Sometimes all we need is a few thousand dollars – or a scholarship.
Scholarships give students a chance to further their education. They can cover a large amount of a student’s tuition, and sometimes even all of it.
College is expensive. Many students struggle to get through their education due to lack of money. Yes, there’s the option of applying for financial aid provided by the government, but not all students qualify for this.
Students need to become more aware of all the scholarships that are offered to them. There are some professors and advisers that inform students about them, but still don’t know about the vast amount of scholarships they can obtain.
A lot of students do not invest time in searching for available scholarships, even when the
information is all there. Sometimes students just need that extra push to look into them.
If you type in “scholarships” into the search engine on the Pierce College website, there is a link that shows up that provides a list of several scholarships that students can checkout or apply for, but students are rarely informed about this. To make this easier, there should be a direct link on the Pierce homepage that takes you to the list of scholarships that are available.
Some of the scholarships listed on the Pierce College website are the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Latino College Dollars, United Negro College Fund and Coca-Cola Scholarships.
Many students also believe that scholarships are only available to students in good academic standing, or with a GPA of 3.5 or higher. But there are many scholarships that don’t require you to provide any information about grades.
USA Today provides a list of scholarships that don’t require you to have stellar grades. One of these is called a “No Essay Scholarship.” This scholarship only requires you to fill out an online form, and once submitted, those who have applied are chosen through a random drawing. That’s it. You are granted $2,000 and you can apply for this scholarship every month.
Pierce College has partnered with GradGuru. GradGuru is an app that assists students with staying on track. It has a lot of features, one of them being scholarship rewards and notifications. If more students download this app, they will be more conscious of scholarships available.
The Career and Transfer Center at Pierce also provides a workshop that assists students in looking for and applying for scholarships.
Applications for almost anything are a long process. They can become overwhelming, and it sometimes leads us to just giving up. With the help of an adviser through a step-by-step process, the process of applying should be easier and less tedious.
Help is everywhere, so lacking money should not stop a student from attending school. More students need to be aware of scholarships available to them and this could be done through the assistance of professors, counselors, advisers and the right amount of advertising on campus.
It’s free money – what are you waiting for?
