Scholarships are a wonderful way to pay for your communications degree college education, because they do not need to be repaid. Have you have heard or read about the thousands of unclaimed dollars in scholarships each year? Although eligibility requirements for these scholarships are usually quite specific, the money does exist. The key to being successful in obtaining scholarships is to research your options for your degree in communications and apply for everything.

A good place to start looking for scholarships is in your high school counseling office. It will receive hundreds of scholarship applications over the course of the year, so it will pay you to get to know the person in charge of posting the scholarships. If your high school counseling office staff knows what you are looking for, they may even give you notice before the scholarship is posted. In some cases scholarships are posted online, so check your school or school district website as well. It is the persistent student who applies for every possible scholarship.

Have your parents check with their employers to see if there is scholarship money available for dependents. Local scholarships are also readily available. Service organizations such as Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions Clubs all have scholarships. Frequently they hold competitions (usually oratory or essay) of some kind to award the money and offer a chance to compete on a national level for even more money. Either your high school counseling office will have the applications, or you can check on the various specific websites to see what is available. You do not need an affiliation with the organization to compete. Most local scholarships are available during the second semester of the school year, so after you return from winter break is a good time to start searching in earnest.
Your college or university may also have scholarships that you can apply for. Some are merit-based, but some are not. The communications department may offer departmental scholarships, so check specifically with them as well as with the financial aid office on campus.
The Internet has a plethora of scholarship websites. Using your preferred search engine, you will unearth dozens of sites, most of which are free. The sites that want to charge you money to find scholarships for you are using the same data that’s available for free. There is no advantage to paying for a service you can perform yourself.