 18th, the finalists are announced and begin sharing their videos to the public.
  • On September 1st, the video with the highest number of video shares takes home the grand prize.

The finalists will be picked by choosing the videos that are the most creative and heartfelt, telling their parents love story. Each story is unique and each family has its own social network to begin sharing the video once it’s made using the #MatchMade hashtag.

Need some inspiration, watch this video: What Happens When You Ask Kids about Life and Love?

Did you meet through Match.com? Do you know parents who did and have eligible children? Spread the word to your social networks and start the buzz about the #MatchMade Scholarship. Visit MatchMade.com to enter and find out more about the scholarship.

____________________

This is a sponsored post for Match.com

 

Scholarship Friday: Young Patriots Essay Contest

 

young patriots essay

The Young Patriots Essay Contest is currently being offered by the National Center for Policy Analysis. This is an essay contest open to all high school students. The winner will receive a $5,000 college scholarship, second place will receive a $3,000 scholarship, and third place will receive a $2,000 scholarship.

Topic and formatting

This contest is designed to challenge high school students to creatively solve problems in the realm of public policy through the art of writing.  The topic of this year’s essay contest is:  “According to the four required readings. What policy changes should the government pursue in order to best foster economic prosperity?” Note that the four required readings are available at the above link.

Your essay should be written in English and should not exceed 1,200 words. More questions on format (and on the contest in general) can be found answered on the contest website.

Awards

Aside from the aforementioned scholarships, winners will:

  • Have their essay published on Debate Central
  • See their essay posted on the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) home page
  • Have their essay shared with 350,000 NCPA Policy Patriots via email
  • Have their winning entry be sent to their hometown newspapers, radio and TV.

Application and deadline

To apply, simply email your essay in to lauren.sabino@ncpa.org. Make sure to include all essential information, including your name, address, phone number(s) and e-mail address in the body of the e-mail. The submission deadline is December 15, 2013.

For more great scholarships go to Scholarships360.org.

 

Yes you can (win that scholarship)!

 

yes you canYes you can (win that scholarship)! “Yes you can” are the call words for many motivational speakers, school programs, political campaigns and even song lyricists. The scholarship hunt requires that type of motivation: perseverance, attention to detail, and the desire to succeed. We all know that success requires attention to the goal and focusing on the prize. The scholarship search is no different.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again!” That pretty much sums up the search process. Scholarships are the icing on the cake in the college admissions process–get into the right school and fund it with free money. Winning a scholarship to pay for college is every parent’s dream and the scholarship search process is every student’s nightmare. But with a little effort and some good advice on how and where to search, the effort will be worth their time. There is money out there for every type of student and every area of interest. Yes you can (win that scholarship)!

Read about five cliches that apply to the search for scholarship bucks>>

Tweet your way to College!

All that practice of stuffing a coherent message using 140 characters or less finally paid off—at $142 per character to be exact.

Louisville-based KFC announced a few weeks ago that it was offering a scholarship for the person who could state why they were deserving of the Colonel’s Scholars scholarship in just a single tweet—this includes explaining how the applicant plans to enrich their communities and how they exemplify Colonel Sanders’ commitment to education.

Kentucky Fried Chicken Foundation oversees the KFC Colonel’s Scholars program. While the foundation awards more than 75 college scholarships each year, this scholarship is the first to be awarded based on a single tweet.

In order to be considered all applicants had to follow KFC on Twitter (@KFC_Colonel) and then submit their tweet using the hashtag #KFCScholar.

All tweets were judged on creativity and quality. Only one entry per twitter account was accepted.

Some real example tweets from contestants included the following:

#KFCscholar. College is expensive. W/o help, I can’t afford more chicken! I want to make it big, rockin’ my dreams @ U of Kentucky! Help me! ”

“My mind is constantly creating things my body and knowledge aren’t capable of. I want to have the power to create and discover. #kfcscholar

“Im just 1 in a Million, bt can i be that 1 chicken leg in that bucket, plz #KFCScholar, Student loans r gona eat me, LiKE i eat ur chicken”

#KFCScholar. We’re molded throughout elementary and secondary schooling. College is where we learn to become exceptional & educated citizens”

On December 1st, KFC announced the winner! A California high school senior turned a single tweet into a college scholarship.

The Twitter entry from 17-year-old Amanda Russell was selected from more than 2,800 tweets that competed for the scholarship offered by a foundation for the Louisville-based KFC restaurant chain.

Russell reached the 140 character limit for the contest, so she’ll get $142 per character to pursue her college dreams.

The winning tweet refers to the chain’s late founder Colonel Harland Sanders and says:

Hey Colonel! Your scholarship’s the secret ingredient missing from my recipe for success! Got the grades, drive, just need cash!”

Russell has compiled a 3.9 grade point average at her Long Beach high school. She says she plans to major in biology and pursue a career as a doctor or medical researcher.

Look for these scholarship gems and you too could net some cold, hard college cash!

*****

This guest post is contributed by Kate Willson, who writes on the topics of best online colleges.  She welcomes your comments at her email: katewillson2@gmail.com.

Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship

When I come across a scholarship that doesn’t require an essay, I like to pass it along to my parent readers (who hopefully will pass it along to their college-bound teens!). If you have a teen (14 or older) interested in graphic arts, art, or even photography, this $10,000 scholarship could be a big help toward the cost of college.

Here are the rules:

  • Submit original artwork, computer graphic or photo for the front of a greeting card.
  • Submissions accepted from March 17, 2010-January 15, 2011
  • Monthly winners will receive a $75 Amazon gift card
  • Must be 14 years or older and enrolled in high school or college

Check out the past winners and applicants for a good idea of how the contest is judged.

Here’s the official Scholarship page link:

The 4th Annual Create-A-Greeting Card Scholarship

Fun Ways to Earn Cash for College

Two Unique Scholarship Contests!

Where’s FRANKIE the Diploma Frame? Scholarship Photo Contest

Take FRANKIE the Diploma Frame on a summer adventure, and he could earn you $500 to help pay for textbooks for the 2010-2011 academic year! At Church Hill Classics, we are looking for the most creative and fun-themed photos of our mascot, FRANKIE the Diploma Frame.

All you need to do is print and cut out a copy of FRANKIE, available on our diplomaframe.com website, and take a photo of (or with) him. Take FRANKIE to the beach, have him play sports, or make him the life of a party. You can submit any photo, as long as a cutout of FRANKIE is included.

Take a look at submitted entries as well as an overview of where in the world FRANKIE has visited so far!

This scholarship is open to students attending college full-time for the 2010-2011 academic year. Family members can also enter if they have a student attending college full-time for the 2010-2011 academic year.

  • Moms and dads, enter to win the money for your son or daughter in college
  • Brothers and sisters, enter for your siblings
  • Aunts and uncles, enter for your nieces and nephews
  • Sons and daughters, enter for a parent returning to school!

Entrants need to be a legal US resident and 18 years or older.

We’ll select six Finalists to be posted on our website, and two weeks of public voting will determine our $500 Winner!

This deadline is coming up fast…entries need to be submitted through our website’s online entry form before Friday, August 13, 2010 (10 am ET), so print out FRANKIE, and snap your favorite photo of him! Visit the contest page at http://www.diplomaframe.com/FRANKIE.cfm for full details.

“Frame My Future” Scholarship Contest 2011

Coming up soon is our 3rd annual “Frame My Future” Scholarship Contest, where we award $6,000 in scholarships! Five students each receive a $1,000 scholarship, and one student also earns a $1,000 donation to their college or university’s scholarship endowment fund!

The best part is that it provides an opportunity for students to be creative! To enter, you submit an original creation that shares with us how you frame your future and what you want to achieve in your personal and professional life after college.  The main guideline is that your creation must be submitted within one image. Entries range from photographs and collages, to fine art and graphic design pieces, to poems and written submissions.

Check out our 2010 Winners and Finalists!

This scholarship will open for entry on October 7, 2010, and is available to students who will be attending college full-time for the 2011-2012 academic year.  Sign up to receive more details as the contest start date approaches: http://www.diplomaframe.com/ScholarshipInformation.cfm

*****

This guest post was provided by Jessica Joram, Marketing Assistant at Church Hill Classics. Church Hill Classics is a leading U.S. manufacturer of custom diploma frames, certificate frames, and photo frames, as well as a line of desk accessories for thousands of institutions of higher education, the military, professional associations, and corporate clients.

Snag a fishing scholarship

I can hear my readers smirking as they read this. Fishing scholarship? Are you kidding me? Believe it or not, it’s no joke. There are some hefty scholarships out there waiting to be reeled in. Let’s look at bass fishing, for example:

  • A google search of “bass fishing scholarships” reels in 45,000 matches.
  • There are 220 colleges with bass fishing scholarships

Take Bethel College in McKenzie, Tennessee, for instance. Their bass team was featured in The New York Times just  two weeks ago. Bethel made Lauren Stamps the first woman bass angler ever to be awarded a college scholarship for bass fishing. Tyler Wadzinski, a senior at Franklin (Tenn.) High School, was awarded a $4,000 ride to fish for the Bethel Wildcats. Wondering about Bethel College’s academic reputation?  It was founded in 1842; has 2,700 students; offers 28 undergraduate programs and five Masters. Their athletic program includes 16 men’s and 13 women’s sports (NAIA). In addition to their home campus in McKenzie, they have five satellite campuses in Tennessee.

Not convinced? Look at just some of the top colleges with bass clubs — Duke, Cornell, Northwestern and Texas A&M. If you’re looking for a complete list, go online to www.collegebass.com. Odds are you might be surprised by some of the colleges listed that have bass fishing teams and scholarships.

Remember, sports are not just “stick and ball” anymore. If student-athletes can win scholarships for skiing, shooting and tumbling, why not bass fishing? Here are some great tips from an angler to help your student perfect their fishing and snag some of those scholarships: 30 Actionable Bass Fishing Tips You Need to Catch More Bass.

It may not be for everyone, but if your child is  interested, put them on a scholarship track now by suggesting that they investigate this new financial boon.

Get your chance to win $1000 college scholarship from ThePensters.com.

Frame My Future Scholarship

frame-my-future-scholarship

I’m always on the lookout for scholarship opportunities for college-bound teens. And when I find one that doesn’t require an essay, I’m ecstatic. Why? Because there is always that student out there that is loaded with creativity, but not the best wordsmith.

Frame My Future Scholarship, sponsored by Church Hill Classics, asks applicants to “upload an original creation that shares with us what you want to achieve in your personal and professional life after college.  The main guideline is that your creation must be submitted within one image, in a JPEG format.” This allows for creativity to abound because images can be photographs, collages, a scrapbook page, a poem–just as long as it’s a single JPEG image that can be uploaded.

This year’s scholarship contest is coming to a close, but there’s a link on their site to VOTE for one of the top 24 finalists (give these creative college-bound teens some votes) AND a link to  sign up to receive information on next year’s scholarship. What could be simpler?

As always, I recommend you keep a scholarship file (either online or in a folder) with all your scholarship finds so that when the time arises to apply, you won’t forget about a single one!

Kudos to Church Hill Classics for coming up with this unique scholarship!

Scholarships: A good reason to attend prom

This isn’t your typical prom dress or your typical fashion related competition. Get creative and you could win thousands of dollars in scholarships in two contests: Own Your Look Prom Contest 2010 AND Stuck at Prom.

stuck-at-promStuck at Prom participants are required to submit a photo of themselves attending their prom decked out in duct tape anytime from March 1 to June 7, 2010. Check out the website for complete rules, details and photos of past winners.own-your-look

JoAnn’s, Own Your Look Prom Contest began on January 15 and ends June 15, 2010. This contest requires an original prom dress (using a pattern is okay!) and accessory made with fabrics and other items from JoAnn’s. The student/prom goer (aged 14-19) entering the contest must be the one making the entry. Photos of the contestant in the dress are required.

Click the links below for full contest rules and details:

Own Your Look Prom Contest 2010

Stuck at Prom