The high prices of higher education mean that most students must apply for some type of financial aid, with scholarships the first choice for many. With hundreds of available scholarships for people belonging to various ethnic groups, it pays to be a bit of a detective to search them out. Follow these steps to find minority scholarships targeted to your ethnic group.
Instructions
1. Start first with the financial aid office at the college you attend. If you haven't started college yet, look at the minority scholarships available at schools you're interested in attending. Colleges realize that students often pick the school that offers the best financial aid package.
2. Remember to look at scholarships targeted toward your major. Some examples of these scholarships include: Asian American Journalists Association Scholarship, Minority Geoscience Student Scholarship and the National Society of Black Engineers.
3. Question ethnic associations and groups about scholarship availability. Scholarships exist for dozens of ethnic groups, including Albanian, Creole and Manchurian. Look at the Japanese American Citizens League, La Unidad Latina Foundation or the Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund.
4. Remember that big corporations like Microsoft also award ethnic scholarships. Xerox awards the Xerox Technical Minority Scholarship; McDonald's provides scholarships through the McDonald's Hispanic American Commitment to Education Resources.
5. Check with regional or national offices of churches. The United Methodist Church provides Ethnic Scholarships each year.
6. Remember that government also provides minority scholarships. Check at all levels: municipal, county, state and federal. Check the websites of state and federal departments of education for more information (see Resources below).
7. Search one of the many scholarship databases. Some good ones to try are NextStudent and BlackExcel (see Resources below).
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