What types of scholarships does Kirkwood offer and how do they benefit students? Some are based on merit, which would be GPA. Others are based on financial need. And we gather that information from the FAFSA. Others are based on involvement in certain activities. It’s just a wide variety of scholarships. Our donors get to set the criteria for the scholarship.
So it’s a wide range of different criteria. And the benefit for the students is a scholarship is free money that they never have to pay back. So in addition to helping get finances to pay for college, it also gives students a little bit of boost in their confidence or their morale to keep going to finish their program.
So it’s a win-win. They get some money and they also get to feel good about it as well.
Can you explain how students can apply? Students go to www.kirkwood.edu/scholarships. There is a button there that says apply for 24-25 scholarships. So just as a reminder, these scholarships are for next year. Student log in with their K number and password and answer about 60 questions, usually a lot of yes or no questions. Those questions then help our office determine what scholarship funds a student is eligible for. Students have to write a personal summary about themselves. I have two secret tips that I like to tell students. One, they should apply by March 15.
That gives them the best chances of being selected for a scholarship. And, my second tip for students is to make sure to write a good personal summary. The written part of the application is the most important part. Students should make sure that things are spelled correctly, correct punctuation, capitalization. Write it as if they were writing an assignment for a class. But instead of getting a grade, they could potentially get thousands of dollars. The application itself should take probably an hour to go through.
They submit one application and they’re done. They don’t have to submit multiple, just one application. And then we do the background work of figuring out what funds the student is eligible for.
Are there any resources to help student with the application? The Writing Center. Great place. Students could make an appointment there at any time, checking with any English faculty member that they currently have. That’s another great resource. But the Writing Center, it’s awesome.
What are some common misconceptions students have about scholarships? Students think that scholarships mean that they have to be the best and brightest in their program or have an amazing GPA. And at Kirkwood, we are looking more toward the students that have the need. So GPA is one of the last things that we would look at. So every student should apply for scholarships.
That’s the easiest thing. It’s just getting a student to fill out that application. I would say that’s a misconception, is that students think that they have to be the best and brightest, and they do not necessarily have to be.
Can you share any statistical data about impact of the scholarship on student success? Kirkwood students who are awarded a scholarship are two times more likely to graduate than students who do not receive a scholarship. So getting a scholarship, again, boosts their morale and also gives them a little bit more financing to help pay for college so that they can complete their programs.
Are there any unique or specialized scholarships available through Kirkwood? We do have one scholarship fund that is specific for students that are going to be transferring onto a four year school, which is kind of unique in a way that we give it to the students at the end of their program here and the money is used at their four year school. So that’s an interesting one.
We also have another scholarship in which the donor wants it to go to a student who is graduating and has a job lined up in their field that their program was in. So we do have a couple of scholarships that actually go beyond helping students while they’re here, but it’s helping them at the end of their program. So those are kind of unique.
Is there a general requirement that students need to meet? You have to be enrolled in six credits with a 2.0 GPA without being in trouble with financial aid. We can make some exceptions to those rules, but that’s mostly for all scholarships.
After students apply and get a scholarship, does the Foundation inform them or give them the information? If students are offered a scholarship, the only thing we require of them is they have to formally accept it through the software. They can either accept it or decline it, and then they have to write a thank you letter to the donor.
How about the number of applications? We get a little over 4,000 applications. That ends up being about 40% of students who are enrolled at Kirkwood.
Are there any specific deadlines or timelines students should be aware of regarding the availability of scholarships in subsequent application period? Yes. If a student is offered a scholarship, they usually have two to three weeks to accept it and write that thank you letter. They are notified that they’ve been offered a scholarship by an email to their student email account. If it gets close to that due date and we still don’t see anything, we will call the student and remind them.
When the first application round ends, how long does it take for students to find out if they received a scholarship? Once the deadline of March 15 hits, what we do is we take all the applications that came in and we have a group of volunteers around the college who review them and score them. It usually takes us a good two months to even start sending out award emails to students. Don’t be frustrated if you don’t hear anything right away. We’re just doing some background work before we get started.
Can the f-1 students or the international students benefit from any of these scholarships?
International students, any student who is not a citizen of the U.S., they are still eligible to apply for all of our Kirkwood scholarships. We have some students who are not a U.S. citizen who might be scared to fill out this application in case this information gets to immigration. No, it is here at Kirkwood. We would never release that information to anyone else.
Is there anything else you would like to add? We do have a link for external scholarship opportunities. So if organizations from around Cedar Rapids or around the state of Iowa send us their scholarship information, we will post scholarship opportunities that are not just for Kirkwood students, but can be for any student. We post them on our website so that Kirkwood students, even if they’re transferring on or if they’re staying here, if they’re looking for additional scholarship sources, we have it on our website as well. Also, we normally tell students to do their scholarship application and fill out the FAFSA at the same time. FAFSA qualifies students for grants, loans and programs like the Last Dollar scholarship. So it’s always a benefit to students to apply for the FAFSA and fill out their scholarship application.
Categories: Campus News, News
