Are scholarships worth the effort? It depends. How much is your time worth? More than $100/hour?
Take the Gilman Scholarship as an example: imagine you spend about 7.5 hours putting together a solid application and another 2.5 hours on your project and you win a full $5,000 award. The odds of winning an award are typically about 1 in 4. For 10 hours of effort, with 25% odds, and a full $5,000 award, this would be about $125/hour (($5000 ÷ 10) × 25% = $125).
But wait! There's another consideration: how much might a scholarship save you in loans and interest? A $2,000 scholarship offsetting a $2,000 loan paid off over 10 years would save a total of about $2,650.
Now, not all scholarships have the same payoff nor do they all require the same level of effort. If you have unlimited time, you should apply for every scholarship you can. If time is limited or you are just learning about scholarships, you might need to be more strategic. The infographic to the right suggests a less-than-precise comparison of various scholarships and both their required effort and their likely payoff.
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A $2,000 award actually is worth $2,650 after loan repayments |
Below are the links for the scholarships in order of their typical deadlines for fall term with traditional awardee-to-applicant ratios:
- Boren Awards (1-to-8)
- Fund for Education Abroad (1-to-50)
- Duttenhaver Scholars Program (1-to-2)
- Gilman Scholarship (1-to-4)
- UCEAP Global Scholarships (1-to-7)
- Freeman-ASIA (1-to-6)
No matter your odds or qualifications, you will not an award if you never apply.
