Sallie Mae Scholarships
Sallie Mae scholarships are provided for students through the Sallie Mae Scholarship Fund, a non-profit charity which works to increase access to college to students in the United States. All Sallie Mae scholarships for minorities work hard to achieve this goal by targeting financially needy students, minorities and other groups which may not have equal access to college opportunities. Initiatives within these minority scholarships are often designed to support community involvement or volunteer activities so students who are interested in applying to a Sallie Mae scholarship would be well advised to be active in their local communities.
Sallie Mae is a top financial services company which specializes in education. They offer creative educational savings tools, tuition payment plans and student loans. Since 2001 over 6,350 students have received Sallie Mae scholarships averaging out to around 635 awards a year. Because of the national nature of these programs competition is going to be relatively high, so students who are interested in applying should prepare applications which best represent their volunteerism and dedication to their local communities. Though this is not a guaranteed way of getting a Sallie Mae scholarship, matching an applicant’s history with the initiatives and interests of the organization will certainly help quite a bit along the way. Also important to understand in this process is that, while nearly all of the Sallie Mae scholarships are currently closed, they open back up frequently and interested students should really pay close attention to make sure they do not miss upcoming deadlines.
There are five main Sallie Mae scholarships for minorities offered by the fund almost every year, one of which is the American Dream Scholarship Program. In collaboration with the United Negro College Fund this Sallie Mae Scholarship is open to black students who can display strong financial need. All applicants must be a United States resident and maintain at least a 2.5 grade point average. Students must also be attending school full-time at an accredited university. Award amounts vary between $500 and $5,000. Though this program is currently closed, students should watch both the UNCF and the Sallie Mae scholarship website for when it may reopen.
Another one of the main Sallie Mae scholarships for minority students is the First in My Family Scholarship Program. This program provides funding to financially needy students who are the first in their family to be attending college. Eligibility requires that students be Hispanic Americans who are legal US citizens. All applicants must maintain a 3.0 grade point average. This program provides between $500 and $5,000 to those who receive an award. This program is currently closed but may reopen in 2011 or 2012, so stay tuned.
The Sallie Mae Unmet Need Scholarship for minorities is open only to those families who make less than $30,000 a year. As it stands the Unmet Need Scholarship is not meant to represent a sole source of financial aid and as such only provides $1,000 to $3,000. In order to be eligible for the program students will need to be US residents attending full-time at an accredited university. The grade point average of the applicant must be no lower than 2.5 and award amounts will be determined on relative financial need. This Sallie Mae is currently closed with no 2011 deadline, but as it is still on the Sallie Mae website it should be pretty clear that the program has hopes of being reopened.
Community College Transfer Scholarship for minorities exists to offer students making the transition from a two-year institution to a four-year one. Often the cost difference between community colleges and four-year universities can be extreme, and this Sallie Mae scholarship should be able to help defray some of those costs. This program exists in collaboration with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund under the General College scholarships section. It awards between $1,000 and $5,000 to winners of the scholarship. In order to be eligible students must be transferring from a community college, be of Hispanic heritage, have at least a 3.0 grade point average and intend to enroll full-time at a four-year university. Though the deadline for this program has passed for 2011, students are encouraged to look in September of 2011 to see if it will be offered again.