Best Tips for Finding Private Scholarships

It’s March, and for many seniors holding shiny new college acceptance letters, the big question now is – How do I pay for this??

I’ve been asked several times this week, “Any advice on how to find last-minute scholarships?”

Realistically speaking, the best source of financial aid is always the college itself. Institutional scholarships and grants usually are much larger than outside, private awards. Plus, institutional aid is typically renewable year after year, multiplying the benefit. In our experience, 95%+ of the money a student is offered will be from various colleges, not from private sources.

With that in mind, if a school’s aid package isn’t enough, feel free to ask them about the possibility of an increase. Do they have any additional scholarships you could apply to? Be honest and request politely. Some schools truly can’t budge, but many are negotiable, especially if they really want you. It’s okay to let them know if your second-choice school is offering more.  

Ask the college, as well, if retaking your standardized tests could increase your academic scholarship. If they say yes, quit your day job and practice your brains out. Consider tutoring. Why? No private scholarships are likely to give you more than an increased institutional aid package.

That said, once you’ve maxed out what your college-of-choice can offer, are there ways to find money to make up the difference, even in the last few months of high school?

Probably.

God has lots of cows. And money.

The number one rule in scholarship hunting: Seek the Lord. He is Jehovah Jirah, the God Who Provides. He says he owns “the cattle on a thousand hills;” he holds all the resources you need for the good works he’s prepared for you to do, including college. (Psalm 50:10-12, Ephesians 2:10, ESV). If God plans for you to do something, then he’s planned a way to pay for it. He just wants you to turn to him for provision.

The number two rule in scholarship hunting: Focus. There are a gazillion scholarships out there, and you can’t apply to all of them. Good grief, you may hardly have time to apply to any. Therefore, you need to be picky about which ones you attempt.

Therefore, here is the focusing question: which scholarships are you most likely to win?

Answer: the ones which (1) are narrowly focused (few people fit their requirements), and (2) those requirements happen to fit YOU. Hunt for scholarships with a focus that matches your uniqueness.

Maybe you should start an insulator cap collection

For example, there is a scholarship out there for people who collect the glass insulator caps on power lines. Only 3,000 people nationwide have this hobby. I’m willing to gamble that most of them are retirees, not high school seniors. Nice odds!

But of course, you can’t apply to that one, unless (shockingly) one of the insulator cap enthusiasts happens to be reading this blog.

So how do you find focused scholarships that match you?

Ah – you first need to know thyself, young one. There are all sorts of interesting, unique facets to you. Start a list.

For example:

• What field of study interests you? Tons of scholarships are limited by major. Google yours.

  
  

• Where do you work? How about your parents? Employers sometimes offer scholarships. That’s limited eligibility – that’s what you want.

• What is your family heritage? There are scholarships for those of Black, Norwegian, Romanian, and all sorts of other backgrounds. There are scholarships for descendants of Mayflower passengers or of Revolutionary War vets. There are scholarships for people with the last name Gatlin or Leavenworth or Zolp or Downer or Murphy.

Now, don’t think to yourself, “Bummer, I’m not Romanian and my name is Nelson, so I don’t qualify.” Instead, think, “Well, Great-Grandpa was from Armenia – wonder if there is an Armenian scholarship out there?” (Um, yes.) Get Googling.

• Where do you live? Many scholarships are limited to locals. Search the name of your county plus “community foundation scholarship.” Do the same with your city’s name. Try searching on the name of the nearest public high school and the word “scholarships” – many local groups advertise their offerings at the local public high school, which keeps a database online for their students. Anyone from the area can access this database, public-schooled or not.

• Speaking of schooling, are you homeschooled? Ninety-four percent of the population is not. For scholarships, I love those numbers! Start by looking via your statewide homeschool organization. (Note to North Carolinians: the NCHE scholarship is due 3/31/26!)

Nope, we don't all look like this

• Beyond your own uniqueness, think about your parents’. Is one of them a veteran? Or a cancer survivor? Or dead? There are scholarships for that.

• Here’s a biggie: have you persevered through a severe hardship in your brief life? SOOOO many scholarships ask students to write about a challenge they have faced. Most who discover these scholarship listings should just walk on by, because “I failed my first driving test” looks pretty lame next to the teen who grew up in foster care or conquered leukemia.

• Are you poor? Awesome! If your family’s income is lower than everyone else’s, you’re a better fit for need-based scholarships!

• Got stellar grades and test scores? That’s your uniqueness – throw out all applications except those that require a transcript.

Transcript Help

• How about skill sets? Do you paint? (Greeting card scholarships, hello!) Great at yodeling or duck calls or videography or the bagpipes? Search for those contests and awards! (Seriously, there really is one for duck callers.)

Would you paint a greeting card for $10K?

Two particularly useful scholarship skills:

1) Writing ability: lots of applications have essays. On the flip side, if you aren’t a particularly effective writer, ignore the multitudes of contests that require an essay but nothing else. Thousands of people enter these, so the competition is stiff; plus, all that writing is really time-consuming.

2) Public speaking ability, or even just willingness, is also super valuable for scholarships. Many fraternal organizations offer speech contests, and precious few people enter (since, of course, most people rate fear of public speaking above fear of death. Meaning they would rather drop dead than enter a speech contest). Little competition = better chance for money. Besides, the people who run these things are salt of the earth – you’ll enjoy the experience.

• One last hint: do a happy dance whenever you discover awkward websites and confusing requirements. Everyone else may skip over these, but not you! You persevere and email four different people to determine where to fax your course descriptions and grandmother’s maiden name, and you, you will win the Fraternal Order of Hippopotamus scholarship! (Because no one else figured out how to apply!)

Where do you search for limited-entry, on-target awards that are your perfect match?

• For most of the characteristics on your “my uniqueness” list, just use Google or your favorite search engine; search things like “scholarships for young entrepreneurs” or “scholarships for people with diabetes.”

• Next check out local community foundation or high school databases (see “local,” above).

  
  

• Once you’ve exhausted those approaches, check out the private scholarship lists compiled by Patrick Henry College and Cedarville University, which show awards actually won by their students. Many of these awards are perfect for Christian students and homeschoolers.

  
  

• After that, start perusing a large scholarship search engine, like College Board’s Big Future, or scholarships.com, or FastWeb.

  
  

There is a better way.

However, you really will make more progress by starting with what makes you special and finding scholarships that match that, rather than the other way around – spending glassy-eyed hours scrolling through reams of things that aren’t a great fit.

Whatever you do, don’t pay for a scholarship or a scholarship search engine. That’s probably a scam.

If don’t find enough now, keep applying during college. A surprising number of awards are open to current college students, not just high schoolers. I know of one young man who treated scholarship applications as if they were his campus job; he spent a fixed number of hours each week searching and applying for aid.

At the end of the day, make sure you are focused on seeking God even more than seeking scholarships. “You cannot serve God and money,” Jesus tells us. “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’… your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6, ESV). Let financial need drive you to a deeper reliance on your good Father’s care and direction.  

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Photo credits: Piggy bank by Dany Kurniawan: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-using-magnifying-glass-12357424/ , Cows by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay, http://pixabay.com/photos/cows-curious-cattle-livestock-1029077/ ; Insulator collection used by permission of James at GemAntiqueInsulators, https://www.etsy.com/shop/GemAntiqueInsulators ; Tim Hawkins "A Homeschool Family," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM6uqj0_jQc ; Tired girl by Anna Tarazevich: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-wearing-a-smartwatch-holding-a-smartphone-6173668/ ; Bible by Tima Miroshnichenko: https://www.pexels.com/photo/eyeglasses-on-the-bible-5199818/

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