ISTS

Scholarships

Scholarship programs are the most common way of awarding money to students for educational purposes. Scholarship programs range in size from small, local awards that generally have between 1-10 winners and offer between $50-$1,000 per year to large, national programs that can offer several hundred awards between $1,000 – $10,000 each.

Many businesses and offer scholarships to employees and associations often have programs for members and their children. Gift-giving organizations believe scholarship programs are a great way to support their communities and specifically local students and schools. Some programs focus on diversity, and try to meet the needs of underprivileged applicants. College financial aid offices manage the scholarship programs for their respective schools, mostly comprised of endowed scholarships.

Companies offer scholarships or employees and their children, to strengthen community relations, for corporate recruitment and to build marketing and brand awareness. Scholarship management companies like ISTS increase the objectivity and enhance the credibility of the application and selection processes.

For most organizations, however, the burden of the administrative workload associated with a scholarship program is a challenge. ISTS offers full-service scholarship program management and creates peace of mind for scholarship providers that choose to use our services. Some organizations opt to hire expensive temporary staff to offset the additional workload before learning about the option to outsource. ISTS can save these organizations an average of $140 A DAY!

The most common types of scholarships are:

Need-based Scholarships: Some ISTS clients offer awards based on the financial need of the student’s family. Federal awards require applicants fill out a FAFSA to qualify, however, many private need-based scholarships also require a FAFSA and may include expected family contribution and cost of attendance in their calculation of total need.
Merit-based Scholarships: Some ISTS clients offer awards based on demonstration of academic, artistic, or other ability and may include community service involvement and other extracurricular activities. Some companies, most colleges and universities and philanthropic organizations like foundations most commonly give these types of awards for exceptional standardized test scores and academic achievement.
Student-specific Scholarships: Some ISTS clients offer awards for which applicants must initially qualify based on gender, race, religion, family and medical history, or endless other potential factors. Check out the “Unusual Suspects” section of ScholarUp, Our Monthly Guide to Scholarships and College Life, for some wild examples of these types of programs.
Career-specific Scholarships: Some ISTS clients offer awards to students pursuing a specific field of study. Current high-need industries like education or nursing are seeing a particular surge in these types of awards. Nursing students are in high demand, and many schools will give future nurses full scholarships to enter the field, especially if the student intends to work in a high-need community.
Local scholarships are typically available in every community. Information about these programs can be found by asking teachers, guidance counselors and school administrators and by conducting online research for local organizations and clubs. Generally, local awards are less competitive since only applicants that live in the community are eligible.