Have you ever heard of someone getting a “full-ride”? As in, college is basically free. This dream scenario typically falls under the category of institutional scholarships.

What are institutional scholarships?

Unlike most private and local scholarships, institutional scholarships are tied to a specific college. These scholarships are awards given by colleges to students they’ve accepted in order to entice those students to choose to attend that college.

Before we look at the three ways colleges award these types of scholarships, let’s briefly look at the pros and cons.

Pros

• They offer big, big money. Institutional scholarships easily account for the majority of all scholarship dollars.

They are often renewable. Typically, the money a college offers you for freshman year stays the same from year-to-year, so sophomore-senior year you won’t have to worry about going out and finding more scholarships. Important caveat: there’s usually a GPA requirement for renewing.

Cons

• They can be competitive. While some private colleges dole out scholarships to everyone who is accepted, these scholarships alone aren’t usually enough to adequately cover costs. Think of them like discounts to offset an often unrealistic sticker price.

  To earn the really awesome scholarships, you usually need to be in the top 10% of students accepted to that college. (This is where applying for several “likely”--a.k.a. “safety”--schools really pays off.) While many colleges offer some version of a “full-ride” scholarship (not talking about sports scholarships!), these can be super competitive and can require a test score, even at colleges with test-optional admissions.

• They can have strict timing. If you miss an early deadline, you may have missed your shot, as many colleges only award scholarships or give the opportunity to apply to scholarships to students who apply by the early deadline. Early Action deadlines are usually in October, November, or early December.

When should I apply for institutional scholarships?

Timeframe: Today all the way through when you graduate college

Yes, there are scholarships at some colleges that you can be nominated for as early as junior year of high school. Likewise, there are often many scholarships available at your college after you’ve enrolled: some once you declare your major, join the honors college, or make some contribution to campus that a professor/administrator notices.

Prime Season: September - March of senior year

Incoming student/freshman scholarships up for t grabs during this time are often the most well-funded.

Where do I find institutional scholarships?

• College Websites: Look for keywords like “scholarships,” “affordability,” and “financial aid”.

  Though TBH googling “[name of college] freshman undergraduate scholarships” might be quicker than navigating from a college’s homepage. 

  Pro tip: If the university you’re interested in is public and in another state, try “[name of college] nonresident scholarships” which we’ll talk more about in Step 2.

• College Financial Aid Office: The quickest way to get an answer is by calling and talking to the college’s financial aid office. This office is almost always separate from the admissions office and they will be tickled pink to talk to a prospective student about potential scholarships instead of a parent asking about their student’s most recent bill.

• RaiseMe: Just be sure to read your email—many students have had multiple emails about scholarship deadlines, but missed them in their inbox.

• The College’s Veteran Affairs Office: 

  Feel free to skip this bit if neither you nor your parents have served in the armed forces.

  The military offers a variety of options to help pay for college. (We talked about ROTC scholarships and enlistment benefits earlier.) The Veterans Office on campus can provide support for military veterans who are using federal VA educational benefits such as GI Bill or Veteran Readiness and Employment benefits. Some states make it easier for veterans or military family members to qualify for in-state tuition or have targeted education grants. The veterans’ office may also help with state veterans benefits such as Hazelwood Act benefits in Texas or CalVet tuition waivers in California.

  More information about VA Education Benefits/the GI Bill can be found here and also here.  

If you will be using Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits, you’ll definitely want to look into the Yellow Ribbon Program. Participating colleges provide additional financial help to students using the Post 9/11 GI Bill. The Yellow Ribbon Program can help bridge the gap between Post 9/11 GI Bill Benefits and the total cost of tuition and fees, a.k.a. make a partial benefit into a “full-tuition scholarship.” That said, Yellow Ribbon benefits are a supplement to the Post 9/11 GI Bill, not a stand-alone scholarship and are not available to all military-connected students. A college may limit the number of Yellow Ribbon recipients each year. Still, because this is “free money” tied to specific institutions, we wanted to include them here.

How do I get an institutional scholarship from a college?

There are three ways a college awards a scholarship. (And one college can use all three of these ways for different scholarships.)

1. Automatically

You apply. Then you get accepted. Then the college gives you a scholarship.

Boom. Super easy.

This happens because of one of three scenarios:

• Your GPA and/or test scores qualified you for a set amount on a sliding scale. The stronger your application compared to everyone else who applied to that college, the more likely you are to get a scholarship. #SafetySchoolsFTW

• One or more qualities listed on your admissions application allowed you to be selected for a scholarship. Example: Your parent is a Presbyterian minister, and the college has a scholarship for that. These are often called “endowed” scholarships and they’re a bit of a mystery: a mystery you can’t control so… 🤷‍♀️

• You live in a state with an automatic scholarship program. In order to persuade students to stay in-state, many states offer scholarships to students with great grades so long as that student chooses to attend a university within that state. (More on this in Step 2.)

2. By Invitation

You’re invited to apply–usually via email so keep an eye open and don’t just skim/trash things–for a scholarship at a college you’ve already applied to based on your grades, scores, and other qualities.

This can take a couple forms:

1. A separate application for an honors college (not all of these include scholarship dollars, but many do).

2. An invitation to a “scholars weekend” at which you interview alongside others for varying amounts of money. 

3. Specialty scholarships, especially in performance and the arts. These vary, but usually you submit a portfolio, audition, or compete in some way.

3. Through a separate application

These ones you have to seek out. And there’s a deadline. Maybe two.

To find out if a college uses this method of scholarship selection, look for “financial aid priority deadline” or “scholarship consideration deadline” on the college website. These are almost always after the CommonApp/application deadline but can fall either before or after you get in.

Repeat: Scholarship applications for colleges can be due even before you know if you’ve gotten in.

If after searching the website you’re not still sure if your college uses a “before you know if you’re in” scholarship application, ask. It’s too important to miss out on. Remember, big, big money.

Usually your designated admissions counselor or the general admissions office email is a good place to start.

Example email: (As always. feel free to copy/paste/adapt. It’s not plagiarism if it’s encouraged.)

Hello,

My name is [your name], and I’m applying to attend [name of college] next fall. I’ve checked on the [name of college] website, and I don’t see a separate application for scholarship consideration. I want to make sure I’m not missing any opportunities to make [name of college] more affordable. If there is an application I can complete–or another opportunity I should be aware of–I would really appreciate the link to it so I can get to work.

Thank you for your time.

[your name]

If a college uses the “after you’re accepted” separate scholarship application timeline, you’ll probably get an email about it. Colleges often will ask you to log in to their student portal with your newly acquired Student ID so you can apply for oodles of scholarships. 

Final Pro Tip: Sometimes the pathways to these scholarships pop up in the CommonApp under the college specific sections. Something like... 

“Are you interested in applying for scholarships?” or

“Are you interested in applying to the STEM Honors Program?” or 

“What faith do you identify as?” 

Because they have, say, a Baptist scholarship that they won’t know you're eligible for or send you an email about unless you let them know you’re Baptist. #CheckYourEmail

So to sum up, most colleges use a mixture of these three methods of awarding scholarships. You won’t know which ones a college uses until you dig into its website. One hint I can give you is that private colleges often have a greater variety of scholarships than public universities.

“Optional” Work Time

Now that you hopefully have a much better idea of what you’re looking for, it’s time to take action.

[action_item]

Action Item: Choose a college or two you’re interested in. Google “[name of college] scholarships.” Set a timer for 30 minutes and explore.

Bonus Action Step for the Bold: Once you’ve explored the website to your satisfaction, call the college’s financial aid office to fact check what you’ve found with a financial aid counselor.

Here are some examples of what you might ask:

“I saw on the website that students with a 3.0 GPA and 22 ACT get a $12,000 scholarship. Is there an SAT equivalent to that score? And when does a student have to have that test score to your office by to qualify?”

“I saw on the website that there’s a list of ‘endowed scholarships’ but I can’t find the list. How can I find it?”

“I saw on the website that you have to be nominated for the [insert name here] award. Can you help me understand how that works?”

“I saw on the website that your college has a priority financial aid deadline, but I don’t really get what that means. Could you explain that to me?”

“I saw on the website that there’s an arts scholarship called ‘ABC Memorial Scholarship’ and that I need to submit a portfolio. Would you know when and how I can do that?”

“I saw on the website that your college has an honors program that’s by invitation. When are students typically notified that they’ve been invited?”

Again, the job of a financial aid counselor is to help you answer these questions. Sometimes they’ll have to refer you to a specific office—the theatre department would answer questions about auditions, or some scholarship programs have their own coordinators or are operated out of the admissions office. But even if these folks don’t have the answer, they will know who does and get you connected.

Step 1 Wrap Up

Do you feel more knowledgeable? How about empowered? You should. If you’ve read this far, you know more about scholarships than probably 95% of college students.

But your journey doesn’t stop here. When you’re ready, here’s how you can make the most of what you know:

[action_item]

• Decide which scholarship types are likely to be most helpful to you–online, local, and/or institutional–or at least which ones are “in season” for you.

• Set aside time within the next week to search for your best bet scholarship type using what you’ve learned. Setting a reminder on your planner/phone works great.

• If you haven’t already, create a spreadsheet to keep track of potential scholarships. (You can use the same one from 1.1 if you like.)

What’s next:

What’s more powerful than winning a bunch of scholarships?

Applying to colleges that are awesome for you AND that will give you lots of money.

Applying for scholarships increases the amount of money you’re able to spend on college, which is great! But building a financially fit college list makes the money you earn from outside and local scholarships go a lot further. 

The single greatest secret in affording college is this: 

It’s not about the scholarships. It’s about affordability.

So you want me to go somewhere cheap?

No.

I want you to know that some types of colleges are going to be way more generous to you than other types. And knowing which ones are most likely to give you money before you apply will save you SO MUCH stress.

So what’s your next step?

• If you know which colleges you’re going to apply to and you’re not going to change them (either because deadlines are just around the corner or because nothing I can say could change your mind), skip to Step 3. It’s FAFSA time.

• But if you’re open to taking another look at a college you ruled out for being “too expensive” or—even bolder-–finding an amazing and affordable school that you may never have heard of... roll on to Step 2.