Academic Scholarships

Alison Plaut
By
Updated on December 17, 2024
The best academic scholarships can help you to pay for college. Find ways to graduate with less debt with these 30-plus scholarships.

Are you ready to discover your college program?

You’ve rocked your classes, nailed your test scores, and rounded it all out with a great combination of extracurricular activities. Well done.

You’ve excelled as a student and you plan to do the same in college. Since you’re obviously pretty sharp, we won’t waste your time explaining why an academic scholarship or merit scholarship would be helpful. Clearly, you can do the math: free scholarship money = more affordable college experience.

You are probably already aware of the scholarship opportunities unique to your college(s) of choice. Perhaps you were even moved to make your final college selection based on a generous merit-based scholarship award.

Or perhaps you’re an excellent student who has chosen an alternative path to higher education, the kind that might not provide obvious scholarship opportunities to even the best students.

In either case, there is still a vast world of scholarship opportunities open to you. As with anything in life, all you have to do is ask—or apply. From small cash prizes to big money bounties, your academic excellence is worth a few bucks. As always, your eligibility may vary from one opportunity to the next.

Of course, because these are merit-based scholarships, you should have some merits. If you are considering an academic scholarship, you should have:

  • Awesome grades
  • A class rank in the top five to ten percent of your graduating class
  • A strong extracurricular resume
  • Recognition from national scholar organizations, honor societies, and other prominent academic groups
  • A ton of stamina

That last one is critical, because no matter who you are, you should plan to fill numerous applications. You may be a great candidate, but so are a lot of other students. If you’re seeking a merit-based scholarship, you’ll be competing with the best of the best. You’ll need to bring your “A” game, of course. But you’ll also need to improve your odds by submitting applications for as many scholarships as you think might apply to you.

That said, we invite you to read on to view the ever-growing list of active academic scholarship opportunities.

As you proceed, note that deadlines pass and new opportunities emerge. If a deadline for one of the opportunities below has passed, come back and visit in a few weeks for updates and changes. And if you see anything out of place or are aware of any scholarship opportunities we might have missed, let us know. And of course, good luck in your search!

Find the opportunity that makes the most sense for you and apply today. The process of whittling down the price tag on your college education begins here:

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