Academic Scholarships and Merit Scholarships

Academic scholarships, or as they are sometimes known, merit scholarships, are basically just what you probably think they are. In order to get an academic scholarship to pay for school, you are going to need to get exceedingly good grades and, most likely, graduate in the top five to ten percent of your class. Merit scholarships are often related to academic performance, but can also be given to a candidate displaying artistic or athletic excellence or sometimes a combination thereof. It's probably safe to say that, while all academic scholarships are merit scholarships, not all merit scholarships are academic scholarships. You have a chance at winning scholarships of this nature if you’re a strong student, either generally or in your area of study, and an even better chance if you’re heavily involved in extracurricular activities.

Finding Academic Scholarships

Many merit scholarships, are offered by the colleges and universities themselves, and may require more than just academic excellence. For example, some may require you have some other honorary title or have received some other scholarships or recognition by an esteemed organization or society such as National Merit Scholarships or the National Council of Teachers of English awards. Others simply require you to get a certain score on the ACT or SAT and to graduate near the top of your class. While these are common varieties of academic scholarships, very few students qualify for large awards through their schools. Rather, most students have better luck finding money for college through private providers of academic scholarship awards.

Academic Scholarship Opportunities

As previously mentioned, academic scholarships all come with their own requirements regarding academic performance and extracurricular involvement. Merit scholarships can sometimes include a community service requirement, or demonstrated leadership potential. This may be based on your involvement in school sports or politics, for example. If you were the quarterback of the football team or captain of your basketball or gymnastics team as well as student class president, you may be more attractive to an organization that wants to bankroll the formal education of a future leader. In order to find the academic scholarship opportunities that are right for you, conduct a free college scholarship search on Scholarships.com. By completing a free profile, you will have access to scholarship information for a variety of awards for which your education and experience qualify you. Below is a list of just a few of the academic and other merit scholarships available in our database.

  • Presidential Scholars Foundation
    Every year, as many as 141 students are named Presidential Scholars, one of the Nation’s greatest honors for high school students. At the annual ceremony, the President of the United States symbolically honors each graduating high school senior of high potential. Since it was established in 1964 by executive order of President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Presidential Scholars Program has honored over 5,000 of our nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. Each year, the Presidential Scholars Program selects one male and one female student from each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Americans living abroad, 15 at-large students, and up to 20 students in the arts on the basis of outstanding scholarship, service, leadership and creativity.
  • The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation
    The Truman Scholarship provides up to $30,000 in funding to students pursuing graduate degrees in public service fields. Students must be college juniors at the time of selection. The Foundation also provides assistance with career counseling, internship placement, graduate school admissions, and professional development. Scholars are invited to participate in a number of programs: Truman Scholar Leadership Week, The Summer Institute, The Truman Fellows Program, and the Public Service Law Conference. Please visit the For Scholars section of the website for an overview of the programs the Foundation currently offers for Scholars.
  • The Rhodes Scholarship
    American Rhodes Scholars are selected through a decentralized process by which regional selection committees choose 32 Scholars each year from among those nominated by selection committees in each of the fifty states. Through 2004, applicants from more than 300 American colleges and universities had been selected as Rhodes Scholars. Graduation Intellectual distinction is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for election to a Rhodes Scholarship. Selection committees are charged to seek excellence in qualities of mind and in qualities of person which, in combination, offer the promise of effective service to the world in the decades ahead.

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