The Perks and Disadvantages of Private Scholarships
It is a known fact that college education costs a lot of money, which most people might not be able to afford, and not everyone would qualify and be able to get student loans. Student loans also mean that the money would have to be paid back alongside interest. So, how can you get enough money for college without student loans? The answer is scholarships. The first question should be, “How do scholarships work?” A scholarship is, basically, money that is given to an applicant by a college for academic purposes, and which shouldn’t be repaid by the applicant.
The next question is, “Is it hard to get scholarships?” Scholarships are not usually easy to get because there are a lot of people that are competing for just a few scholarship slots made available by the private companies awarding the private scholarship. Therefore, the process of applying for a private scholarship might involve a written examination or an essay, which you should put through a plagiarism checker to help you check your paper and be certain that your application is top-notch and you will be able to beat other competitors to the available scholarship spots.
All in all, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of getting one!
Pros:
- There are fewer applicants: private scholarships usually have a few applicants, unlike public ones. This is even a lot truer for those that are local and also those awards that are smaller. Scholarships like these are always available somewhere on the website of a town. It is always easier for you to do a little research on the different private options that are available to you in your locality.
- Some are based on need and others that are not: scholarships that are based on need are very important for people that actually need them, while others have a greater chance of winning them based on the merit of their application and essay alone. Most of the scholarships offered by the government and schools are based on need while most of those offered by private institutions and individuals are merit-based. It is important that you try to find what best suits your area of strength. If you like, you can also find an option that falls into both categories and try to apply for both merit-based and need-based scholarships.
Cons:
- It is possible that there will be a lot more requirements: private scholarships usually have a lot of different requirements that might restrict a particular group from applying. Some are only given to people attending a particular school or people from a particular area or even people that are on one particular career path. Also, there might be a need to write an essay to express why you deserve this award, for this, you might need a plagiarism checker which you can get on a website like https://studyhippo.com/plagiarism-checker/ because there is usually a plagiarism percentage you need to observe in your essay.
- Financial aid from the school can be affected: when you receive scholarships, something called Expected Family Contribution is going to increase and what the school does is try to implement an adjustment as a result of the Expected Family Contribution being very close to the Cost of Attendance. It is important that you check with the financial office of the school and find out how the aid package that you have is going to be affected by the private scholarships that you have.
Private scholarships can go a very long way in making sure that you are able to afford college. The problem is that getting them is very difficult due to the competition and the general number of them available. It is important to know that private scholarships have their own pros and cons and some of the pros include the fact that there are usually fewer applicants, which means that the chances of getting them are higher, and there is usually a variety of them available.
In a nutshell, before you make a decision, it is important that you consider your pros and cons and come up with the best decision for you.