Frequently Asked Questions: Scholarship Listings

Why are scholarships available?

It seems too good to be true - all this money offered out of nowhere just for you. But, scholarships have a distinct purpose. They are available to not only foster your reputation, but also your school's. Awards and scholarships are a way of attracting and keeping students that will make valuable contributions to an institution. Scholarships, like internships and fellowships, can also be a way of preparing students to be productive representatives of their college or university upon graduation. Or, sometimes scholarships are awarded by companies to help employees and their families fund their education.

Yes - ScholarshipsCanada.com

The awards database is on our website, you can view all the available scholarships on www.scholarshipscanada.com.

The scholarship search is definitely overwhelming. On ScholarshipsCanada.com we go through a process to check if the scholarship is legitimate. Signing up for an account will help you get matched with scholarships which you may be eligible to apply. Taking the time to narrow down the scholarships you wish to focus on in the next week, month, or months is a great way to make the application process less overwhelming.

CanLearn.ca is a good government resource for information on funding. For US scholarships, you can check Fastweb.com.

81% of the scholarships on ScholarshipsCanada.com do not require an academic average. You don't necessarily need high grades to get a scholarship!

Scholarships on the ScholarshipsCanada.com database indicate if the scholarship has a reoccurring deadline. This information is available to you when you're viewing the scholarship profile after you have logged into your account.

Entrance scholarships are those that are offered at the institution you apply based on your overall high school average (grade 12).

Bursaries are a type of award that is based on financial need. Often, students are required to fill out a supplementary application form which shows their income and expenses during their period of study. Scholarships, on the other hand, do not always require a student to be in financial need. Scholarships may require the student to have a certain academic average, be studying a particular field of study, or have specific interests or activities.

Many universities and colleges offer entrance awards which are specifically for students in their graduating year of high school and are entering post-secondary studies. Entrance awards are generally based on academic averages and are automatic consideration scholarships. Many universities and colleges also offer other awards that require an application and these vary from institution to institution based on the donors who are funding the scholarships. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for departmental scholarships - there are scholarships available at all levels of study!

Yes, full scholarships are possible, but keep in mind that these are very popular. Definitely apply for these, but don't forget the small ones. Many small scholarships can equal a lot of money towards your education.

The first step is to get matched with eligible scholarships on ScholarshipsCanada.com, as well, if you look through what's available, you may be able to find scholarships for which you're eligible to apply. By understanding the administrator's goals for the scholarships you choose to focus on, the process of finding the right scholarship becomes much easier.

Yes, there are scholarships for international students, but the focus of ScholarshipsCanada.com is on scholarships for students studying in Canada. We do have some scholarships specifically for international students. There is an "International Student" search filter on ScholarshipsCanada.com which will identify any awards for international students. If you sign up for a free account on the site, you can mark yourself as an international student, and will be matched to any relevant awards. As well, there are $71M worth of scholarships on our database that DO NOT require a specific type of citizenship!

Yes, there are scholarships available for people of different heritages, so the best thing to do is to check for the requirements in the scholarship profile.

Yes - there are scholarships available for college students. The best way to search for these scholarships is to either fill out a scholarship search profile to be matched with the available scholarships for which you may be eligible to apply and to do a general search by selecting "school of study" as a search filter.

Yes, there are scholarships for people doing sports! You definitely don't need to be a professional. If you're part of a team and they're affiliated with an organization, they may be offering a scholarship. Ringette Canada is just one example.

Yes, there are scholarships available for people who have or had special needs. In order to be matched with scholarships for people with special needs, you will need to sign in to your account and complete your scholarship search profile to be matched with those scholarships.

There are many different types of scholarships with have different application guidelines. Not all scholarships require an essay component in the application. For example, some scholarships are contests which require a single or multiple entries where no essay writing is involved. Writing a well-written scholarship application essay is an important skill that you can carry over into your school and job applications. Remember: Practice makes perfect!