As college tuition increases, so does the number of scholarship applicants. With competition amping up, seniors are able to look internally thanks to 36 different ETHS scholarships ranging from $500 to $5,000. The applications opened at the end of February with a final deadline of March 13. Students can expect a status update in April.
The application process mimics that of the Common App, starting with a questionnaire. This leads into an “add to cart” system, allowing for students to scroll through all of the possible awards and choose the ones they feel are the best fit. After selecting a scholarship, the applicant is given a prompt relating to the content of the scholarship.
Principal Dr. Quiana McNeal urges students to take advantage of the scholarships offered within the building as they can minimize the tuition burden.
“There are so many students who don’t know about different scholarship opportunities,” said McNeal. “By providing additional scholarships, we’re giving more students the opportunity to be able to overcome financial barriers to attending college.”
Senior Vanessa Harvey applied to one scholarship where she was able to submit a spoken word poem.
“We were supposed to write about how we could change something,” said Harvey. “I talked about how the media affects gender roles and how this applies to my life. It was pretty cool.”
Some scholarships offer multiple awards or renewable funding. There are two categories of scholarships: financial need-based and non-financial need-based. Students eligible for free or reduced lunch qualify for need-based awards. Unexpected circumstances, such as familial death or hardships, are also taken into account. Each non-financial need-based scholarship has a different set of criteria. For example, some require that the student plays a sport or instrument or will pursue a specific college major or location.
There is no limit to the number of scholarships seniors can apply for. In fact, the only limiting factor is eligibility, so reading the descriptions of each scholarship is important.
“I’ll just take every opportunity I can,” said senior Gorden Rubens. “I’m shooting for a scholarship.”
Last year, 69 students received a scholarship from the program; this year, 51 scholarships are available.
“There are some scholarships that go unapplied for every year, and for some, only a few students apply and are often unqualified for them,” said Beth Arey, College and Career Services Coordinator. “Sometimes, we don’t award all of the scholarships.”
For many students, senior year can be busy in terms of course load and extracurricular activities, and planning for the future can add to the pressure.
Throughout high school, the skill of time management is constantly reinforced, all in preparation for senior year, where students are expected to balance applications with classwork and extracurricular activities.
“It’s definitely hard to keep motivation, but I set out a time, at least once a week, to work on college stuff,” said senior Azalea Steiger-Smith. “As soon as you think you’re done with college applications, now you have to apply for scholarships.”
There are a number of different resources available to help students with applications, such as Wildkit Academy sessions and meetings in the College and Career Services center.
Miles Gomberg has found other valuable support in his search for scholarships.
“I have spent some time looking at SchooLinks, which has tons of resources and scholarships that are easy to apply to,” said Gomberg. “My teachers have also done a great job of providing information about the various ETHS scholarships and remind us of them very often.”
The College and Career Services team brings in outside judges to review and select winners for each scholarship. The judges are college admissions officers, making them well-versed in the decision process and allowing them to provide an unbiased decision.
Arey encourages students to take advantage of the opportunity to gain financial support the school offers.
“So go for it. It doesn’t take much time to do them. I think probably the most labor-intensive part of the whole thing is reading the different scholarships,” said Arey. “They’re not that time-consuming, and we’re here to help.”
