The individuals and groups that establish scholarship funds do so for a wide variety of reasons. Most often, it is to recognise the recipient’s scholastic merit. However, other factors that qualify applicants for scholarships include intended field of study, country of origin and even such surprising things as physical disability. Donors generally wish to help students to whose needs they can relate directly.

The surprising thing is that, despite their clear advantage as a means of funding study abroad, thousands of scholarships go unclaimed – or even not applied for – every year. The reasons for this are many and not worth detailing here. The more relevant matter is how you can find out about scholarships that may be available to you.

Here are two tactics to try:

1) When you apply for admission to a university, inquire explicitly whether scholarship aide is available and, if so, how. Many scholarships are university-specific, created by the respective universities to attract types of students they find particularly desirable. Ask for a list of available scholarships for which you may apply, if one exists. Bear in mind, many universities are now as resource-challenged as the students they admit, so their admissions staffs may be too small for them to provide all the services they would like to, particularly in the area of help with financial aide. Some schools either grant available scholarships to the foreign students they admit or inform those students of scholarship aide that is available to them if they apply for it. However, if that does not happen in your case, do not assume that scholarship aide through the university is not available. Inquire politely about any available scholarships and take the responsibility of applying for them yourself.

2) Do an Internet search for scholarships. Many scholarships are not university-specific but, rather, available to qualified students attending any suitable school. Your Internet search should include the words scholarship, the country in which you intend to study and your intended field of study. If the search results do not yield the information you want, consider changing the parameters to include such things as your country of origin, e.g. “Chinese students”, or other things that pertain to your background, character, religious affiliation or physical disability.

The benefit of obtaining an art grant over a scholarship or student loan is that this is money that never has to be paid back. With a scholarship, you always lose the risk of losing your scholarship by not meeting the qualifications, and student loans have to be repaid when you graduate or are no longer a full-time student. Art grants, on the other hand, never have to be repaid, and once approved they can often be obtained over and over again.

When you search the database for your art grant, you will quickly notice that there are hundreds of other grants that you can qualify to receive. Everything from general education grants, to grants to help you pay off your credit card bills. There are thousands of grant programs, and as long as you are at least 18 years old, you can apply and qualify to receive these funds. There’s no limit on the number of programs you can submit an application to and get approved for, so your best strategy may be to cast a wide net to get the most amount of money possible

Let’s also face another reality – skipping the college education is definitely not an option! In today’s very competitive job market, having that college degree is something that is going to keep you in the race for being given that job, and without the degree, there is just too much competition to take you seriously.

College scholarship and college grants are the best way to go to lessen the major financial impact that a college education brings. Even if you can afford the costs today with a student loan, a student loan is something that needs to be paid back, even if the payback period doesn’t start until after you graduate. So with a student loan, you can get your education and get your degree, but how much help is that really going to be for you if you have $30,000 or more of debt after you graduate that you now need to start making payments on? You really don’t need that kind of pressure, especially at that point when you are looking for a job to get your career started.

But there is something that you need to be aware of that a surprising number of people are not aware of, and that is that there is a virtual ton of college scholarships and grants available to virtually anyone! With a scholarship or grant, you do not need to pay it back after you graduate. It does not get any better than that!

The very surprising fact is that there is also a truckload of college scholarships and college grants that go unawarded each year, and in some cases, every semester. There are many companies out there willing to give a scholarship or a grant but a huge number of these go unawarded for the very simple reason that nobody applied for them!

Can you get more than one scholarship or grant? Yes! The students who realize how this game is played frequently are awarded several, and in some cases, even several dozen of them. How much would it help you and allow you to focus on your college education if you knew that your tuition was taken care of, your books were taken care of, and maybe even your dorm or apartment expenses covered via a few scholarships or grants?

Note that contrary to years past, many scholarships and grants are not based solely or even primarily on financial need. If you think you make too much money to be awarded a scholarship for your son or daughter in college, think again. In many cases, all it takes is to apply for the scholarship, and if you are the only one who applies and follows their simple rules, guess who that scholarship gets awarded to? You!

If you have money coming out your back side, then this information is not for you. But if you are looking for ways to defray the high cost of a college education, you owe it to yourself to start applying for college scholarships and college grants, starting today.