Why So Many College Scholarships Are Going To Waste

Ok, so maybe we can all overlook a few idiosyncrasies in our character, but in all seriousness, it is hard to understand or overlook why people are complaining about the high cost of college. Sure the cost of college is high, as is insurance, gasoline, the price of eggs, and everything else. But the cost of college is something you can do something about, whereas your resources to do something about the other things that are going up is much more limited.

We're talking about college scholarships here. If you come from a very traditional background, you are probably thinking that college scholarships are only for the star quarterbacks, musical geniuses, the 4.0 student who has a great GPA but zero social life, or something like that. In years past, that may have been the case for the majority of college scholarships that were available, but that is no longer the case.

College scholarships are available to virtually anyone. You don't need to be the next Einstein or a future Joe Namath. College scholarships are available to a huge variety of students, both students with some college their belts as well as students who are entering college for the first time. And to a lesser degree than ever before, the awarding of the scholarships are not totally dependent, or for many, even heavily dependent on the amount of income that your family produces.

So you are saying that is a lot of work and besides I was able to get financial aid from the college and even put in an application for a student loan that should be approved very soon. That's great and you to be commended for realizing that the cost of college is very likely going to require all of that, and perhaps more still.

But keep in mind that with all those sources of financial assistance listed above, they all need to be paid back. Whether they have an extremely low interest rate, or even if repayment is not required to start after graduation, they still need to be paid back. And even at a modest four-year university, chances are high that the repayment total amount will work out to be a respectable 5 figure dollar amount.

Now contrast that with college scholarships. College scholarships are AWARDED and do NOT need to be paid back. You are being given free money to go to college. There is usually (and very modest) grade point average that must be maintained, but for many scholarships, that is the only requirement. You don't need to be a 4.0 student, you don't need to declare a major in Knitting or Chess. You just need to APPLY.

 Why So Many College Scholarships Are Going To Waste

Ok, so maybe we can all overlook a few idiosyncrasies in our character, but in all seriousness, it is hard to understand or overlook why people are complaining about the high cost of college. Sure the cost of college is high, as is insurance, gasoline, the price of eggs, and everything else. But the cost of college is something you can do something about, whereas your resources to do something about the other things that are going up is much more limited.

We're talking about college scholarships here. If you come from a very traditional background, you are probably thinking that college scholarships are only for the star quarterbacks, musical geniuses, the 4.0 student who has a great GPA but zero social life, or something like that. In years past, that may have been the case for the majority of college scholarships that were available, but that is no longer the case.

College scholarships are available to virtually anyone. You don't need to be the next Einstein or a future Joe Namath. College scholarships are available to a huge variety of students, both students with some college their belts as well as students who are entering college for the first time. And to a lesser degree than ever before, the awarding of the scholarships are not totally dependent, or for many, even heavily dependent on the amount of income that your family produces.

So you are saying that is a lot of work and besides I was able to get financial aid from the college and even put in an application for a student loan that should be approved very soon. That's great and you to be commended for realizing that the cost of college is very likely going to require all of that, and perhaps more still.

But keep in mind that with all those sources of financial assistance listed above, they all need to be paid back. Whether they have an extremely low interest rate, or even if repayment is not required to start after graduation, they still need to be paid back. And even at a modest four-year university, chances are high that the repayment total amount will work out to be a respectable 5 figure dollar amount.

Now contrast that with college scholarships. College scholarships are AWARDED and do NOT need to be paid back. You are being given free money to go to college. There is usually (and very modest) grade point average that must be maintained, but for many scholarships, that is the only requirement. You don't need to be a 4.0 student, you don't need to declare a major in Knitting or Chess. You just need to APPLY.