Scholarships not Working

Scholarships not Working for You Neither, Huh?
By Vincent St. James

We're going to college, and we need cash. We have tuition and food, housing, books... like I said, we need cash. We hear about these billions of dollars of unclaimed scholarship money just floating around, yet you can't seem to get your hands on any of it, nor on any other form of financial aid. We're out here working like dogs, trying to make time to study an keep from losing our insanity, until we finally just give up. This sounds like a pretty big problem. What to do?

First of all, you should know that there aren't billions of dollars out there just waiting to fall in your lap. In fact most counselors and financial aid assitants wonder why this rather enormous figure is stated so often, but its not the case. So don't feel bad or think you "suck" because you haven't won some of this dough. However, there IS some money to be made out there that many people either overlook or figure it isnt worth pursuing. Trust me, its worth taking a look at and worth pursuing.

Usual Suspects

Your first destination should be the government. The FAFSA needs to be the first thing you do. You may be eligible for grants or other special awards. Then go to your school to see if they have any special scholarships that are only available to students of that college or university. After that, sign up to fastweb.com and scholarship.com and become familiar with those two sites, they are two of the most used on the web.

There's something for everyone!