CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — College is really expensive these days. Scholarships are a great way the help cover the costs.
Spring is college decision time for high school seniors and the start of college application time for juniors.
But before you narrow down the list of prospective schools, you might want to know how to find hidden college scholarships.
Finding money for college is not easy.
Allison Lenox works to pay her way.
"I actually work full time to help pay for college,” Lenox said.
Sierra Longmeyer's friends struggle to find tuition money.
"It makes it harder for students to get their education because of that,” Longmeyer said.
Charlotte Faulkner doesn't want her daughter to worry about money next year.
So she's on a scholarship hunt.
“We've applied for 20 scholarships since we stated this back in September,” Faulkner said. “She thinks I’m crazy, but that’s how it goes.”
Faulkner has found sites that list hundreds of hidden grants and scholarships.
“It was CAPPEX.com that had a lot of scholarships on there,” she said. “Scholarship Owl was another website I had found.”
Others are fastweb.com and scholarships.com.
And if you are old school ....
"I bought the Ultimate Scholarship Book for 2020,” she said.
Charlotte thought at first her daughter would be covered by simply filling out the FAFSA form, for Federal Student Aid.
But she quickly learned there are a lot of programs that are not included in that form.
If you search, you'll find grants or scholarships for every interest.
There are scholarships out there for equestrian riders, aquatics, there's a scholarship out there if you want to do beetle bug research or be a beetle bug person.
Don’t like bugs?
Other sources of aid include:
- Your church.
- Parents’ employers.
- The local Rotary Club or Chamber of Commerce.
- Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
But Charlotte has one caution:
"There were a couple of sites that tried to charge money,” she said. “As soon as they asked for a credit card, I said delete, we don't need you."
Great advice.
Your hunt for scholarships should not cost you anything.
Just time and effort, so you don’t waste your money.
