A scholarship is an award for gaining access to an educational institution. It is also a financial aid award for individual students for furthering their education. Scholarship programs are awarded depending on certain criteria that reflect the values and serve the purposes of the founder or donor of the award.
Types of scholarships programs:
Scholarships can be primarily grouped into the following types:
• Merit-based scholarship programs – Here the Financial aid for the recipient is not determined by the type of Financial need. Instead, the recipient may be determined by academic, athletic, artistic or other type of abilities. This scholarship program is meant for motivating the student and for promoting the study of a particular subject, though the actual value of the scholarship may be negligible monetarily. Still this need not be always the case and the biggest scholarships are always merit-based.
• Athletic scholarship programs – Well performing athletes in different athletic areas are offered this type of athletic scholarships in the U.S. and other countries.
• Need-based scholarship programs – The primary factor that determines the financial aid is the finanicial situation of the student and his family. This type of scholarship usually will cover part or all of the tuition fees and sometimes living-costs may also be covered.
• Ethnicity-based scholarship programs – In this type of scholarship programs, the applicant must first qualify by religion, race or national origin for receiving finanicial aid. After this filtering exercise, additional factors considered in determining the final recipients.
• Institutional-based scholarship programs – Scholarships awarded by a specific institution (university) or college to a student planning to attend that institution or college.
• General scholarship programs – Some other scholarships that do not fall in the above types and which are awarded for various reasons like the student’s association in line with the objectives of the sponsoring institution or organisation. To cite an example, Corporations awarding scholarships to the children of its employees.
Some scholarship programs have the requirement of a ‘bond’. The Recipients here may have to work for an employer in remote or rural areas, or for a specified period of time, else the scholarship amount may be required to be repaid. The Health and Medical education scholarships, Teacher training scholarships and the United States uniformed service programs (Marine Corps, Navy, Army, Coast Guard and Air Force) are examples that fall under this category.
How do you obtain the scholarship?
Scholarship programs can be obtained from various sources like local sources, Guidance Conselllors, Non-Profit Organisations, Community Foundations, Church, Labour Unions, Chamber of Commerce, School, College, PSAT/MNSQT Test for students and other Voluntary organisations. Other sources of information on scholarship programs are newspapers, libraries, the yellow pages and Internet search engines.
Some of the Famous scholarship programs are:
• America’s Junior Miss
• Canadian Millennium Scholarship
• Canada Merit Scholarship Foundation
• Chevening Scholarship
• Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange
• Commonwealth Scholarship
• Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund
• Gates Scholarship
• Fulbright Program
• George J. Mitchell Scholarship
• Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
• Goldman Sachs Global Leaders
• Marshall Scholarship
• National Merit Scholarship
• Miss America
• Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps
• Rhodes Scholarship
• President’s Scholar
• Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship
• Truman Scholarship
• Samsung Global Scholarship Program
• World Bank Scholarship
• United Negro College Fund