The $30 billion scholarship jackpot: how to get your share

Ebony, July, 1993 by Lisa C. Jones

IF you believe the road from high school to college is paved with gold, you're right. But be prepared to push up your sleeves and dig down deep to find it. For with as much as $30.8 billion in government and private scholarship dollars up for grabs this year alone--and college expenses soaring through the ceiling--the student-parent team that launches the earliest, broadest-based scholarship hunt is bound to reap the most.

"As early as the ninth grade, families should start investigating what college costs and what the family will be able to contribute," says Dr. Billie J. Hooker, director of educational services of the United Negro College Fund, which awarded $2.7 million in scholarships last year. She says students and parents should go to their local library and do their homework early, noting the different types of aid--especially federal programs--for which they qualify. "The average students have no idea of what they qualify for when they write to us," Dr. Hooker says. "Very seldom do we get a letter from a student who says, 'I know I qualify for the Pell grant; maybe I can get a loan and I'm willing to work.'" If more students supplied such relevant information on their applications, she says, they would have a better chance of obtaining the funding they need.

But where does a student begin? "The federal government is the main source," says Donald M. Stewart, president of the College Entrance Examination Board, which helps colleges coordinate the distribution of funds. Government-funded grants, loans and work-study programs account for almost 75 percent of the money available, Stewart says, and students need to tap this well first.

Prior to last year, students who needed financial assistance filled out the federal Financial Aid Form (FAF). But students interested in receiving public and private aid for college must now complete the Free Application For Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which can be obtained at most schools.

Many students miss the money boat because they haven't done their homework, says Peter Johnson, the assistant director of undergraduate admissions and coordinator of minority recruitment at Columbia University in New York. Johnson, who also serves as a judge for a local New York City scholarship program, says students don't invest enough time or effort in one of the crucial portions of the scholarship application--the biographical essay.

"They don't take the time to communicate something significant in the required essay," he says. "Many times students write essays that merely recount what we've already learned in the applications," Johnson says, adding that students should "think carefully about what they want to say in an essay, look at the information they have already provided and then try to say something new, something fresh, something we can't learn anywhere else."

Correcting these and other mistakes can make the difference between a good applicant and an excellent one who wins big scholarship dollars, Dr. Hooker says. "If that [essay] is the first thing that anybody's going to see about you, it needs to be extremely well done," she says.

Although many scholarships are based on standardized college entrance test scores, grade point averages and demonstrated talent, most programs still emphasize financial need and community involvement. Yet some students are too afraid to apply. "Some students fear the competitiveness of the scholarship process," says Johnson. "They don't think they have a chance, which is far from the truth."

Determined and discriminating students should not only go after government funds, but they should also dig beneath the surface for the estimated $700,000 in private funds, including monies found at their parents' employers, unions, churches, fraternities and sororities, banks, and even manufacturers of household medication, kitchen appliances and food products.

Although billions of dollars are available to students each year, millions remain untouched. In some instances, experts say, guidance counselors are to blame. "Kids don't always get the information they need," Johnson says, "particularly students of color in inner-city schools where counselors are overwhelmed with other kinds of work."

Guidance counselors should be just one of many sources families should contact in preparing for college. "There's no substitute for the family finding out what's available on it's own," Dr. Hooker adds.

To shorten the lengthy scholarship hunting process, a growing number of busy families are employing computerized scholarship searching agencies, which supply scholarship information packets at a nominal fee. Many educational experts, however, discourage this process.

"Before investing in one of these services, ask around and try to find out some information about the agency," says Dr. Hooker. She warns that many agencies provide families with information that they could find on their own by spending a couple of hours in research at a local library.

What all this means is there's a jackpot out there for enterprising students who start early, dig deep and execute a successful plan for financing their college education.