Doing What You Like: Scholarships and Favorite Hobbies

If you are planning ahead for college, you may want to think about finding a scholarship. Scholarships are an excellent way to help pay for your tuition and other expenses. The problem is that your family may make too much money for you to qualify for a need-based scholarship. There is also the chance your marks are too low for you to apply for a merit based scholarship. If you fall into either category, what can you do?

The Answer: Get a hobby

If you don’t have a hobby, you might consider getting one. Why? Because there are many different types of scholarships that are awarded to those who have specific interests outside of school. In fact, there are even scholarships dedicated towards helping those who have unusual hobbies.

While the more mainstream, popular hobbies score bigger, don’t give up if yours seems very peculiar. It just may take longer to find a group, organization or association who is offering a scholarship that matches your interest.

Diversity

Hobbies come in all forms and types. The same applies to scholarships. It is essential that you think outside the box if you are planning on going after one based on your own specialized or even generalized hobby. Consider the following possibilities:

• Activism
• Art
• Blogging
• Community involvement or service
• Crafters
• Duck calling
• Environmentalism
• Musical talent
• Poetry
• Video gaming
• Websites
• Writing

While many scholarships are offered to those in sports (in fact this is a majority category), so many others reward your creative side.

Do the work

It is important for you to understand that if you want a scholarship you have to work for it. In the case of a hobby-related scholarship, this involves searching a little harder for money sources. You need to be diligent in going through various websites devoted to scholarships. You also should talk to the groups or organizations to which you belong. They may know whether their association or other related group offers scholarships.

Remember there will be paperwork, including applications. These have due dates. You don’t want to miss them, so start in advance looking. See how other winners qualified. Make sure you qualify for the award, and take it from there.

The good thing about taking the not-so-popular or mainstream route is its less restrictive approach. Such applications tend to be more creative, so have fun with it!

Pursue a hobby, and follow your college dreams

If you decide to get into a hobby, make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. It must be more than a plan to get a scholarship. It must be something that you find enjoyable. A hobby is something that relaxes you, expands your interests and offers you something that is unique. It just so happens that you can parlay your talents and interests in this extracurricular effort to help you and your family pay for a good education.