Scholarships can be a great way to cover the difference between the amount of financial aid you receive and the actual cost of college, otherwise known as bridging the financial aid gap. Scholarship amounts vary, but any amount will help fund your college education.
It’s important to know that scholarships aren’t based solely on academic merit or financial need. There are many categories of scholarships suitable for all kinds of students, including the arts, ethnicity, health fields, LGBTQ+, middle school, military, STEM, special needs and more. There are also scholarships based on hobbies, skills and interests you may have.
UCanGo2.org offers scholarships by deadline and category, and provides resources to help you through the process. The Scholarship Success Guide offers tips to assist you as you navigate the search. It will help you plan, research, apply and track your scholarship applications while also providing links to our Scholarship Essay Tips and the Scholarship Tracking Sheet. The Scholarship Success Guide offers a list of scholarship search websites and links to tribal entities in Oklahoma that offers assistance to its members. UCanGo2 also shares the Scholarships 101 PowerPoint with helpful information for students who wish to begin the scholarship process.
Dig into a database of over 20,000 scholarships on OKcollegestart.org to find the awards that match your interests. Here students may create a scholarship profile and sign up to receive monthly notifications with new matching scholarships. How easy is that? OKcollegestart also offers Tips for Scholarship Searching if you perform your own internet search. The tips help you narrow down your search by using key words and other criteria. Give it a try! Consistency is key when applying for scholarships. Apply each week, month and semester and apply for as many as you can, as early as you can. Conventional wisdom suggests applying for 2-3 per week or 8-12 per month. This will give you the best chance for scholarship success and help you meet your financial needs when paying for college.