Spending time playing sports or a musical instrument, or engaging in a favorite hobby, may have an unexpected benefit. It may end up being the source of a college scholarship.
Millions of dollars of scholarship money is available to students who have a particular talent or interest or are involved with a wide range of organizations. The best way for students to access these funds is to make a list of all their activities and then search on free scholarship websites for relevant grants.
Discover.com, for example, offers a free scholarship search tool providing information on a wide range of scholarships in fields including aviation, band, business, choir, civil rights, community service, computers, cooking, dance, entrepreneurship, environment, esports, fashion, feminism, film/TV/radio, gardening, health, LGBT rights, literature, mock trial, music composition and performance, journalism, camping, performing arts, photography, playwriting, poetry, politics, robotics, scouting, debate, student government, technology, volunteer fire fighting, and youth ministry.
There are many other free scholarship-matching databases, including College Board’s Big Future. Students complete a profile, and the database helps to match them with scholarships for which they’re eligible. Additional sites are Scholarships.com and Scholarships360.org.
A large pool of special interest scholarship money is devoted to sports, and much of it is distributed directly by universities who are seeking players for specific teams. These scholarships are not limited to the biggest sports, such as football and soccer, but are also available to athletes dedicated to lacrosse, golf, fencing, ice hockey, and a gamut of other sports. There’s even a scholarship dedicated to golf caddies. The Evans Scholarship is a full housing and tuition college scholarship awarded to golf caddies with limited financial means. This year, 1,100 Evans Scholars are enrolled in 24 leading universities nationwide.
Musical engagement is another popular source of scholarship funds. An often-repeated phrase was once uttered by a college conductor who referred to the middle section of his orchestra as “Scholarship Row.” It seated the students playing oboes, bassoons, bass clarinets, baritone saxophones and tubas.
There’s also a multitude of scholarships available to students immersed in community service. The Center for Community Engagement at The College of New Jersey, for example, offers need-based tuition scholarships to 80+ students each year who commit to 300 hours of community service.
Other scholarships are more specific, such as those for chess players, video gamers, and bird watchers. They key is for college-bound students to do their research and then seek the scholarships for which they are uniquely suited.
Susan Alaimo is the founder & director of Collegebound Review, offering PSAT/SAT® preparation & private college advising by Ivy League educated instructors. Visit CollegeboundReview.com or call 908-369-5362
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