by Steven Tagle
Why Scholarship Searches Feel Overwhelming and What to Do About It
When students and their parents first start searching for educational scholarships online, they’re often bewildered. As a consultant, I am often asked: “So, what’s the trick?” I wish I had the keys to a simpler, more organized version of the internet, but the truth is, I don’t.
The internet is messy, and scholarships are hard to find. Read on to learn why.
Table of Contents
- Every Donor and Endowment Is Unique
- Donor Diversity Complicates the Scholarship-Seeking Process
- How to Start Researching Scholarship Opportunities
- The Bottom Line
Every Donor and Endowment Is Unique
Let’s imagine that you’re a multimillionaire. You’ve pursued your professional dreams to the fullest and become financially secure for the rest of your days. So, you decide to set aside some of your wealth and give it to someone who is not quite as far along on their own journey.
As a donor, there are some important questions you must answer before you can give your money away:
- How will you decide what kind of people, achievements, and/or future goals deserve to be considered for your generous gift? What kind of selection process will you establish?
- Where will you store your funds? Will you distribute them yourself or partner with a larger institution, such as a university or nonprofit? What annual investment budget or schedule will you use to make sure your funds are properly managed and protected?
- Once you’ve identified or articulated your ideal candidates, stored your funds in partnership with an organization, and understood the annual timeline of your endowment, how will you get the word out to the right audience?
There’s no manual for how to give your money away to students in the United States, so every potential donor navigates these three aspects of the process differently.
Given that every donor’s response to question #1 will be unique, you might understand why there are so many different people, achievements, and goals that are rewarded with scholarships. Generous people put a lot of time and thought into developing the “who” and “why” of their donations, and they often make decisions based on personal experiences that none of us can predict.
Donor Diversity Complicates the Scholarship-Seeking Process
The main point here is that donors give their money to college and grad students for very personal reasons. That motivational diversity means that every individual who seeks out scholarships must research and develop their own list of available and well-aligned opportunities.
Generating such a list is the hardest part of the process and requires a lot of personal reflection. There are no shortcuts when it comes to putting that list together. You might be tempted to say it’s easier for certain communities, but I guarantee you that this process is hard for everyone, regardless of their family income, racial background, or personal situation.
In addition, depending on how each donor addresses question #2, deadlines and payout dates vary dramatically. So, yes, there are deadlines all year round. Given multistep application processes, organizational bureaucracy, and the difficulty of transferring funds from one account to another, you should assume that it could take six to 12 months from the day you submit an application to the day you receive any potential payments. So, any time you spend on scholarship applications will be a long-term investment. It is not wise to apply expecting a quick turnaround.
Finally, most donors maintain small operating budgets so that the bulk of their donation goes directly to students. That means scholarships have very few, if any, staff and rarely spend money to get the word out to their desired audience. People who wish to give their money away expect eligible candidates to find the donor’s website, social media page, or institutional center and then navigate available instructions to submit applications.
The diverse reasoning that goes into giving money away creates a confusing network of opportunities for students to sift through online. That’s why I started this post by asking you to imagine that you are the one giving the money away. Don’t assume that the person on the other end of this transaction is some stranger with whom you cannot relate – a caricature of a rich person who has too much money to know what to do with. It is more likely that the person who has decided to give their money away shares something in common with you; you just need to find that point of intersection.
How to Start Researching Scholarship Opportunities
If you feel lost in the sea of opportunities you encounter, take a deep breath and re-center yourself. Yes, it’s a messy process, but just remember that you are searching for scholarships that resonate with you as an individual. You want to make a meaningful connection with the donor. So, when things stop feeling meaningful, either take a break from the search or reassess your strategy. Are you really looking for opportunities you care about?
Overall, it’s important to understand why the scholarship world is so disorganized and decentralized because you will inevitably encounter frustrating moments in your search and application processes. When this happens, don’t despair and give up.
Remind yourself that there is a person on the other end of every scholarship application process who went through an equally complicated process of setting aside and protecting a scholarship fund. Re-center your thought processes around yourself, and make sure you are conducting strategic scholarship searches.
The Bottom Line
Once you understand that there are clear reasons for the confusing network of opportunities, I hope you embrace the challenge and generate effective scholarship searches for yourself.
I have built most of my counseling tools and strategies with the mindset that the scholarship search is about you, the student. As you navigate the many opportunities out there, remember that you are looking for mission statements, organizations, and individuals that reflect specific pieces of yourself.
If you haven’t already mapped out the most important aspects of your life, studies, and passions, make sure you do that before you conduct any more searches!
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