The deadline to apply for scholarships is quickly approaching with fewer than two months left in the semester. The deadline to apply for more than 550 available scholarships is Dec. 15.
Each December, Tennessee Tech accepts scholarship applications and awards scholarships based on the criteria for the following school year. All students are encouraged to apply, regardless of major.
“All students have to do is fill out one application for all 550 scholarships offered,” said Laura Ezell, scholarship manager at Tech. “We tell students on average the process should take about 30 minutes to fill out their application.”
Though the average process should take roughly 30 minutes, it can take longer if the scholarship a student applies for requires more information, such as essays or letters of recommendations. After filling out the application, the database will match a student’s application based on their eligibility for each scholarship.
“The system will then match a student based on a number of questions asked about the student, such as major, personal characteristics they listed, personal employment, greek organizations and many others,” said Ezell.
After answering questions on the application, it will determine which scholarships an applicant will be able to receive. The Office of Scholarship will then select the recipients who met the scholarship requirements.
“For most scholarships, after we receive which applicants are able to receive certain scholarships, they are sent out to the departments,” said Ezell. “The departments will then review the candidates based on the students, and their major, who are eligible for the scholarship.”
After being selected for a scholarship, the student will receive a letter or email depending on what the department chooses. After receiving the notification of being awarded the scholarship, the student needs to log back on to ScholarWeb to either accept or decline the award.
Although Tech offers more than 550 scholarships to current and incoming students, many might not think they are applicable because of their GPA.
“Some scholarships in the system do not look at a student’s GPA in order to qualify for the scholarship,” said Ezell. “Also if a student doesn’t have the HOPE scholarship, they will still be able to qualify since HOPE is a funding through a different program.”
Students also need to fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form because some of the scholarships offered are based on financial aid as one the criterion.
“We know that students cannot fill out the FAFSA form until January so as long as you have the form filled out by the FAFSA deadline, which is March 1, you can still qualify,” said Ezell.
All students, whether they are undergraduate, graduate or international students, should apply for scholarships.
Ezell also encourages all students to reapply every year since there might be new scholarships that have been recently added for which they may be eligible.
