How To Get Minority College Scholarships

Attending college requires selecting a college, gaining admission into one and attracting enough money to remain there for all the semesters needed to graduate. Selecting a college can mean considering a different type of college or a different place in the world in order to attend without paying the same amount of money as an Ivy League or your local college. Gaining admission requires the best grades you can achieve in the amount of time you have left in high school, as well as acquiring a well-rounded profile that makes you attractive to the college. A college that wants you offers more financial incentives.

Selecting a college and gaining admission

You are a high school junior, and your parents are considering college for you. Hopefully, you are studying for your PSATs and/or the ACT. In addition to your grades, standardized tests such as the SAT add up to 85% of the total application and admission ticket. While extracurricular activities are very important, you can join the band, sing in the choir, cheerlead, head the debate team and run track, all at once, but if your grades are lackluster and you do not convince a college of your academic ability through a test like the ACT, then consider flipping burgers for a lifetime. Not appealing? Get a tutor, master word roots for the verbal section of the test and review the math that you are not currently studying. Brush up on your algebra if you are in geometry or trigonometry. Every word root that identifies a word -- such as "tele" for across, or at a distance -- and each formula you still remember, including the quadratic equation, improves your score and your impression that you can learn at their college. If it is May of your junior year and those grades were not the best, study really well and wait to take the SAT or ACT until you feel that you have achieved your best preparation. Spend the summer in summer school, an enrichment program, working with a personal academic trainer or visit another part of the world to learn about new people and places. Avoid senioritis, especially if you waited too long to earn the best grades possible. Lastly, that college essay is your personal statement about who you are. It covers everything that your grades, test scores and extracurricular activities did not do to convince them to matriculate you. Explain poor results, teach them something new about yourself and make them want to have you as a student. If a college wants you, they offer a better financial aid package, and their wanting you is useful as a bargaining chip when you whisper that this or that college offered you more.

Applying for financial aid

File the FAFSA honestly, and help your parents fill it out by looking for advising sessions or people who specialize in filling out forms, just like the people who help others do their taxes. Ask your guidance counselor, and he or she might know someone like this. Doing some extra household chores to make up for the trouble and getting a cup of coffee for a quiet talk that night will not hurt. If you are not wealthy, but are honest, the FAFSA helps to even out the playing field, and having a home is not a barrier to going to college. FAFSA forms are not as scary as they once were, but worrying about the expense of paying for college still is. And in today's current economy, do not forget about scholarships. Consider your part-time job earnings, and remember that summers are financial aid-free in many places, so remember to line up summer jobs or have an idea of where to look when you get there. Practice filling out as many applications and essays as you can, starting with your least likely college. If you flub an essay to one college, perhaps it will still prove the practice you need to impress other schools. Many scholarships require essays in their applications, and minority scholarships are no exception. Essays can make or break any application for a scholarship or college, so keep practicing and share them with people who might have input -- Mom and Dad because they know you, your English teacher, your grandparent, even a professional at an online essay service.

Attracting college money

Money for college comes from more than just the federal government and the college itself. Being a minority is not often a plus when applying for anything, but it is for the FAFSA and many colleges. However, do not be limited in your idea of what a minority person is. Women are still considered minorities, as are some strange categories. Do you work for a union? Check it out. Are you a member of 4-H or Girl Scouts? Check it out. Did you accomplish something unique -- then there are scholarships for race, religion, membership in certain activities, locations, heritages, and other amazing things. There are scholarships for writing essays. Go online and discover the different scholarship services, such as FastWeb.com, EducationGrant.com and Scholarship.com. However, avoid scholarship services that charge you a fee; there are too many good free services to be paying for one. Remember to plan ahead, buy used books and sell textbooks through online book services that can save you money each semester. A good backpack can cost a hundred dollars, but if Grandma finds a great one and buys four, each in a different color, then you have garnered money for your college fund. Speaking of grandparents, they can donate money to their grandchildren without tax penalties. Mom and Dad can buy tuition-paying plans and college savings plans long before the first child attends, or at least when the third one arrives with the first one headed off in a few years. Plan ahead with monthly budget to keep you on target, find ways to reduce rent costs by staying with relatives and do not underestimate what the price of living is for a college student. Do not be afraid of student loans, and angle to get the best grants and unsubsidized Stafford loans possible before Mom or Dad looks at PLUS loans which must be paid while the student is in school, while the others do not. Do not live off of the many credit cards aimed at the eighteen-year-old in college. Work out a credit card arrangement with Mom and Dad so that they can study your buying habits and understand what does and does not work in the world of credit. Consider work study, but do not plan on working a lot of hours and keeping good grades. The grades are so much more important than the $7.50 an hour cash. Invest in good quality items that reduce your overhead, such as a laptop that is light enough to carry with your textbooks to class, a good pair of sneakers or bicycle instead of a car that you can not find parking for and ways to avoid eating carry-out all the time in the dorm rooms. Every cent counts.

Finding money for college, whether as a minority or not, is no simple task. There are hundreds of angles and options and opportunities, but you must chase them down yourself. As a student, improving your grades is the highest priority, but remember to study well for the standardized tests. Learn about the financial aid application process and seek out online resources. Ask questions of your guidance counselor, your college admissions representatives, your older brothers, sisters and cousins in college, and even just people who have been to college. Anyone can go to college and achieve good things, but if you have neglected your studies, it will take that much more convincing. And did I mention to practice writing your application essays?

Grades + SAT scores + extracurricular activities + application essay