Which scholarships are worth your time
Students who apply send about five applications and win two of them. Almost none of those wins are the famous ones.
Written by The Sidequest team. Reviewed 2026-09-05.
- 5
- Scholarships the average applicant applies for
- 2
- How many they win
- 1 in 700
- The odds at the biggest national one
Scholarships have a reputation for impossible odds, and that reputation comes from about five contests. The biggest national one took 107,000 applications last year and picked 150 people.
The money students win comes from far smaller pools: their own college, their own state, and groups in their own town. Sending five of those and winning two is the ordinary result, not a lucky one.
So the question was never whether to bother. It is which pile your hours go in.
Of the students who won something last year, who gave it to them. Plenty won from more than one.
- Their own college59%
- The state or local government35%
- A community group, a nonprofit, or a company33%
And what one win is worth in each of the three.
- From the college$7,950
- From the state$3,090
- From a community group or a company$2,747
Money from the college itself
Best odds and the biggest amounts, and usually there is no extra application.
Most of it is decided by the application you already sent to the college and by the government aid form you already filed. Some colleges have one more form of their own, and it is the best paid hour in this list.
The way to get more of this is not a better essay. It is your college list: apply somewhere your grades put you near the top of their intake.
Your state grant
One form, about $3,000 a year, and you have already started it.
State grants come out of the same FAFSA, sometimes with a short state form behind it. Around a third of students who won anything won this.
Most states pay it only at colleges inside the state. That is worth knowing before you decide where to apply, not after.
Local and community awards
The best return on an hour of work anywhere on this page.
A hometown foundation, a church, a union, a service club, the company a parent works for. The average win is under $3,000, which is why people skip them, and the pool is often a few dozen people from your own town, which is why they should not.
Two in five students who applied for anything heard about it from someone at their high school. The counselor's office keeps the local list. Asking for it is the whole first step.
The big national names
About one student in seven hundred wins, and each application takes hours to write.
Somebody does win them, and $20,000 is real money, so one of them is worth sending if you have done something genuinely unusual. Ten of them is a month you could have spent on the smaller awards near you, where the same month wins two.
Entries that need no essay
A minute of work, and the winner is picked at random.
You hand over your details, there is no essay, and a winner gets drawn. It costs almost nothing, so entering is not a mistake. It is just not a plan.
How to spend ten hours
This is how to divide the hours.
One evening on the FAFSA, the government aid form, in October.
One hour on the college's own aid forms, for each college on your list.
Six hours on the local list from the counselor's office. That is ten small applications, most of them reusing one essay.
Two hours on one national one, if you have a story only you have.
Whatever time is left on the scholarships that need no essay at all.
Questions people ask
- How many should I apply for?
- Ten local ones beats one national one. Students who applied sent about five and won about two.
- Is it worth applying if my family earns a lot?
- Yes. The biggest pile on this page is money colleges use to compete for students, and that is not tied to income.
- Do I have to write a new essay for every one?
- No. Most local applications ask the same three things. Write one strong page about something you made or did, then cut it to each length.
- I won one. Does my college take it off my aid?
- It might. Report it, and ask the financial aid office which part of your offer they reduce. How that works is the other guide.
Where these numbers come from
- How many scholarships students apply for, how many they win, who gave it to them, and what each was worth: Sallie Mae and Ipsos, How America Pays for College 2026. Checked 2026-09-05.
- The odds and the award at the largest national scholarship: Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, 2026 class. Checked 2026-09-05.
- What colleges hand out compared with everything outside them: College Board, Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2025. Checked 2026-09-05.
Go find out what you are aiming at
Money questions get easier once you know what you are chasing. Spend a day inside a career and see whether you want a second one.