What Scholarships Can I Apply for as a Freshman?
Getting an education in the United States typically means acquiring debt unless you are fortunate enough to earn scholarships to cover some or all of your costs. Many institutions want to acknowledge students who show resolve and personal direction early on. They recognize that young students need the opportunity to explore different options prior to committing to an academic institution, or to pursue dual enrollment. For these reasons, a variety of scholarships for high school freshmen are available.
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Sponsoring Agencies
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The bulk of scholarships for freshmen come from local agencies and organizations. These groups have a clear sense of what freshmen in the community face academically and often give scholarship monies as a way of encouraging stability and growth in the region. However, some academic institutions also provide scholarships. Typically, these are community and vocational colleges, but some major four-year colleges and universities also support young students.
Coverage and Eligibility
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Scholarships for freshmen are available for virtually any subject. However, the bulk of scholarships emphasize community service or basic global principles like peace and environmental awareness. Many are essay contests. Those that don't fall into this grouping usually are very specific in terms of eligibility. For example, they may apply only to violin players, left-handed students, freshmen with very low income or those of Swedish ancestry. If a scholarship is open to all freshmen, there usually is a minimum GPA requirement, which typically is at least 3.0.
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Award Amounts
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Many scholarships for freshmen are small awards between $100 and $2,000. However, some awards give $25,000 or more. Sometimes the scholarships are one-time awards, but others give monies for a number of years, but usually no more than four. Occasionally, awards are reduced or increased depending on the funding available from the sponsor.
Where to Find the Scholarships
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A plethora of websites such as highscholarships.com, scholarships.com, finaid.com and scholarshipswomen.net offer listings of high school freshmen scholarships. However, you also can find scholarships by contacting the businesses and academic institutions near you. Your local Chamber of Commerce should be able to give you a listing of all businesses and nonprofits in your area that may give scholarship funds. You also can find scholarships on your state's department of education website.
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References
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