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You are here: UHMC » Educational Opportunity Center » Scholarship Tips

◊Educational Opportunity Center


 

Scholarship Tips

  • Scholarships are competitive, widely available, and another source of college funding. It does require the most effort, but once you’ve mastered it, it can be another source of college funding.
  • Expect to spend a minimum of six hours on the project to start. It takes about 15 minutes to complete a scholarship application, two hours to create a personal statement, two hours to complete a FAFSA or CSS profile, and two hours to solicit and gather your letters of recommendation.
  • Once you’ve assembled your first scholarship packet, future scholarship applications will go quickly. You can often reuse your personal statement (sometimes with a little editing to meet new scholarship criteria), your letters of recommendation, and your FAFSA.
  • The financial aid season begins in January with the release of the next academic year’s FAFSA, college applications, and many major scholarship applications. The majority of scholarships have an early-March deadline so they can award students by June.
  • You must follow directions and complete everything required of a scholarship to be eligible. If the scholarship packet is submitted with missing information it can be considered incomplete and set aside without consideration.
  • Most scholarship applications are available on-line.  Be sure to complete all of the required forms and submit required documents by the specified deadlines for consideration.  If an application is incomplete, it will not be reviewed.

    • A scholarship packet may include:

    • A personal or goal statement
    • Two or three letters of recommendation
    • A personal financial statement (usually the FAFSA or CSS Profile)
    • Official transcripts of college or high school work
    • For native Hawaiian scholarships, birth certificates with proof of ethnicity
    Need help? Contact Us.

    Types of Scholarships

    There are two major types of scholarships. Institution-based scholarships are available only to students at a particular institution. State and national scholarships are more competitive and open to a larger pool of students.
    At UH Maui College, all current scholarships are listed on a bulletin board at the Educational Opportunity Center and on-line at EOC’s Scholarship Listing. Once you’ve selected the scholarships you are eligible for, you may get the applications from EOC or follow the links to on-line applications.
  • Institutional aid
    •
    Institutional aid includes the scholarships, tuition waivers and special loans a school offers its students. The UH Maui College/UH Foundation and other University of Hawai‘i Foundation scholarships are available on-line in January and usually due in March.
  • Private funds/scholarships
    •
    There are many private scholarships available on a local, state, or national level. They have varying criteria, deadlines, and filing requirements. There are many available for native Hawaiians and low-income students.
    Finding private scholarships requires research from as many sources as possible. This includes EOC, the internet, public libraries, newspapers, high schools, school departments, and more. Each January, EOC receives a number of privately-funded scholarship applications including the Hawai`i Community Foundation and Kamehameha Schools.
  • Completing a scholarship application
    •
    A scholarship application is just one part of a scholarship packet. In addition to the thoroughly completed application, many require the following:
  • Personal or goal statement
    •
    Personal or goal statements are the most important part of a scholarship packet. A financial aid officer at UH Manoa said that if the winner of a scholarship gets 100 points, 80 is for this statement. With that in mind, your statement needs to be perfect: no misspellings, no white out, typed, and double-spaced. Your statement should include information about who you are, what you’ve done, what you’re doing, and what you plan to do. EOC counselors are available to review your personal statement if needed.
  • Letters of recommendation
    •
    Letters of recommendation are used to verify you meet the requirements of a scholarship. If, for example, the scholarship requires financial need, academics, or community service, be sure one or more of your letters of recommendation state so. These letters should be on letterhead and written by a variety of people – a teacher, a counselor, an employer, and, if applicable, someone who can verify your community service.
  • Personal financial statement
    •
    Most scholarships require a financial statement. For many scholarships, this is the FAFSA. For others, like Kamehameha Schools, it is the CSS Financial Aid Profile. Others may have their own financial statements.
  • Assemble and submit
    •
    Once you’ve completed all parts of your application packet, assemble everything and submit by the scholarship’s deadline. If it’s late or missing data, it will normally not be reviewed.