Expert Tips To Getting Awards

A post-secondary education is a big investment!

A post-secondary education is a big investment. It takes dedication, hard work and the finances. Fortunately, there are many sources of financial aid to help reduce your educational costs: government student loans (including non-repayable grants); awards (bursaries and scholarships); Registered Education Savings Plan savings (RESP); and, part-time employment.

Since awards are the most common source of financial, we want to provide you with the tips to find them.

1. 1. Ask a lot of questions. Financial Aid Professionals are paid to help students find resources, so don’t be afraid to visit or call your school’s financial aid and awards office.
2. 2. Always read the fine print. There is always a catch and all awards have their own eligibility conditions.
3. 3. Apply early. Many award deadlines happen months in advance so you will probably have to apply for awards before you even start attending classes.
4. 4. Look for external awards (aka. awards that don’t come from your school), and ask your family members if their workplace offers awards for dependents of employees. Here are three trusted external award websites:
   www.scholarshipscanada.com
   www.yconic.com
   www.aucc.ca
5. 5. Keep your resume current and write a short essay about your post-secondary and future career plans. Some scholarship applications will ask for this type of information.

Remember, spending one hour applying for an award could give you hundreds (or thousands) of dollars if you’re successful. It’s worth your time to apply.

At The King’s University, located in Edmonton, Alberta, we make applying for scholarships as simple as possible. We offer one application for all of our competitive awards, whichis due on March 31.

Learn more about The King’s University’s Scholarships at www.kingsu.ca/scholarships.