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Student Life: The weirder the better: Wide variety of scholarships devoted to niches
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Want money for school but think that only Einstein-like brainiacs can qualify for scholarships? Not so. Surprisingly, there are plenty of scholarships available for those unfortunate souls who weren’t blessed with superior intellect. Students can cash in on these unique scholarships and sail through school without spending a dime.
“I couldn’t believe how many scholarships were offered for totally ridiculous things,” Florida State University senior Casey Sembach said. “I mean, they have one for fat people.” That’s right, the scholarship in question is from the New England Chapter of the National Association of Advance Fat Acceptance. They are offering $500 to high-school seniors who are going off to college and are overweight. So, head on over to Guthrie’s and get the jump-start on the freshman 15. “I always heard David Letterman gave a scholarship in his name,” junior Lisa Vincent said, “but only if you were, like, dumb.”
More like average, actually. That is the basic premise of the David Letterman Telecommunications Scholarship Program at Ball State University. It awards money to junior telecommunications majors with “average, yet creative minds.” Letterman, himself, has made many cracks on his nightly program about the lack of these types of scholarships for the not-so-gifted student, so he created his own. “I found one that awards money to left-handed students,” sophomore Amanda Moyer said. “I mean, how silly is that?”
It’s true. Left-handed students at Juanita College are eligible for at least $700 from the Beckley Scholarship Foundation. Not bad considering you could pick up extra cash for being a southpaw. Do some of these scholarships seem too wacky to believe? Of course they do, but there are tons of these nutty awards out there. Why do they offer these off the wall scholarships? “It is a marketing technique companies use to get people to believe that everyone can win a scholarship,” says Laura DiFiore. “The simple truth is that a lot of these enticements can be misleading and the scholarships have plenty of restrictions.”
That may be the case but students don’t want to hear it. Students want to hear they can get “free money” for school being left-handed, overweight or just average. Companies realize this and are only too happy to advertise as a result of this interest. “My dad told me about one for golf caddies,” freshman Paul Whitmore said, “I didn’t believe him though.”
Looks like ol’ Dad knew what he was talking about. High school seniors, who are in the top 25 percent of their class and have been golf caddies for at least two years or more, are eligible for the Evans Scholarship Program from the Western Golf Association. The award pays full tuition and housing.
These are just a few scholarships students have heard about or discovered on their own. The National Research Scholarship Service compiles an annual “Top 10″ list of strange endowments. Some highlights from this list include awards for students who want to study fungus, pursue vacuum science, research aroma-chology or sell Tupperware. “I can’t believe all the stuff out there that you can get money for,” sophomore Eric Jones said. “What’s next, scholarships awarded to good looking people? Hey wait a second, I could qualify for that one.”
Shannon Slattery is a writer for the FSView & Florida Flambeau at Florida State University. Article reprinted with permission.
Shannon Slattery