College is not something that is an easy thing. Much like any school, it takes time, long hours of sweat and tears, and hard work. But, unlike most schools, in college, you have to pay an insane amount of money to just be able to do one semester. While the reality is you don’t need to go to college, some people want to go, or couldn’t bear the idea of how their family would look at them if they didn’t get into Harvard, no matter how high that $52,659 fine that backs behind that label of schooling: Ivy League! Although you can’t shake away the feeling of bringing shame to your family that easily, however, you can lessen the college price tag more easily, so you’re not in heart-crushing debt.
As students in High School, we have been told that the next big thing, after graduating here, is to go to college, and as said prior, college is not an easy thing. Financially or mentally. Although we have been prepared knowledge-wise for college, we were never prepared for the large sum of fees that comes with furthering your education.
The average tuition and fees to go to college are $38,070 at private colleges. $10,740 at public colleges, for state residents, and $27,560 at public colleges for people out-of-state, according to collegedata.com. The annual amount of money a 17-18-year-old, standard age for people going to college, makes in a year is $29,432. That’s barely enough to cover a public college for out-of-state students, and not even enough to cover a private college if all their funds go to their tuition. Which is impossible considering necessities cost money and aren’t cheap. Again, we were never prepared for this price tag, leaving many clueless about what to do. So, what can we do to lighten this burden of money? Scholarships and grants.

“What are scholarships/grants?” I asked and am here with Mr. Komschlies, a counselor at CHS, to talk about scholarships. “Scholarships are a way to get money for post-secondary education. That doesn’t mean it’s just for your college or a two-year college but it could be a certification program and things. It’s a way to help lower the costs of education.” He states.
Grants and scholarships share similarities. Much like scholarships, grants give you free money that you don’t have to pay back. Unlike all scholarships though, they are primarily given based on financial need. There are some strings attached to both of course, like many things that give you free money, but it’s in exchange for free money, so not many complain about it. `

Who do you see to apply for scholarships, and how do you apply?
Asking fellow students about this question, they had little too few ideas on who to see. The phrase we all know and hate “I don’t know” pops up frequently on this topic.
“We have our college and career readiness center, it’s called CCRC, and in there, they will get scholarships that come in from the community, even nationally. If there is something we need to provide to our students, we will also make it easily available in Naviance.”
The counselor then goes on to state that Naviance, a website/application used to help students reach their goals by developing skills critical for college, career, and life, is the best way to go about applying for/finding scholarships. Komschlie’s communicates that in Naviance there’s a place in there for scholarships searches. From there, the student will be able to find what’s available right now, how to access this, and is it for me? You can apply through the links that are provided. It should also be noted that he mentions Remind, an app that some students use to hear about new scholarships that are published on their by the school’s CCRC team.
For grants, you have to do a bit more digging. Federal grants are owned by the federal government and are one of the leading issuers of student grants. This includes FSEOG, TEACH, Iraq and Afghanistan service, and Pell grants.

Is there a specific way to win a grant/scholarship?
“Every scholarship is going to be different.” A couple sentences later he remarks, “What we suggest for students is that the people with the most scholarship money are going to be those who don’t have a lot of money financially, they have a high GPA, they take very hard classes, and they’re very involved in our community. Short of that, it could be everybody else,” he expresses. Either that or have a killer essay.

Are there any age/grade requirements to get a scholarship?
Komschlies states, “It all depends on every scholarship.” All scholarships are different. They fit whatever guidelines the group awarding the money decides upon. “There’s some [scholarships] that kids who are 9-12 can get, sometimes just 12, sometimes even just 11 graders.” It all varies.

Any scholarship recommendations that are open right now?
To sum up the statement, Komschlies says yes, look in Naviance. He suggests that if you want to know more information on scholarships that Naviance didn’t provide, check in with the CCRC center and ask about it.

Colleges are tough. Even thinking the topic brings around half of high schoolers to stress. People in college are stressing about it too. It is an unrealistic goal to pay over $20,000 a year, for four years, for a college degree. It’s unrealistic to pay half of that. Grants and scholarships are a way to help with that unrealistic-ness. Away to relieve that burden of money, if you will. That said, here are some scholarships finders that Google suggested:
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/scholarship-search
https://www.scholarships.com/
https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Training/find-scholarships.aspx