Small outside scholarships can help, but they shouldn't be the foundation of your college funding strategy. Here's where families should focus instead.

Parents often ask me about scholarships.

And understandably so.

When college can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year, families are looking everywhere for ways to make it affordable.

But there is one scholarship strategy that can quietly consume an enormous amount of a student's time and energy without bringing them significantly closer to paying for college.

I call it the $500 scholarship trap.

The trap happens when students spend hours applying for one small outside scholarship after another—$500 here, $500 there—hoping to cobble enough of them together to pay for college.

Now, let me be clear: I am not saying that $500 scholarships are bad.

They can absolutely be helpful.

A small outside scholarship can be useful for:

• Closing a remaining funding gap
• Providing extra money for college expenses
• Reducing a balance by a few thousand dollars when combined with other awards

But they should not be the foundation of your college funding strategy.

Think about it this way: If the total cost of attendance ranges in average from $25,000 to almost $100,000, how many $500 scholarships would a student need to win to cover the cost?

And how much time would they have to spend applying for them?

The bigger question families should be asking is:

What is the likely largest source of funding?

For many students, the answer is the colleges themselves.

Many colleges have their own institutional financial aid budgets. Depending on the institution and the student's profile, that funding may come in the form of need-based financial aid, merit aid, or other institutional scholarships.

This is why I consistently say that your college list is the foundation of your college funding strategy.

Instead of waiting until after admission to scramble for scholarships, students should begin by asking:

Which colleges are likely to provide meaningful funding to a student with my academic and overall application profile?

Once you can answer that question, you can begin building a strategic list of dream/reach schools, likely schools, and safer options—with one critical consideration:

Can these schools actually provide the funding the student needs?

That changes the entire strategy.

In CFF College Fully Funded®, we make the college list one of the first major priorities in our program. It is the first major assignment students complete. They receive the instruction, resources, guidance, and individualized feedback they need to build a list that is not based only on prestige, rankings, or the likelihood of admission.

Funding is foundational to the process.

Because our goal is not simply to help students get into college, but to help them pursue strong college options, secure the funding they need, and avoid debt.

So if funding for college is a major concern for your family, I encourage you to ask an important question when evaluating any college admissions coaching or guidance program:

Does this program prioritize building a college list with funding in mind from the beginning?

Because if you wait until after a student is admitted to ask how you are going to pay for the school, you may already have limited your options.

If this approach resonates with you and you would like to explore working with me through CFF College Fully Funded®, you can complete our short application here.

And remember: small outside scholarships can be helpful.

Just don't let the search for them distract you from the larger source of college funding that should be part of your strategy from the very beginning.

To college fully funded,

Dr. Faith Okpotor Founder and CFF Head Coach National Center for Higher Education Access Award-winning academic and tenured professor

​

P.P.S. I hope you'll join me and YouTube on Fridays at 4pm ET and bring your questions. And while you're there, please share, like and subscribe!