How Do You Get Scholarships?

Good news: scholarships are pretty easy to get. In fact, according to the Education Data Initiative, almost 90% of students get some form of scholarship or grant. If just about everyone is getting them, you probably can too. This post will tell you how.

First, a little background. There are three primary types of scholarships:

• Need-based financial aid

• Institutional merit scholarships

• Outside scholarships

Each is slightly different and is awarded somewhat differently.

Need-Based Financial Aid

Need-based financial aid is intended to close the gap between the student's ability to pay (as calculated by the FAFSA) and the Cost of Attendance at a college. The most generous need-based financial aid comes from colleges themselves using their own funds to meet the student's need. The best financial aid comes in the form of grants, which are essentially gifts to the student and do not need to be repaid. However, colleges can incorporate federal and sometimes state funds into a financial aid package, and some of those "funds" can be loans and work-study.

How do you get need-based financial aid? You apply to a college and submit the FAFSA (and CSS Profile if required). There's an important element to this, though: not all colleges offer need-based financial aid, and among those who do, not all meet 100% of a student's need. That is to say, if your Student Aid Index is $10,000 and Cost of Attendance is $90,000, not every college that you apply to will automatically offer you $80,000 in grants.

Institutional Merit Scholarships

Institutional merit scholarships are scholarships colleges award to students they would like to attract. A great deal of institutional merit is awarded simply on the basis of the student's application to the college. Many colleges have additional scholarships that applicants can apply to. To learn more about these, visit the college's financial and and scholarship website. Note that some scholarship applications have earlier due dates than the application to the college, so make sure you check application deadlines when looking at scholarships.

The vast majority of merit scholarships are awarded on the basis of academics: GPA and test scores. One of the best ways to make sure you get as much merit aid as possible is to take the SAT and/or the ACT. (Among other things, colleges do better in the US News & World Report rankings if more applicants submit test scores.)

Not all colleges offer merit scholarships, though. And because the college uses their own money to award these scholarships at their discretion, it can be harder to find out what's available. Net price calculators may ask about academics, but scholarships are awarded for plenty of other reasons, too.

Fortunately, there are tools available to help you:

Net price calculators. Every college is required to have one on its website. Entering your data into it will give an estimate of your financial aid package based on what students like you receive in the current year. While these are not binding offers, colleges generally do not change their financial aid philosophies dramatically from year to year. Some net price calculators will ask about academics and give you an estimate of merit awards you might be eligible for, but many don't.

Common Data Set. The Common Data Set is a standardized questionnaire that colleges complete and, typically, publish on their websites. Section H of the CDS is about financial aid and can be very helpful in identifying colleges that are likely to give you good scholarships. I've attached Lewis & Clark College's CDS section H for the 2024-25 school year so you can see an example. Section H2 details the number of students who applied for and were awarded financial aid, including what percent of need was met and average loan amounts. Section H2A details merit scholarships: how many students received them and the average amount. Section H14 shows what criteria were used to award scholarships.

CollegeData and College Navigator. These websites provide high-level overviews of types and amounts of aid awarded by colleges. You won't get the granularity of Common Data Set info, but by searching a college and looking at its financials on either website, you'll see details on types of scholarships offered, average percent of need met, and the percent of students ineligible for need-based aid who received merit scholarships. You might use one of these websites to narrow down your college search, and then look up Common Data Set data for colleges that your student is most interested in applying to.

Outside Scholarships

The third type of scholarship is outside scholarships. These are scholarships offered by anyone other than the college. Your employer might offer one. Rotary and other civic organizations offer them. Outside scholarships tend to be smaller than institutional scholarships; a great outside scholarship is a four-figure number while a typical institutional scholarship is a five-figure number. However, if you are applying to colleges where you are not eligible for institutional aid, such as a student from a higher income household applying to colleges that only offer need-based aid, these can add up.

While there are huge websites like Fastweb and the College Board with tons of scholarships listed, the best way to find outside scholarships is to look closer to home where you'll be in a smaller applicant pool and thus more likely to actually get a scholarship. Check your high school's college and career center. They'll have a list of scholarships that are only available to students in your community, or even your high school or some subset of your high school like the theater program or a sports team. And check other local sources: your employer, the activities your student participates in, teachers or coaches, to name a few.

Something to keep in mind about outside scholarships: it's never too early to start looking for them. Many accept applications from high school sophomores and juniors. And application deadlines are often well before spring of senior year, so you'll want to start looking at these soon.

And of course, each scholarship has its own application, criteria and process so you'll want to track those.