Search for Scholarships

Your student’s search for scholarships should begin now, if it hasn’t already, and continue through the last year of any postsecondary education or training program.

Why It Matters

What Your Student Can Do Now

• Get started with one registration.
  The ISL Education Lending Scholarship is a good place to start. Registration is open now at www.IowaStudentLoan.org/ScholarshipSignUp for Iowa high school students in ninth through 12th grades. Registration takes just a few minutes to be entered into random drawings for $1,000 ISave 529 deposits. With one scholarship application done, your student may be motivated to do more.
• Use free scholarship search tools, like the new Step 1 Scholarship Search.
  Developed by ICAN and ISL Education Lending, Step 1 is a free scholarship search tool for high school and college students, their parents or guardians, and educators. Users create a profile and enter their qualifications to be matched automatically with available opportunities and manage potential applications. The tool has sorting, saving and sharing capabilities. Your student may want to set up a specific email address to use for logging in and monitoring scholarship opportunities or use one already set up for college admissions. Make sure your student knows that free services are available, so there is no need to pay for one.
• Keep working on the resume.
  Although qualifications vary, many scholarship opportunities are available to students with good academic achievement, proven leadership and demonstrated service. Continuing to focus on these aspects of high school will help your student be considered for multiple opportunities.
• Talk to the counseling office.
  School counselors often post local and regional scholarship opportunities in their offices or online. They may also be able to point your student to organizations that have awarded scholarships to others in recent years.
• Check colleges’ financial aid websites.
  Large awards, including those called “automatic merit” based on set qualifications rather than a competitive process, are often awarded by colleges to attract incoming freshmen with the qualities they look for in their student populations. Your student should compare the scholarship opportunities offered by each institution, as well as specific departments and organizations for each, under consideration.

What Your Student Can Do Later

• Evaluate future needs.
  Your student should pay careful attention to the terms of any scholarships earned and how they change the bottom line of college costs. Scholarships may be a one-time award, split between two semesters of freshman year, or renewable for multiple years. If scholarships are renewable, your student should be aware of the requirements to renew, such as maintaining a specific grade point or reapplying. In addition, your student should understand whether a probationary period applies for any lost scholarship funds and how to reinstate eligibility.
• Make a plan to replace short-term awards.
  If your student anticipates a steep drop-off after freshman year when nonrenewable scholarships expire, it is important to know how to replace those funds for subsequent years. Fewer scholarships are available for later years in college, but there are some, such as the ISL Education Lending Scholarship. Making connections with mentors, professors and organizational leaders can help, as can continuing to build qualifications like academic achievement, leadership and involvement.
• Allow college savings to grow.
  Using scholarships can delay the need to dip into savings invested in a 529 college savings plan or other vehicles. The chart below shows how 529 funds can grow the longer they remain in a 529 college savings plan.
  
  

What You Can Do

• Ask around.
  Your employer, church, civic organization or another group you are affiliated with may offer scholarships. The same applies for your neighbors, extended family members and friends. Don’t be afraid to ask others about possible opportunities your student may be interested in.
• Encourage continual consideration.
  After an initial burst of scholarship applications, it can be hard for students to stay motivated, especially if they don’t see immediate rewards or receive smaller awards. Encourage your student to continue looking for opportunities. Multiple small scholarships add up, reducing the need to borrow or deplete savings, and the reward outweighs invested time.

The ISL Midwest Senior Scholarship is open to high school seniors in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Parents may register on behalf of their eligible student. Registration for this program is open through April 30, and six winners will be randomly chosen to receive $1,500 scholarships paid directly to their college.

Next Steps

Be sure to complete the survey questions at the end of this article to be entered into the 529 deposit giveaway!

Additional references, handouts and talking points are available in the right sidebar to use at your leisure. They may prove beneficial to reference now or after receiving future emails – we’ll leave it completely up to you. Use our emails like a recipe for a successful outcome — assemble the recommended ingredients and then follow accompanying directions to add flavor and depth.

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