This year, Utah Tech University has partnered with Scholarship Universe to help students find scholarships easier and help alleviate the stress of finding credible ones on their own.
Joni Hale, associate director of scholarships, said: “One of the biggest complaints we get every year is ‘I don’t know where to find anything. I don’t know what I qualify for.'”
The financial aid office has tried to receive the funding for this program for a while, and this year, they received it. External scholarships are available now; however, internal scholarships will be available on the program starting Jan. 1.
Jenna Day, a sophomore elementary education major from Riverside, California, qualified for almost 20 scholarships in a few minutes through Scholarship Universe.
Day said, “It helps to figure out what scholarships I can get money-wise because we don’t have money for college, so it helps to see what specific scholarships can be given to an individual.”
Scholarship Universe was created by a company called Ellucian. They are a company dedicated to success in education globally and there are many programs on the website in pursuit of this goal.
A student needs to answer some questions for these scholarships to show up on the site, which takes minutes for them to start to appear.
The more questions are filled out, the more potential scholarships are matched. The questions that the program asks cover a wide range of topics. Examples of questions are:
- Interests
- Year in school
- GPA
- Family in the military
- Major and minor(s)
- Clubs or organizations that the student is involved in
Alicia Roberts, scholarship adviser, said: “It’s a lot different than students having to go out and try to search on their own for opportunities because it links external scholarships on there, not just institutional scholarships. It’ll allow them to search in one place for both of those opportunities.”
The answers to the questions determine the scholarships you qualify for because each scholarship has a list of requirements that match the answers. If you meet each requirement, the scholarship will show up on your account. Each scholarship that shows up has the due date to apply, the amount it is worth, a brief description listed and links to the website to apply.
“Each time you answer more questions, you get more options based on whatever superfluous answers you’ve given,” Hale said. “A student’s not going to see a scholarship they don’t qualify for.”
The scholarships on Scholarship Universe are all safe for students and have been checked for scams. This eliminates the possibility of receiving a virus or having private information stolen.
The link to apply to Scholarship Universe is on the financial aid website and is available to all students. It is an easily accessible option for students looking to save money on college and helps alleviate some of the financial stress paying for it can bring.
