By Cassie Dugan
<[email protected]>

Eleven thousand dollars. That’s 27 Gucci purses. That’s seven plasma HD televisions. That’s a used Volkswagen Beetle. However, for senior Joseph Helou, that $11,000 is his cumulative scholarship money for college.

Helou, who is attending Indiana University next school year, said he’s lost count of how many scholarships he has applied for, but that it has reached the dozens.

“I’ve been awarded one IU scholarship that kicks in automatically based on your SAT/ACT scores,” Helou said. “I also have been awarded another scholarship from the honors program at IU.”

But aside from these two, Helou said he had to search for the remainder of his scholarship opportunities. The Internet was a helpful tool in finding such additional financial aid.

Helou said, “Almost all of my scholarships were found and submitted online. For two of them I had to fax some papers, but besides that all of them were online.”

Tanna Hanger, college adviser in the College and Career Resource Center, said the Internet has evolved into an extraordinarily useful way to seek and submit college scholarships.

“The Internet is a great way to search for (scholarships). It eliminates the paper and time. The information you need and the actual application are right there at your fingertips,” Hanger said. “You can send your applications online and really that is how most of them are done now.”

More traditional scholarships, such as those awarded for high GPA and standardized test scores, can be found easily both online and in print sources. However, the more “off-beat” scholarships are more exclusively found on the Internet.

An example of such a scholarship is the Duck Brand Duct Tape Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest. This contest invites students to design a prom dress and tuxedo made from duct tape. The best entry can win up to $12,000 in scholarship money.

Not a duct tape person? That’s fine. Sheep USA offers $1,000 to any student who can successfully and creatively construct an outfit consisting completely of wool.

Other non-academic scholarship opportunities that may be considered “strange” include having the ability to speak Klingon from “Star Trek,” being a member of the National Rifle Association and writing an essay about fire sprinklers for the American Fire Sprinkler Association.

Hanger said although sometimes these “off-beat” scholarships may not come in large sums of money, applying for multiple ones can really add up, especially in this economy.

“Ask yourself questions. Ask yourself what special abilities you have. Ask ‘Do I have any disabilities or am I a minority?’” Hanger said. “A good way to find the more random ones is to just Google them. I like to call those ‘looking outside of the box scholarships.’”

Guidebooks and other information about scholarships are openly available in the CCRC located in the counseling office. Hanger added that collegeboard.com and fastweb.com are two Web sites that prove beneficial in the search process.

Helou said he took advantage of both online resources and the CCRC in his search for scholarships. He added that by using both of these he was able to find and submit scholarship applications that suited him best.

“The best thing to do is to go to those Web sites and get details. Then call the toll-free number. Just know that because you don’t have the highest GPA doesn’t mean there aren’t scholarships available,” Hanger said. “The scholarship search can be just as important as the college search.”

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NOT SO COMMON SCHOLARSHIPS

• Having a Confederate ancestor who fought in the Civil War
• Being an amateur radio lover
• Making a duct tape prom dress and tuxedo
• Making the best wool outfits
• Speaking Klingon from “Star Trek”
• Being tall (over 6’2’’ for males and over 5’10’’ for females)
• Playing the bagpipes
• Skateboard and have above a 2.5 GPA
• Writing an essay about fire sprinklers
• Being overweight in New England

STUDENTS-SOURCE.COM / SOURCE