My college choice was heavily influenced by scholarship offers. I applied for and was granted numerous local and one-time scholarships and was awarded a four-year Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship good for $1,500 a year.
When the University of Minnesota offered a full-tuition scholarship on top of those, I told some pretty good schools like Duke and Vanderbilt to take a hike. The value proposition offered by my home state’s flagship university was too good to pass up.
There is actually a slew of scholarship resources. In many cases, tapping as many as possible is the best approach. After all, the more scholarships your student can track down, the more applications they can submit, increasing their odds of getting some form of award.
If your student already knows where they are going to go to college, then why not use the school as a resource? With a quick call to the financial aid office or a visit to the financial aid section of the college’s website, your student may be able to find out about a range of opportunities.