Types of Scholarships
When categorized according to source, scholarships can be broken down into two main groups, college specific awards and private organizations. College specific awards are usually based around a specific major or maintaining a minimum cumulative grade point average. Offered by public or private companies, private organization scholarships have thousands of possible qualifications based on a variety of criteria.
College Specific Awards
There are three main groups that make up college specific awards, the first of which is academic scholarships. These are usually merit based scholarships based on a student’s academic achievement and found at an institution’s financial aid office. The second college specific award comes from the department of a particular field of study. Designed to attract and retain students to specific major, departmental scholarships are often subject based although some may use residency or minority status as additional qualifications.
The third college specific scholarship is designed to maintain large sport teams and attract top talent. For this reason, athletic scholarships are only available to students attending Division I and Division II schools. Partly funded by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the scholarships supply over 126,000 students each year with either partial or full tuition. Athletic scholarships require that students excel in a sport and maintain set standards in both athletics and academics, such as a minimum cumulative grade point average.Private Organizations
Based on different types of organizations, there are five different private organization scholarships, the largest of which are corporation scholarships. These scholarships can be found at a local business, through a parent’s employer or even through a Fortune 500 company. Along with attracting and retaining employees, these scholarships are used by corporations as acts of philanthropy that give back to the community through supporting both student and employee education. Qualifications for corporation scholarships are usually based on minority status, gender or a specific field of study.
