LibGuides: Money Fitness: Scholarships

Scholarships Overview

Scholarships:

Like grants, scholarships are money for school that you don’t have to pay back (although they do often require that you meet certain criteria)
Scholarships can come from a WIDE array of different sources: organizations, schools, individuals, companies, etc. and as a result, they have a broad array of application processes, requirements, and award amounts.

Common types of scholarships are awarded based upon:

Need: Scholarship committees will prioritize giving scholarships to the students who demonstrate the most financial need
Merit: Scholarships will be administered to students who demonstrate the best academic merit, or who can demonstrate they do well in their classes
Special interest or identity: A lot of scholarships are given out to students based upon their interests or relationship to a certain identity. For example, there are scholarships for former eagle scouts, for students who want to study public health, and for students who don’t speak English as a first language.
Finally, scholarships may be awarded based upon a mix of the above

When applying for scholarships, make sure that you understand the organization, individual or institution that is awarding the scholarship. In order to receive a scholarship from them, you need to demonstrate in your application why you are the best fit given their reasons for awarding a scholarship.
Many scholarships also require that you have a FAFSA filled out.

CWU Scholarship Central 

CWUs platform for streamlining scholarships for students
You can also apply for outside scholarships but these may require more work to find, and they may have a larger pool of applicants applying to them.
To use: go to My CWU --> Student--> Financial --> Scholarship Application --> Sign in
You will start by filling out a general filter/survey that will ask about your personal information and help the system filter through scholarships that you are qualified for.

Note that after this, you have not yet completed a scholarship application, there is more you need to do!
After this, go to the dashboard page and review the scholarships you are qualified for. It is a good idea to review the additional criteria these scholarships need, and to decide which ones you are the best fit for. Then you can use this platform to apply!

Some scholarships only require a few small extra steps, where as some may require additional information like cover letters, resumes, and letters of recommendation.
The career services office is a great place to go to get help with and advice on all of these

All CWU scholarships require that you have a FAFSA on hand. You need to fill this out every year, and the earlier the better. If you are still a dependent of your parents (which many undergraduate students are), you my need your parents help or their information to fill this out.

Outside Organizations