Ahh, the smell of free money. If your student looking for extra money to get through college, the best thing you can do is apply for scholarships. It’s literally free money that you don’t have to pay back. Every dollar that you get in scholarship money is another dollar that you don’t have to take out student loans.
By reducing the amount that you take out in loans, the quicker and easier it will be to pay it back. It also means there’s less time for additional interest to accumulate on to what you already owe. This is why applying for a scholarship is a great way to help lessen the student loan burden.
The problem is, getting a scholarship can be a little bit of a complicated process. You actually have to apply for them and get accepted. Many students feel as if this isn’t worth the time and effort, as if adding additional weeks, months, or years towards paying off their student loan debt is going to be easy.
And yes, it’s possible to be denied a scholarship. If this happens, it’s usually due to a number of different circumstances, many which are simple to understand. Let’s take a look at several reasons why you might’ve been denied a scholarship.
1) You Didn’t Turn in Your Application in Time
One financial aid officer revealed an interview that she contacted three students who would potentially qualify for a particular scholarship. All three individuals reacted differently. The first one completed the application and turned it in on time. The second had a family issue and asked if it was possible to delay the deadline.
The third didn’t really understand the concept of the deadline. And this is what can get tricky. The deadlines are completely arbitrary and are set up to see how seriously you take applying for a scholarship. They’re going to give you free money that you can put towards your college so the least you can do is take the application process seriously. Get your applications in on time and follow the rules.
2) Thinking It’s Not Worth the Time
Sometimes students have the wrong view about scholarships. They believe that only the elite students are going to get one. While in many instances having a 4.0 average is something a lot of scholarships might look for, many will overlook a few discrepancies and grades if the student finds a way to stand out from other applicants.
Again, getting a scholarship can save you a lot of time and money down the road. You should still apply even if you think it’s not going to be worth your time. You might get denied, but you might show something to the person granting the scholarship that allows them to say yes and that’s always worth it.
3) Thinking There’s Too Much Competition
If there’s a lot of money on the line within any given scholarship, a student might decide to pass on it because there’s a lot of others probably applying for the same thing. A lot of applicants might mean you have less of a chance of being awarded. The truth is, that’s not necessarily true. Many of the best scholarships actually have very few applicants for this very reason.
As stated above, it bears repeating. You have no idea what the outcome is going to be or what the grantor of the scholarship is going to see on your application that gets you approved. Still, you should apply no matter what the excuse is.
