Education is considered important, but the cost of educational programs continues to increase as students climb up the ladder. This has caused quite several students to stop their education program midway because of the lack of finances.
Scholarships are introduced to pave the way for the needy, thereby making it easy to complete an education program without incurring debts. Before you consider any scholarship option, you can stop to consider the meaning and types of scholarship, how it works, etc.
What is Scholarship?
Scholarships is a financial aid given to students with the sole aim of providing full or partial cover on education expenses. These offers are provided by both government-owned institutions and private firms, nonprofit organizations, etc.
This does not imply that everyone is entitled to enjoy scholarship offers since the sponsors of each scholarship program tend to look out for distinctive traits in students before the allocation of funds.
For example, a student can receive a scholarship award to study in his country of residence or travel abroad because of his intellect, activeness in sports programs, or other factors surrounding him such as being disabled or coming from a family of low-income earners, etc.
A student may not need to spend a penny while some scholarship program bonuses may only cover a fraction of the student’s expenses.
How Does Scholarship Work?
A large percentage of the students desire to jump on a scholarship offer, while some lawmakers, education stakeholders, and many others keep on asking for “Free education for all.”
Free education can be made possible with scholarship programs, where the sponsors can exempt the awarded students from paying any fee and may even go further to cover other personal expenses as long as they meet the set criteria by the sponsors.
In most cases, a student will be required to show his interest in receiving partial or full funding before he or she gets the financial aid. Meanwhile, some distinctive students such as best-performing students in an institution of learning are most likely to receive invites from top schools around the world like Scotland University, Yale, Harvard, the University of Cambridge and many others.
In other words, scholarship programs are often determined by the sponsor’s preference.
Types Of Scholarship Offers
There are multiple types of scholarship programs available for students in their country of residence while some scholarship offers may prompt a student to travel abroad.
Students are left with a choice to make when selecting scholarship programs. However, the following are types of scholarship offer that you are most likely to receive in your locality or abroad;
Need-Based Scholarships
This type of program is offered to students who need financial support or can’t independently sponsor themselves throughout their educational programs without resorting to lending.
These students are usually from a family of low-income earners or people from a poverty-affected state. The government and other non-governmental bodies intercede by offering funds that will assist the student while studying.
A background check may be conducted on applicants in order to ensure the right persons get to enjoy these benefits without having to resort to loans.
Scholarship On Merit
This is a type of reward program for high-performing students in order to stimulate intellectual growth among students, the basis for receiving this scholarship is determined by the student’s performance in his academics.
Students who enjoy this offer are often considered potential leaders and role models to people within or outside their society. This explains why top organizations in the world and other foundations are highly vested in these types of students while rewarding them with money that is sufficient enough for their education programs at diverse levels.
Identity-based Scholarship
This type of scholarship program only rewards people who identify with a particular ethnic group, religion, etc. This type of program is considered biased since it only seeks to help people from a particular geographic location, identify with a specific gender, etc while other discriminated students get to pay all fees.
A popular example of this can be cited where diverse religious organizations, government organizations, tech firms, etc offer people who match their set standards a chance to showcase their level of intellect, without requiring them to pay any fee or giving them a certain percentage as discounts.
Athletic Scholarships
Athletes often receive invites from various citadels of learning to showcase their skills in their desired sports skills. There exist various bodies that support these types of students with monetary funds with the hope of promoting health and fitness amongst students.
Only a small fraction of the world population receives this invitation when compared to other types of scholarship programs, but this initiative is also supported by the government, educational bodies, other organizations, etc.
Chance-Based Scholarship
This is a type of scholarship program where students are selected at random amidst a pool of other eligible students. This type of scholarship can be attributed to a spin-a-wheel or sweepstake game where the founders do not influence how students are selected.
Purpose Of Scholarship Programs
Scholarship programs are designed to promote education in the world. Although education is considered a fundamental human right in every man’s land, some people still struggle with pursuing their academic dreams due to financial constraints.
Lack of education can also induce a high poverty rate, unemployment, crime rate, etc. This explains why we have various institutions that are committed to offering grants and other types of support to students to make the world a better place.
A student who receives these types of rewards is only expected to use the money received to settle all academic-related bills. Some students who have excess funding may choose to spend their money on other personal needs, but it’s important to note that funding the awardee’s education remains the top priority.
Reasons why a Scholarship can be withdrawn
A scholarship program is not a guaranteed way of funding a student’s education, this is because the sponsors of these programs may decide to limit students from enjoying their awarded scholarship if they fail to keep up with the standard
Failure to meet up with the academic standards set by scholarship sponsors is a common example of what can cause a student to lose a scholarship program. A student who won a scholarship for displaying a high academic record is expected to maintain a high GPA in order to retain their scholarship benefits.
A student can also lose this offer if he fails to use the funding appropriately. Some institutions may constantly review the student spending in order to ascertain if they are using the fund for the purpose for which it was set, and they have full rights to withdraw their offer if the student is investing the funds in other non-academic activities.
For example, Mr. John, a Ph.D. research student, was given $60,000 to help him with his postgraduate research, but he chose to invest the money into his restaurant business rather than using it for his research work. His institution of learning or other sponsors of the program can cancel his education program and may ask him to pay back the received funds.
In conclusion, scholarship is designed for students who really need it to further their education, it is supported by various governmental and non-governmental organizations that are seeking to reduce the illiteracy rate, unemployment rate, crime rate, etc.
The condition for enjoying a scholarship program or losing it can be determined by the sponsors, and you can win or lose a scholarship judging by the set standard binding your selected scholarship program
