You’re doing it! You’re applying to colleges! Congratulations on taking this major step in your education. Those with a college education tend to get higher-paying jobs, and college graduates often have more general knowledge which enhances their quality of life.
Whether you’re a first-generation college student or one of many in your family, it’s a major choice and achievement to make. So, you should be proud. But you also might be looking at some of those tuition prices and feeling nervous. How can you hope to pay for all of this on your own?
Through easy scholarships, loans, work-study opportunities, and grants you don’t have to! You can figure out the best way to pay for college.
What Is a Scholarship?
There are lots of ways to figure out how to pay for college, but one of the most commonly used is the scholarship. A scholarship is an opportunity where your institution or another entity offers to pay for some or all of your educational expenses.
Scholarships can be offered through competitions, sweepstakes, essay entries, or even based on your previous accomplishments. There are many ways to earn a scholarship from your institution or the government, but this list will focus on scholarships from outside entities.
Benefits and Drawbacks to Easy Scholarships
The benefit of scholarships that are easy to apply to is that you can apply to a lot in a short period of time. You increase the number of scholarships you have a chance of winning with very little effort on your part.
On the other hand, because they’re easy to apply to, a lot of people are applying to them. So that decreases your chance of winning as opposed to some scholarships which require a long essay to enter for a chance at them.
Have no fear though! There are some scholarships on this list that only some students will be eligible for. And others require you to engage with something that may already be an interest of yours. These will have smaller applicant pools which help your chances.
1. Course Hero $4k College Giveaway
This scholarship rewards you for the excellent classwork you’ve been doing all along instead of for writing a brand new essay. All you have to do to have a chance at winning is take good notes during your high school career.
To enter, make an account with Course Hero. Then, upload your class notes, study guides, well-received essays, and other test prep materials from courses you’ve completed. Tag them with the name of the course and the teacher, and viola! You’ve applied for a $4,000 scholarship.
Every 10 documents you upload gives you one entry into the sweepstakes for the scholarship. So the more you upload, the better your chances are of winning. You keep uploading through your college career so that every year you have a chance at knocking some dollars off of your tuition. Plus, you’ll get to know that you’re helping other ambitious students like yourself succeed!
2. $2,000 “No Essay” College Scholarship
This easy, no essay scholarship comes with a big reward. The winner can use the $2,000 towards any aspect of their education including housing and books. A winner is announced each month and you can reapply every month, so there’s no shortage of chances to win.
It isn’t just for college either! You can apply for this scholarship as a high school student, college student, graduate school student, or if you’re planning on attending any of those institutions in the next twelve months. If you’re under 18, you must have a parent or guardian’s consent to enter.
All it takes is a small survey of information about you (nothing too personal) and you’re entered! Set a reminder on your calendar app to remember to re-enter every month so that you never miss a chance to apply for scholarships through Niche.
3. $2,000 Nitro College Scholarship
Like some of the other college scholarships on this list, this scholarship is part of a sweepstakes and requires no essay to enter. You have until November 30, 2021, to enter for a chance to win. Winners will be announced on December 31, 2021. So what are you waiting for! Enter your information for a chance to win.
What’s unique about this scholarship opportunity? Like many other scholarships you can apply as a current college student or as a high senior, but even if you’ve already finished college there’s reason to enter. This prize money is eligible to pay back student loans after graduation. The best part? That deal includes loans from your own parents!
So if you’re parents paid for your college education, and you’ve been planning on paying them back you can use this scholarship to take a big chunk out of what you owe them. There’s no limit on how long ago you have graduated from college to be eligible for this scholarship.
4. $10,000 Scholarship Points Scholarship
This is one of the largest prizes for a no essay scholarship we’ve ever seen! Again, there’s no essay required. All you need to do is sign up for the website and you’ll automatically be entered.
The big $10,000 prize is announced quarterly, but they also have a drawing for a $1,000 prize every month. So, be sure that you’re regularly checking in and signing up every single month. You don’t want to miss out on 36 total opportunities to win scholarship money from this source. Set a reminder on your phone to reapply every month while you’re a student! It’s quick and easy and so worth it.
5. Tallo “Let’s Talk Social” Scholarship
Are you a social media fiend? Or do you find it uninteresting? Do you have a very specific viewpoint on social media that you think could help in a survey setting? Or do you even think we should stop making surveys about social media?
No matter what your answers to those questions were, your feedback is valuable! Create an account with Tallo and answer their survey questions about your social media usage. Your answers won’t count against you in any way. The only requirement to be eligible for this $1,000 scholarship is to answer the questions honestly.
They ask about things like the amount of time you spend on social media, which are your favorite social media, what you use it for, and if you find it distracting. You’ll even be asked if it’s positively impacted your studying habits in any way. You probably won’t even have to think very hard about the answers to these questions, so it couldn’t be easier to create an entry and win!
6. $2,500 Christian Connector Scholarship
Has your faith played a significant role in your decision-making for college? If it has, you could be rewarded for that.
The eligibility for this scholarship includes intending to attend a Christian college or university. They have a list of schools that they are affiliated with if you’re unsure if your choice of college counts. But if you’re school is a member of the CCCU, NACCAP, or ABHE, you can be assured already that it does.
Unfortunately, students already enrolled at a Christian college are not eligible to apply. It can also only be used towards tuition, unlike some scholarships which go directly to the student and can be used for anything education-related. This scholarship is sent directly to the school and taken off the student’s tuition costs.
To apply, answer questions about your eligibility including your intent to attend a Christian institution, your graduation year, and some information about your education up to this point.
7. Hustle Tech and Business News No-Essay Scholarship
If you like to stay up on current events and know about the latest tech, you can turn your interest into an easy way to apply for scholarships.
For this scholarship, you’ll sign up for the newsletter Hustle. Every day you’ll receive quick news updates about the latest tech and business information.
Then, the more you engage with the newsletter, the stronger your application for the scholarship will be. Share the newsletter with your friends, and invite them to sign up themselves. Open the newsletter every day and spend time reading it. Give feedback about how you’re using the news to advance your education, hobbies, and career.
The earlier you apply the better because while this scholarship has a rolling entry, the more engagements you make with the newsletter the better. And you’ll want plenty of time to make the most engagements possible. So don’t wait! Sign up and start reading and sharing now!
8. Next College Athlete No-Essay Scholarship
Kill two birds with one stone when you sign up for NCSA (Next College Student Athlete). If you’ve been trying to get recruited by coaches as a college athlete, this service will sign you up for the largest college athlete recruitment network and automatically put you in the running for a $1,000 scholarship.
Like Hustle Tech and Business News, the more you engage the more likely you are to be awarded this scholarship. Again, you’ll want to apply sooner rather than later so that you can show NCSA how useful their network has been to you. They’ll be choosing out of the students who connect with coaches and use all that the platform has to offer.
9. WayUp Dream Job No-Essay Scholarship
Get a headstart on finding your dream career before you even start college! WayUp is the leading source for college students and recent grads to find their dream internships and jobs.
When you have a WayUp account you get access to a database of millions of jobs and internships, 300,000 employers, and easy in-app applications and status reports.
Now you get all that and more because WayUp offers a scholarship for students who create an exceptional candidate profile and use that profile to apply to a large amount of WayUp opportunities.
If you’re a graduate student, you’re eligible too! Plus, you’ve probably got years of experience on WayUp to help you stand out among the rest. Just give your profile a little update to make sure it looks the absolute best that it can.
A winner of $1,000 will be announced in June 2022, but how can you see this as a loss even if you aren’t that winner? You’ll still find yourself with more job opportunities than before. How cool would it be to enter college with an internship already lined up? You’ll be way ahead of the game.
10. $1,500 Do-Over Scholarship
This scholarship does require an essay, but that doesn’t mean it’s not easy. It’s such a stimulating question and the word count is so small that you can probably finish it in less than half an hour. Plus, you’ll get to do some great self-reflection which can only be a good thing as you move toward that next big stage of your life – college.
The essay question is about something you wish you could go back and change; probably a mistake you’ve made in your life. It asks how you would change it and how your life would be different today if you could. Share how you’ve learned from your mistake and how mature you’ve grown before you begin your college career.
Easy Scholarships for Different Strengths
Whether you want to just put your name into a bunch of sweepstakes, or if you want to engage with sites that are already on your radar anyway, or if you want to write a quick essay with meaning to you, you can find easy scholarships to apply for. They’ll make your college expenses easier so that you can focus on the really important part of your studies; learning!
Curious about other ways to handle your college tuition? Check out our other articles on the subject!