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What are Unclaimed Scholarships?

What are unclaimed scholarships for students who are willing to search out such funds and does unclaimed scholarship money really exist?

There is sometimes a common perception that there are millions of dollars available in unclaimed scholarships for students who are willing to search out such funds. There are also many people who state that a large percentage of the unclaimed scholarship money is only a myth and that such funds do not actually exist.

The truth of the matter regarding unclaimed scholarships may actually exist somewhere in the middle of these two viewpoints. Below we explore what are unclaimed scholarships.

Unclaimed Scholarships are Unusual Scholarships

Unrewarded scholarship funds do appear to exist to some degree. Unclaimed college scholarships may primarily stem from rather restrictive unknown scholarships that have an extremely small pool of eligible scholarship applicants. Such unusual scholarships might include those that are only offered to applicants who meet a rare set of characteristics. Due to this, these unclaimed scholarships may result in left over funds that are not issued annually because eligible applicants did not apply for those unusual scholarships.

Employer Sponsored Scholarships are Unclaimed

There are also often claims that billions of dollars in scholarships went unclaimed over the previous year. Although it would certainly be nice if this were true and students could simply claim those unclaimed scholarships, this type of statement is often based on older estimates regarding unused tuition benefits offered by employers that the general public simply would not be eligible to receive. According to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, approximately 85% of the funds that are referred to as unclaimed scholarships may actually be employer-paid education benefits. Many businesses offer to pay education benefits to employees as a way of enhancing the quality of their workforce.

Unclaimed Scholarships may be Hard to Get

It would appear that unclaimed scholarships may be available but they do not appear to be available in the easy to obtain and abundant numbers that are typically reported. If you do have an unusual talent or a rare set of characteristics it might be possible that you are eligible for some obscure scholarship funds which other students would not be eligible to receive, but it would be best not to count on such unclaimed scholarship funds to fund the entire cost of your education. This is particularly true when you consider the fact that there are other ways you can fund your education, including numerous easier scholarship programs that are not based on a restrictive set of eligibility criteria.

Never Pay Fees to Get Unclaimed Scholarships

Students trying to find unclaimed scholarships may actually come across a number of different claims. One of those is that by paying a small fee you will be provided with a comprehensive list of scholarships for which the student is eligible. Such claims also frequently include the claim that the unclaimed college scholarships come from a large database. The reality is that students should never feel as though they need to pay to receive a database of scholarship information, even for unclaimed scholarships. The best and biggest scholarship databases are actually available with no need to pay to receive the information. The number of unclaimed college scholarships claimed to be available by some services can oftentimes be misleading due to the fact that individual sponsors may actually offer hundreds of different types of scholarships.

Check for Unclaimed Scholarship Money at the College You Attend

Prospective scholarship applicants that do want to make certain they do not miss out on any unclaimed scholarships may wish to check with the institution they plan to attend regarding any obscure scholarships that may be issued directly through that institution.

Unclaimed scholarships that are available to a small pool of applicants are sometimes offered directly through a college or university. Applicants to that school or students who are already attending that school may have a better opportunity to receive those limited or restrictive scholarships than the general population.

Unclaimed scholarship money may be available, but not in the abundant and easy to grab quantities that are sometimes reported. If you have an unusual talent or the right last name, you might be eligible for unheard about & obscure pots of scholarship gold for which most other students can’t apply. The scholarship application pool is small, or non-existent. These savings vehicles may be better than college saving funds for some families.

***According to a fairly recent study by Nerd Scholar, the higher education team at Nerd Wallet, stated that high school graduates in the U.S. left more than $2.9 billion in free federal grant money unused over the last academic year!!!

Applying for scholarships is certainly a good way to pursue an advanced education and also to help defray the costs of a higher education. There are many scholarships that are available that offer awards to thousands of deserving students each year. While unclaimed scholarships may not exist in the numbers and amounts that are frequently reported,there are unclaimed scholarship opportunities that do exist for eligible students.

Understanding what Unclaimed Scholarships Are

There are many definitions of what unclaimed scholarships are, and there really is no one answer that is correct. Unclaimed scholarship monies are unused student aid.

what are unclaimed scholarships — Definition of Unclaimed Scholarships

There are many definitions of what unclaimed scholarships are, and there really is no one answer that is correct. This is because unclaimed scholarship monies come from many sources and there are many ways of finding it, so you will have a variety of meanings for it. Bottom line is it all does exist based on what your definition of it is and it is monies not found and used yet for college.

If you look at just what the word ‘unclaimed’ means you will see it’s an adjective only; and that the definition for unclaimed is: ‘unknown, usually by choice’. This could indicate for example that a student won a scholarship and they decide not to claim it.

If you look at the Antonyms for unclaimed they are: discovered, identified, known, named. This could mean that a who student wins a scholarship, is identified and known who it is; and is named publicly.

The Synonyms for the word ‘unclaimed’ are many such as : incognito, undisclosed, innominate, nameless, unnamed, pseudo, pseudonymous, secret, so and so, such and such, unacknowledged, unattested, unavowed, unclaimed , uncredited, undesignated, unidentified, unsigned, unspecified, what’s his/her name, whatchamacallit, you know who…. you get the point!

Some people or students seem to think that just because a scholarship is not claimed than anyone can lay claim to it very quick and easily as their own if they discover it. Well, this seems too easy and unrealistic to say the lest. I guess if the student applies to it and qualifies for it then they can easily win it. But to just to try to fill the vacuum of the student who doesn’t claim it without qualifying for it would be wishful thinking and actually trying to get something for nothing. But there are some students who think this way.

A basic and safe way to describe unclaimed scholarships may be just that it’s monies for college that has not been given away or awarded yet, and that you can apply for it once you discover it – period! The unclaimed monies are sitting their waiting to be awarded to the right student who fits what the scholarship sponsor is looking for and they will not award it until they have a perfect match for it! This means you still have a chance of getting it if it hasn’t been assigned or awarded at that time.

It’s UNCLAIMED as of yet.

If you have a better definition of unclaimed scholarships, or you actually know of some unclaimed college scholarship monies please leave your written comment in the comment section at the end of this page.

If you do – we will respond to you on where you can find more unclaimed scholarship monies!

Guidelines about Unclaimed Scholarships

It can be tough to know what to think about unclaimed scholarships. Unclaimed scholarship money may have been out there and you didn’t get to use it for college.

It can be tough to know what to think about unclaimed scholarships. On one hand, you feel that it is frustrating that such unclaimed scholarship money may have been out there and you didn’t get to use it for college. On the other hand, there is talk about such scams you have to be aware of. What many people think of with unclaimed college scholarships is that someone is just trying to make money, promising them something they really can’t provide.

Don’t pay for Unclaimed Scholarship Money

There are some unclaimed scholarship money out there, but you should be looking for them on your own. Don’t pay a service to do the work for you. When you go that route, you may as well kiss your money goodbye. They are going to give you the same information they give to everyone else. There is also a very good chance that the information isn’t current or accurate.

As a good rule of thumb, you should never be paying for the ability to find out about unclaimed or unknown scholarships. You should never be changed any processing fee either for submitting your application or so it can be reviewed.

It is important to talk about why there are unclaimed scholarships out there. It has to do with the stigma for unfound scholarships. People often don’t apply if they don’t have a very high GPA or they aren’t an outstanding athlete. They don’t think that they are going to be the one that will get accepted, so they simply don’t apply. This could be an unclaimed scholarship.

Unknown Scholarships are Unclaimed Scholarships

Other obscure scholarships aren’t claimed because they aren’t as well known. You have to really dig deep to find them. They won’t be found on page one of the search engine results. However, if you go about 10 or 15 pages deep you will start to find unknown scholarships offered that people don’t know so much about.

Smart Searching may be Key to an Unclaimed Scholarship

Use various messages too online that you can use to gain access to unclaimed scholarships. For example, you can type in certain words into search engine boxes. You can also search by a particular hobby or interest that you have. It may surprise you to learn that there are unkown scholarships offered for those that like to knit or those that enjoy reading books. There are even those offered only for left handed individuals so narrow down the search and you will find more.

The idea is to get your hands on those lessor known scholarship details for those that very few will be applying for. Chances are you will have far less competition getting a unused scholarship for someone that is over 6 foot 5 inches than you will getting one for people that have a 2.5 GPA or higher.

You may love to skateboard, and there may be unclaimed college scholarships for that. You don’t have to limit athlete funding just to playing college sports such as football or basketball. There are so many amazing scholarships out there that you may be able to apply for, but dig deep with your search browser to find them.

Applying Correctly for Unclaimed College Scholarships

Once you find them, make sure you look over all the criteria. You don’t want to blow your chances of being awarded such funds and find out later you never really had a chance because you failed to read the proper application guidelines and incorrectly filled out your scholarship forms. Make sure you complete the application completely. Turn it over to make sure there isn’t more that goes on the back side of it. A late application or one with missing information is going to be completely ignored. Make sure you mail it in plenty of time for arrival.

You want to make sure you are able to submit the necessary documents along with the application. If they want references, an essay, examples, of leadership, etc. you must include them. Finally, don’t overlook the application deadline date for submitting it. Believe it or not many scholarships are unclaimed simply because students failed to complete applications properly so no awards were given out that year.

It can take time and effort to find those unclaimed scholarships, but don’t give up. The end result is that you could end up winning a significant amount of money to be able to help you pay for the cost of your education. The cost of schooling continues to go up, but with great unclaimed college scholarships you can reduce the burden on your end.

Unclaimed Scholarships

Unclaimed scholarships for college do exist but not in abundance. In fact you will have to stumble across them to have any chance of really finding them.

Unclaimed scholarships for college do exist but not in abundance. In fact you will have to stumble across them to have any chance of really finding them. Students looking for financial assistance are often looking everywhere they possibly can to root out additional sources of funding. Many of these students have gone through the normal check – looking at the demographic characteristics, checking out career oriented opportunities, consulting with local financial aid offices or considering offerings by individual departments at universities. Still they may come up short and begin searching one last time before they give up and turn to student loans to fill their remaining aid gap.

Unclaimed scholarships are, in reality, fairly rare – most scholarship institutions publicize the heck out of their programs and generally have more applicants than they can afford to cover. Though not entirely a myth, the idea that billions of dollars goes unrewarded every year in the United States is incredibly incorrect, though there are in fact some unclaimed scholarships out there. Students interested in unclaimed scholarships will want to get kind of weird with their searches, looking for quirks that may not have occurred to them originally in their research. Consider for instance tall scholarships or the single left-handed scholarship offered from Juniata University – though these programs rarely qualify as unclaimed scholarships, they are less frequently taken advantage of when compared to larger, nationally offered programs.

The myth which underlies the idea of unclaimed scholarships comes from a number of sources, but most often cited is the 1983 report from the National Commission on Student Financial Assistance. Other claims come from fairly shaky ground in which lose statistical methods have been applied in order to work out an overall lack of funding. Remember the game some kids used to play called Telephone? The effect here is similar – over time as these reports and data have made their rounds from person to person, the information has been exaggerated or used incorrectly, leading to the widespread belief that unclaimed scholarships are incredibly common, when in fact they are unknown scholarships to almost all students and will only reveal themselves by actively looking for student aid.

There is no direct evidence that popular foundations, which are often incredibly overwhelmed with responses to their scholarships offerings, or even other groups, have billions of dollars of unused scholarship money each year. One of the things this myth does get right, however, is that there is pretty clear evidence that people do not often take advantage of employer tuition programs which, apart from a blip in the employee manual, are often left out of an employee’s general knowledge. As a result these programs often end up as unclaimed scholarships.

It is not uncommon for even small businesses to offer tuition assistance programs either in the form of direct scholarship aid or tuition reimbursement, and interested students should either talk to a human resources person or consult their employee manuals for more information. While in some places these programs are widely used, it may be unlikely that say a gas station clerk would guess that their company offers tuition reimbursement programs, which leaves some of these employment areas having unclaimed college scholarships.

Unclaimed scholarships do exist, but they are rare and students will have to do some digging in order to turn them up. Some of these programs come from schools where, as a fictional example, a scholarship for a blind individual may exist but no students on the campus meet the criteria needed to take advantage of the program. Instances of unclaimed college scholarships are normally related to heavy eligibility restrictions which limit applicant pools or local availability where no local person meets the necessary requirements to get access to a program.

Unless a student is so incredibly desperate for financial aid that they will consider a college based on a single unclaimed scholarship which they happen to have the eligibility for, these programs should not really concern students who otherwise would not be able to get an award.

While it can be hard at times to find all of the financial assistance students will need in order to afford college capably, they should focus directly on more attainable programs instead of searching for the rare or extra quirky unclaimed scholarship money that may, on some off-chance, be available somewhere. Of course if a student has some extra time and is still considering their options for educational institutions checking in on what unclaimed scholarships may be available is certainly a good option, but otherwise this sort of search results in a general waste of time and energy.