Central Insurance
Forty million Americans collectively owe $1.2 trillion in student loan debt1. WOW! When you take a moment to think about it, it isn’t surprising with the increasing cost of tuition, supplies, textbooks, and living expenses.
One of the biggest regrets that you may have after graduating college is that you didn’t apply for enough (or any) scholarships. Unfortunately, you may be one of many students realizing how much free money is out there now that it’s too late.
You can perform a quick Google search and find many websites listing available scholarships for virtually any course of study and for everyone from single moms to grandchildren of Vietnam veterans. A great one to start with is Scholarships.com. The great thing about scholarships is that you don’t have to pay them back – no monthly payments, no fees, no interest. It’s “free” money!
If you haven’t settled on a college major, check out the blog article “An Industry Full of Opportunity”. There’s an ever-growing need for a wide variety of skills within this diverse industry and you might be surprised to learn there’s much more to it than “number crunching.”
Not only is a career in the insurance industry rewarding, there are also a great deal of scholarship opportunities available if you are looking to jump into this course of study! Here are a few websites to check out:
Griffith Insurance Education Foundation
Insurance Scholarship Foundation of America
You can also check with your local insurance agent or carrier who may offer scholarships in your area.
Applying for scholarships does take time and effort, but it ultimately pays off in the end. Thanks to several insurance scholarships, I was able to drastically decrease my college costs, focus on my academics, and gain valuable experiences.
Have you been the recipient of a scholarship? Please share how it benefited you!
1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
I did multiple website research for scholarships including the scholarships.com and fastweb.com. I spent hours on this and found that the majority of these scholarships are national and my daughter didn’t qualify for any of them or you had to obviously take a lot of time to write essays or perform projects and submit your information. It became quite overwhelming. She had to be in great financial need, have a major story to tell, be of a certain ethnic background, certain grades, or organized a major fundraiser. When you are competing nationally it is that much harder. My daughters money came from the school for her grades or local scholarships and even the local scholarships you have to be practically perfect. I personally found the national websites were useless. If you take the time to do it I guess the money is out there, but I thought I did do the research and took the time and it didn’t result in money for us.
Kim, thanks for your feedback. Yes, the national scholarships do require more attention. Starting at the local level is always a good first-step to get familar with the process.
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