Scholarship programs are something that many ambitious students aspire to. They feel they are finally rewarded for all their intelligence and hard work. They can feel more comfortable about their future, both professional and financial, which gives them more time to work on themselves and do what they love.
But are scholarships all they’re cracked up to be? Teachers, influential educators, and your parents will all tell you Yes, but is that really true? Well, they are, and they aren’t, so we’re going to take a quick look at the good and the bad, the pros and the cons, of college scholarships.
The Pros
Equal Opportunities
It doesn’t matter who you are or what your family or financial situation is, a college scholarship will put everybody on the same level. You could consider using legitimate money lenders to help finance your college experience if you are short on resources. It recognizes the most crucial part of education, and that is everybody deserves the same education no matter who they are or where they came from.
This fair chance allows everybody to fulfill their potential. It means no one gets left behind, and any success is based purely on merit, rather than how much their parents donated to the campus.
Ambitious Pursuits
Scholarships will also unlock and uncover more opportunities for those who may not always be aware of them. Science scholarships will help you get onto research programs, while Creative Writing rides give you places to submit your work, which other students, not on scholarships, would not know about.
Such availability means that scholarships students will be able to do what they love as soon as they arrive. They will receive expert guidance, and they will have support very early on.
No Paying It Back
From the top Military Friendly Colleges to Art schools all over the country, scholarships do not need to be paid back. Compare this to traditional student loans, which currently amounts to $1.59 trillion in the US alone, and you can pursue what you want to do without worrying about paying everything back.
Too much debt could push you into a career you don’t want but still need to pay the bills. It also means that you can focus on your studies full-time, rather than splitting the time between work and education.
The Cons
Some Students May Miss Out
While scholarships generally reward the best of the best, this also means that some equally eligible students might miss out on the grand prize. This can happen for many reasons. It could be that a decision needed to be made for one student, and therefore another misses out. It could be that the scholarship program is not as robust as it should be, regarding the wrong person.
This can seriously impact confidence and hinder growth for those who don’t take part, and it’s always something to think about when applying for a scholarship program.
Constant Pressure
With the high demands of scholarship programs, it’s no surprise that there is constant pressure on the student to prove their worth and perform to their best throughout. If the institution believes you are not worth the time or the money, they could pull the scholarship from you.
The pressure can severely impact the student’s mental health, and it could create a snowball effect where the more pressure they feel, the worse they perform. While they may have all the talent in the world, the adverse effects of the stress could have significant issues.
Jobs Are Not Always There
While most scholarships offer the chance for professional advancement as soon as you graduate, the jobs are not always there, which could make you feel like you have wasted your time, and you should have explored other options.
When this happens, scholars are often forced into other jobs, and as much as they try to continue their interest in their field, life can too quickly get in the way. This causes them to fall behind on their independent research, which would also mean they would struggle to get a job once the opportunity comes up as they are considered too far behind other, recent graduates.
Weighing your Options
Obtaining a scholarship is not something that should be taken lightly, and while there are certainly negatives to getting one, for many students, the benefits greatly outweigh the disadvantages. That being said, even if you’re a student who didn’t get a scholarship, that doesn’t mean you’re not good enough. While scholarship programs are useful, they are not the be-all and end-all of education, and if you know what you want to do and have the ambition to get there, then you don’t need a scholarship, anyway, regardless of how it could have made life more comfortable.
