When most people consider student scholarships they tend to think of scholarships as being awarded by large academic bodies and major companies and these are certainly very good sources of funding. But, they also carry one big problem and that is that competition is fierce with many thousands of applications being submitted from all across the country. It might be a great feather in your cap to get one of these scholarships but your chances of doing so are almost as good as they are of winning the lottery.

For many students a better answer would be to look for an institutional scholarship.

Just about every college will award at least one in-house (institutional) scholarship every year and many of the bigger colleges will award several, generally making scholarships available within each separate department of the college. If you are attending one of the larger colleges therefore it is possible that you may be eligible to apply for several scholarships within your own institution.

Despite the fact that institutional scholarships have been with us for a long time, surprisingly enough a reasonably low number of students tend to apply for them in comparison to the better known and well publicized national scholarship schemes. One thing to note here is that most of these scholarships will not cover the full costs of attending college and many are limited to cover only tuition fees, or to cover merely housing costs. Even so, the sums of money available are often substantial and they will certainly help considerably when paying your bills.

A lot of the larger colleges will also have departments which are dedicated solely to student financial aid, including scholarships, and will give you information about just what scholarships are available and how to go about applying for them. This can be an excellent place to start as you will be able to obtain a lot of information to point you in the right direction and help to ensure you get your application in on time. Many colleges also have internet sites that also provide information about scholarships, together with details of how to apply.

If you are aware of the application procedure for nationwide scholarships, you will find that the process for institutional scholarships is basically the same. Each scholarship does however have its own particular requirements and so you have to ensure that you read through these with care and follow the instructions to the letter. In addition, be sure to check carefully to ensure that you are eligible for any scholarship before submitting your application. Most scholarships have a list of criteria which have to be met before submitting an application and, if you are unsure, you should ask the awarding body for advice.

One of the benefits of of institutional scholarships is that, because there is less competition, you do not generally need to wait very long before finding out whether or not your application has been successful. A further benefit (although it may not seem like a benefit at the time) is that, if you are unsuccessful, you will nevertheless have gained valuable experience of the application procedure at your college and will be better prepared when it comes to making a further application in subsequent years.

Just before leaving the subject of scholarships for college it should be noted that these are only one alternative to the better known national scholarship programs. There are however many other sources of scholarship funding, not the least of which are the much overlooked credit union college scholarships.