How to Find Online College Scholarships
If you’re wondering how to find online college scholarships, you’ve come to the right place. Online college scholarships are plentiful, as many traditional scholarships are also open to online and distance learning students. We’ll also list four scholarships offered exclusively to online students, and that’s not counting the scholarships offered by online universities themselves. We’ll also outline another way to get a full tuition scholarship at one of several online colleges.
1. Check out these four college scholarships available exclusively to online students.
Most scholarships are also open to online students as long as the university is accredited, but here we’ll just take a look at four scholarships that only accept applications from online students. Let’s take a look.
eLearners Scholarship
This $1,000 scholarship asks you to write a 250-word essay on learning online, and they also have another scholarship for veterans who are working on online degrees. The essay prompt is, “How has choosing an online college enabled you to finish your education?”
They review applications will be “for originality and creativity”, identify the best applications, and choose the winner or winners.
Get Educated Online College Scholarship Program
This is another $1,000 scholarship program which chooses winners “based on both merit and financial aid need”. It asks for a 500-word essay on “What an Online College Degree Means to Me”. Like the eLearners scholarship, this one is available to students studying online.
Learn.org Online Bachelor’s Degree Scholarship
The Learn.org scholarships are only worth $500, but they make up for it by offering three different scholarships. One is for students in an associate’s degree program, one for those earning a bachelor’s degree, and (you guessed it) another scholarship for master’s students.
Unicaf Scholarship Programme
This unique program allows people from all the world to earn online degrees from several universities in the United Kingdom, and also through University of California – Riverside Extension. While the application process is more involved, the potential amount of the scholarship is also much higher than the $500-$1,000 scholarships offered by these other groups.
Study.com Undergraduate Distance Learning Degrees Academic Scholarships
Last and perhaps least is this $500 scholarship from Study.com. One scholarship is given annually to a student in an online associate’s or bachelor’s program. An essay on how you will use your degree is part of the application process. Applicants are judged solely on academic history, extracurricular activities, and overall applications. Financial need is not considered in the final selection.
Well there you have it. Four scholarships that only online college students can apply for, and that you can use at a variety of online universities. For a guide on how to find scholarships that are a good match for you, you can read our article on the best scholarship search engines right here.
Still, these aren’t enough to foot your entire college bill, so let’s get to part two of how to find online college scholarships.
2. Look Into Scholarships Offered by Your Online College
If you’ve already narrowed your online college decision down to two or three universities, check their websites or talk with an admissions counselor to see what scholarships they offer. Brick-and-mortar universities will usually have similar scholarships available to online students, and sometimes online-specific scholarships as they try to grow their online programs.
Online-only universities also offer scholarships. Western Governors University, for example, offers over 50 different scholarships! Most of these awards range from $2,500 to $10,000. Scholarships and grants offered by specific universities are usually much less competitive than private scholarships, so you’re much more likely to end up with scholarship money by checking directly with your university.
3. Research Local Scholarships
Local scholarships have the benefit of less competition, and they’re not too hard to find. We’d write more, but we’ve already explained the process in this article on eight ways to find all of the local scholarships available near you. If you’re a nontraditional student, you can still contact a local high school counselor to ask for scholarship information, and checking with the library is a good second step.
Many of these local scholarships will be happy to cover online college expenses as long as you’re pursuing an accredited degree, so be sure to look into what’s available in your city, county, and state.
4. Consider Working Part-Time to Receive a Full Tuition Scholarship
You read that right. While many companies offer some level of tuition reimbursement, we’ve found four companies that cover 100% of tuition for part-time employees! The partnership between Starbucks and Arizona State University (online) is perhaps the most famous example, but we actually prefer the programs offered by three other big employers. You can read all about it here, and while it sounds too good to be true, it’s actually, well, true!
Best yet, these are major employers with locations throughout America, so you’ll likely be able to find a job nearby with one of them if you so choose. For a full-tuition scholarship, it’s not a bad price to pay.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this article on how to find online college scholarships! We’ve got much more information on how to fund your college education, and you can check out our scholarships page for the latest articles.