Don’t Believe These Scholarship Myths

Hold your ears and take cover. Because in the paragraphs that follow, we are going to explode five widespread myths about winning college scholarships—myths that have, unfortunately, prevented many deserving students from accumulating enough money for college.

If you are a student or the parent of a student who recently gained admission to a dream college and now needs a last-minute “miracle” to pay for it, this column is for you.

By learning the truth behind these myths, you will gain a better understanding of the essential “rules” of the college scholarships game—a valuable understanding that helped me personally win nearly $90,000 in scholarship awards.

Myth #1: Only students with good grades win scholarships

The Real Story: Although some scholarships use grades and test scores to evaluate applicants, others use criteria such as leadership ability, community service involvement, artistic talent, special hobbies, obstacles overcome, unique personal characteristics, family affiliations, and much more.

Furthermore, some scholarships that do consider student GPAs only use this metric for initial screening purposes. You might need a 2.75 GPA to apply, but once you’ve cleared this minimum bar, grades don’t impact your chances of winning. Other programs use a broader definition of academics that includes areas of interest and study outside of the traditional school curriculum.

The bottom line is that most scholarship programs aren’t myopic: They take into account that applicants have much more to offer than just the alphabet soup of letter grades on their transcripts.

Myth #2: Only low-income families can get paying-for-college help

The Real Story: There is a fundamental difference between need-based and merit-based scholarships. While need-based scholarships do consider your and your family’s financial situation and circumstances, merit-based scholarships, by definition, do not.

Merit scholarships are awarded for a virtually endless number of qualifications—including special prizes that I’ve seen for skateboarders, burger flippers, knitters, horse groomers, prom goers, southpaws, and peanut butter sandwich makers—but financial need is never one of them. You could literally be Bill Gates or Donald Trump and win a merit-based award.

Myth #3: Your odds of winning are predetermined by your past record

The Real Story: What you do after you decide to apply for scholarships is just as important as the record you have already accumulated. Case in point: One scholarship winner that I know won a really prestigious scholarship from prison. Even though he had clearly made mistakes and had gotten into trouble with the law, this young person demonstrated how he was turning his life around. He beat out valedictorians and student body presidents to win the scholarship prize.

Additionally, some merit scholarship programs do not even consider a student’s past record. Instead, they evaluate each applicant based on a unique task completed specifically for the program—such as writing an essay, delivering an oration, completing a research paper, or recording an audition tape.

So don’t fall into the trap of thinking that your die has already been cast. What you do now will make all the difference in the world.

Myth #4: It’s all about having the most extracurricular activities

The Real Story: As is the case in many other aspects of life, winning scholarships is about quality, not quantity. Some people think that to win these awards, you must have devoted your entire high school career to participating in extracurricular activities. 

On the contrary, most scholarship winners distinguish themselves by the devotion they have demonstrated to a particular activity or activities, rather than by the sheer quantity of their involvement.

Myth #5: Focus your time on just a few scholarships

The Real Story: Some students make the mistake of thinking that they maximize their chances of winning by pouring all of their energy into one or two scholarship applications. Such a strategy, however, is exactly what you don’t want to do.

Applying for scholarships is a numbers game. A variety of factors outside of your control can affect the outcome of any given contest. Only by applying for large numbers of scholarships—I recommend at least one dozen—can you minimize such factors. Don’t put all of your scholarship eggs in one basket.