Scholarships, like grants, never need to be repaid. While grant availability is almost exclusively determined by financial need, scholarship availability is based on a number of factors, including grades, talents, ethnicity, and sometimes financial need. As requirements for eligibility vary widely between different scholarships, and as the receipt of scholarships can reduce your college-induced financial stress, it's worth taking the time to investigate what scholarships are available.

Institutional Scholarship Programs
Many schools maintain substantial scholarship programs, often funded by alumni or different community groups. While many of these target a certain kind of individual (for instance, scholarships for female athletes), some are broader. Check with your school's financial aid office for more details about their scholarship program.

Corporate Awards
Funded by both small businesses and major corporations, these scholarships can often be very lucrative. They are competitive and frequently carry specific requirements for eligibility, including age and academic achievement.

Community Service Awards
If you have volunteered your time for the needs of community, you should investigate the many service-oriented scholarships that are available. Community service scholarships have different requirements--a certain number of community service hours a year or active participation in specific areas, such as heath-care.

Essay Contests
If you have writing talent, entering an essay contest might be well worth your time. The topics of essay contests vary widely, depending on the funding organization. Topics include feminism, liberalism, and disabilities. The key is finding a topic about which you can write a passionate, convincing, and thoughtful essay.

Other Scholarships
The number and variety of scholarships available to students is astounding, offering possibilities for all kinds of students, not only the straight-As and/or athletes. There are scholarships available to those who communicate using Morse code; scholarships for great-grandsons or granddaughters of a Confederate soldier; as well as scholarships for those who are short, tall, fat, or left-handed.

Scholarships Around the U.S., a valuable resource for researching college scholarships, provides information about the 1.3 million scholarships, worth approximately $3 billion, available each year.