For high school students, the idea of college is as scary as it is exciting. When discussing which college to attend, the topic of price is always brought up. It’s no secret that college is very expensive. It’s also well known that scholarships can help cut the cost significantly.

Unfortunately, many kids are reluctant to apply for many reasons. Because of this, millions of dollars go unclaimed each year. However, for each fear that a student may have, there are hundreds of different scholarships to appeal to the needs of all teens.

A huge reason that students don’t apply for scholarships is because they believe that they won’t qualify for any. Students have become accustomed to believing that only students who have extremely high GPAs, are athletic prodigies, or are in desperate need of financial assistance can receive scholarships.

However, there are scholarships for all types of students. According to The Washington Post, “most high school seniors will match 50 to 100 scholarships”. Many scholarships are based on race, gender, majors and much more. By taking the time to search for scholarships, matches will definitely be found.

Many teens feel as if they have no time to look for scholarships. On this note, Janet Turner, director of financial aid at the University of Portland, says, “if a $200 scholarship application takes two hours to complete, and you actually win that scholarship, then that is equivalent to $100 per hour of your time.” By putting it in this perspective, the motivation to find and apply for scholarships could be boosted significantly.

It’s not shocking to discover that many students don’t want to write essays. Fortunately, there are hundreds of scholarships that don’t require them. For those who find the task of writing full length essays daunting, some scholarships only require a short paragraph.

Scholarships like Niche’s “No Essay Scholarship” only asks for a small amount of information in order to enter your name in a raffle. For more creative teens, scholarships such as the Courageous Persuaders Video Scholarship Competition, Create-a-Greeting Card Scholarship Contest, and The Wear Duct Tape to Prom Scholarship, require students to create videos, cards, and clothing for the chance to win money.

Scholarship money is everywhere. Students can discover new scholarships in the career center in B130 and all over the internet. Websites such as scholarships.com, fastweb.com, and colleges.niche.com, can help to easily match students to hundreds of scholarships. In the end, scholarships are easily accessible and there is no excuse to not apply. By putting in the work to find and apply for scholarships, many awards are no doubt to be received.