When most people consider college scholarships they tend to think of scholarships as being awarded by major companies and by the larger academic bodies and these are without question extremely good sources of money. However, they also carry one significant problem and that is that competition is fierce with many thousands of applications being submitted from all across the country. It may be a great feather in your cap to win one of these scholarships but your odds of doing so are almost as good as they are of you winning the lottery.

For a lot of students a better alternative is to try for an institutional scholarship.

Just about all colleges will award at least one in-house (institutional) scholarship every year and a lot of the larger colleges will award more than one, frequently making scholarships available within each separate department of the college. Therefore, if you are enrolled at one of the bigger colleges you may be eligible to apply for several scholarships within your own institution.

Despite the fact that institutional scholarships have been around for a long time, surprisingly enough a fairly small percentage of students apply for them in comparison to the better known and well publicized nationwide scholarship schemes. One important thing to note here is that not all of these scholarships will cover the total cost of attending college and many will be restricted to cover only tuition fees, or to cover merely housing costs. Nevertheless, the sums available are often substantial and they can certainly help considerably when it comes to paying your bills.

Most of the larger colleges will also have departments that are dedicated solely to student financial aid, including scholarships, and can give you details of just what scholarships are available and how to go about applying for them. This is a very good place to start as you can get a great deal of information to point you in the right direction and help to make sure you submit your application on time. A lot of colleges also have internet sites that also provide a lot of information about available scholarships, including details of how to apply.

If you are conversant with the application procedure for nationally available scholarships, you will find that the process is basically the same for institutional scholarships. Each scholarship does however have its own specific requirements and so you will have to ensure that you read through these carefully and follow the instructions precisely. Also, make sure that you check carefully to ensure that you are eligible for a scholarship before submitting your application. The majority of scholarships have a list of eligibility criteria which have to be met before putting in an application and, if you are uncertain, you should ask the awarding body for advice.

One of the benefits of of institutional scholarships is that, because there is less competition, you do not normally have to wait too long before you discover whether or not your application has been successful. A further benefit (which may not seem like a benefit) is that, if you do not succeed, you will nonetheless have gained valuable experience of the application procedure at your college and will therefore be better prepared when it comes to making a further application in the second and subsequent years.

Just before leaving the subject of scholarships for college it should be noted that these are only one alternative to the better known national scholarship programs. There are however many other sources of scholarship funding, not the least of which are the much overlooked credit union college scholarships.