Many students sometimes stop in their tracks when applying for scholarships to wonder if it is the right decision. This is especially the case in a world where very few students get full-ride scholarships. The thing is scholarships are financial aids that are given to students to pursue their academic ambitions, normally at a higher level of learning. Scholarships are not only useful to students, but also to the general public. Jeremy Schulman and other philanthropists understand the importance of scholarships to the society and that is why every year, they pour millions of dollars into different scholarships around the country. In this article, I will be looking at the benefits of scholarships to the general public.
Scholarships make education easier to access
The first role that scholarships serve is to make education more accessible, especially to gifted students from poorer backgrounds. Student debt has been growing gradually but steadily in the United States over the years and as of 2018, the average student debt stood at $29, 800. This debt is very high and it guarantees that gifted students from poor backgrounds can’t access higher education. It is not a good thing for a student to have their education limited because they have low household income. Scholarships help us get academics, doctors, engineers, scientists, and lawyers just to name but a few. Having more people from these professionals makes the society in general better because members of the public can now access the services that they offer.
Students that win scholarships can access extensive support
Receiving a scholarship normally extends beyond just getting a healthy bank balance. The various learning institutes that have students learning on scholarships help them to make sure that they get the most out of the money they receive. This doesn’t mean that colleges babysit scholars and curtail their spending. It is never anything like that. What it means is that students who receive scholarships can benefit from the guidance and mentorship that colleges offer to them with the aim of helping them spend the money they receive in scholarship better. This helps to set the foundation for better money management. The society benefits because it gets a person with good money management skills.
Scholarships help you network
Scholarships are usually not awarded to individual students, but rather to groups of students across the country. When a student receives a scholarship, they get the chance to network with other students from different walks of life who have also received the same scholarship. Sometimes such students become good friends for life. As a freshman, a student who wins a scholarship gets the chance to maintain a relationship with sophomores and seniors who have studying on the same scholarship. Thus, at the time of graduation, the student will already have contacts in the industry and this can be of a lot of help when it comes to landing a job. a society can benefit a lot from a well-networked individual like that.