Become a Scholarship Detective in Four Easy Steps

Still figuring out how to pay for your post-secondary education? Of $70 million available in scholarship funds in Canada, about $7 million goes unclaimed because students don’t know how to find them.

Humber College offers a number of scholarships and bursaries to eligible students – and there are other places to track down funding as well.

Follow these tips to find the scholarship that’s right for you:
- Start with your school. Most post-secondary institutions offer scholarships based on academic merit, and many also offer funds based on other criteria. For example, at Humber, you can get a bursary if you’re a first-generation student, or if you’re an Aboriginal student.
- Check for external scholarships. Whether you’re a woman wanting to get into construction, your parents are members of the Pipe Line Contractors Association of Canada, or you went to secondary school in Hamilton, chances are good that there’s an external scholarship that suits your particular background. Humber’s website lists a wide range of external scholarships.
- Don’t pay someone to do your searching. There are scholarship websites that, for a fee, will provide you a list with scholarships you might be eligible for. Don’t waste your money – you can get this information for free. The Government of Canada’s CanLearn site and ScholarshipsCanada.com are both good places to start.
- Ask! Pick up the phone and call the financial aid office of the school you’d like to attend, and get advice from a real person. They can point you towards funding sources you probably hadn’t even thought of.

Follow these steps, and finding scholarships should become elementary.