Scholartips: Top Scholarship Advice
Have you always dreamt of going away to somewhere new for university or college to expand your horizons? “Find something you love to do and do it! Follow your passions!” Everyone has been encouraging throughout your childhood and wants you to follow you dreams and have big ambitions. What they don’t tell you, is just how expensive dreams and ambitions can actually be.
Along with the cost of living, college and university expenses continues to rise. Tuition at Harvard University is $56550 for 2024-25 year, not including housing, food, and student services. One year of student expenses amounts to $82866. Multiplied by 4 yrs, and your total is $331 464 USD. The figures are totally scary and off putting. You may be strong enough academically to go to Harvard, but real question to ask could be whether you are strong enough financially to actually go?! This could be a very real roadblock for many capable teenagers. In comparison, studying in Canada is “cheaper,” with annual expenses varying between $25000-44000 CAD per year. Smaller figures for sure, but they certainly aren’t small numbers when you consider that these figures are taken from your earnings “after taxes.” Student debt is real, and ideally you want to minimize the debt you incur over your post-secondary education. Your parents also don’t really want to work a few extra years before they retire to support you through your post-secondary education. Scholarships, bursaries and awards can certainly help.
Top 3 Tips for Winning Scholarships and Bursaries
Seek and ye shall find
There are thousands of scholarships out there, available year round, but you do need to search for them. AI can be very helpful to pull up hundreds of options. Consider your talents, family history, geographic location, areas of interest, gender, religion, societies and family affiliations, and then search high and low for bursaries, scholarships, awards and competitions. Many awards have very tight or seemingly quirky eligibility requirements, requiring you to be from a certain county, or studying a subject that is very “niche” such as flower arranging or advertising. Other awards specify that the applicant be a certain height, or have a specific medical diagnosis. Not all prizes are dependent on having the highest academic results. Those days are long gone.
Apply. Rinse. Repeat.
If you don’t shoot, you don’t score. Compared to ten years ago, the majority of awards and free academic funding now comes from the private sector, rather than university and college sources. Apply for multiple scholarships and bursaries. Then do this again. The more frequently you apply, the more chances you have for success. It’s an endurance game.
Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall
Scholarships have deadlines in every month of the year. Most students perk up between January and May and apply for prizes in this window, and then get bored or burnt out. Keep looking and applying. Most students switch off in July and August and don’t think of award applications during this window. Because of this tendency, there is less competition for the awards that have deadlines in summer months. Take advantage and apply. Keep your eyes open.
There is money out there, you just need to find it. Think of it as a big Easter Egg hunt for cash rather than chocolate. It’s certainly worth the effort, and could give you significant financial freedom to follow and also enjoy your dreams.
If you have any questions or want help playing this game, contact info@thescholarshiptutor.com This is a contact sport, and it’s time to get your game face on.
