Today’s Guest:
Ayden Berkey, co-founder of Access Scholarships
Ayden Berkey is on a mission to help students find, apply for, and win the best scholarships. This is why she founded Access Scholarships, an all-encompassing, free-to-use resource that families can use to learn about scholarships.
Ayden is very passionate in providing assistance to students and parents. She hosts webinars, provides consultations, and regularly updates her blog through Access Scholarships to talk about strategies for landing scholarships and other college admissions-related topics.
Questions Answered Today:
When is the best time to look for scholarships?
Looking for scholarships is a tedious process. In order to be successful, it takes time. It doesn’t take one weekend; it takes many weekends of searching, applying and submitting in order to be considered.
This is why it’s important to talk to your student about scholarships early. As early as the freshman year, the student should already be familiar with the concept of looking for scholarships and financial aid.
Personally, to have all the time you need to apply, Ayden thinks that it’s best to start looking for scholarships during your junior year. As early as the junior year, parents and students can start learning about:
- What scholarships are out there
- How to get scholarships
- How to become a competitive applicant
Brad notes that, aside from the fact that most students are foreign to the concept of ‘scholarships’ and ‘financial aid,’ they also have a lot on their plate (prom, finals, tests, etc.). So parents/guardians being on top of the scholarship search is critical.
What is ‘Access Scholarships?’
Access Scholarships is a website where students and parents can look for scholarships. The platform has a compilation of scholarships with information readily available to users, as well as other resources (e.g. blogs) helpful for scholarship searches. The blog is regularly updated. As Ayden says:
There are scholarships for high school students in all years, although most scholarships are for upperclassmen. It’s a good place to start learning about the many scholarships available for all sorts of students. It also offers scholarships for college and graduate students.
Ayden also hosts a virtual webinar through the Access Scholarships platform, where she talks with parents and students about topics such as:
- Test preparation
- Financial aid
- Scholarships
- Being a competitive scholarship applicant
- College admissions.
How do I win scholarships through Access Scholarships?
Here’s how to navigate the Access Scholarships platform.
1. Go to the scholarship search and enter the keyword of the scholarship you’d like to know more about. You can enter:
- The major you’re considering (e.g. STEM)
- Your GPA
- Sports you actively play
- Your leadership involvement
To find unique and unusual scholarship, you can search for terms such as:
- Twins
- Tall
- Left-handed
Enter the criteria that work for you. Search for something that’s unique to you so you can narrow the options and find those scholarships where you’ll have less competition.
2. Once you find a scholarship that interests you and learn more about it, you can start applying. Scholarships from Taco Bell or Microsoft, for example, may appear, so just click on “Apply Now” to be directed to the specific organization that offers the scholarship.
What to expect:
- Ayden says that each scholarship may require a different set of requirements and application process, so it’s important to pay attention. For example, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) offers at least a hundred scholarships. To qualify, the applicant can just fill out one form. However, for other scholarships, they may require a different set of forms.
- Since some scholarships are hosted by other organizations, you may be redirected to another page, such as the actual page of the organization.
As Ayden’s mission is not only to help students look for scholarships but to actually win them, if parents and students have concerns or need advice, they can sign up for Ayden’s free office hours, which happen every Friday. They can sign up though her platform’s “Student Resources” page.
At the moment, Access Scholarships is open to applications for the scholarships below. The last day you can apply is on March 21, 2022. Learn more from these links:
What are the common requirements when applying for scholarships?
Ayden enumerated the most common requirements students can expect when submitting scholarship applications:
- Transcript – the scholarship committee may look at your GPA, classes, etc.
- Recommendation letters, which could be from:
- Teachers
- Coaches
- Anyone involved with your academic and extracurricular activities
- Essays
- Videos, where you may be asked to answer questions such as “Why are you deserving of our scholarship?”
- Interviews
Is there a way to increase my chances of winning scholarships?
Keep in mind that you’ll be competing with thousands of other students who probably have credentials better than yours.
Therefore, make sure you know yourself, and be unique—that’s how you stand out. For Ayden, uniqueness is not something that your GPA can show, so you show it through the extra submissions such as the essays or the interview.
Craft a strong, unique, and memorable essay and absolutely don’t be complacent when submitting your requirements.
Brad Recommends
Today is a good time for you to check out our Scholarship Guide for Busy Parents. It’s a free resource where you get to know more about the three types of scholarships, which are:
- Private/outside scholarships, coming from organizations such as:
- Colleges themselves
- Corporations
- Charities
- Need-based
- Merit-based
There are also different processes on how to qualify to scholarships, so make sure to familiarize yourself with the process of applying. Here are a few things that you may find helpful:
- Some scholarships at colleges are automatically awarded, which means that all the student needs to qualify is to enroll.
There are some ‘levels’ of scholarships depending on the college.
- For some colleges, students can submit their scholarship application along with their college application.
- For other colleges, students have to go through admissions and get accepted in the school first, before applying to scholarships. This kind of scholarship may have additional requirements such as:
- Extra application forms
- More essays
- Interviews (sometimes)
- School visits (mostly required for top prospects)
Why should you check out the Scholarship Guide for Busy Parents?
- It’s a free course presented in short and direct-to-the-point videos.
- It’s just enough for you to learn everything you need to know.
- It has examples you can learn from.
- It teaches you a bit about the process, which is perfect for getting started.
Links and Resources
Helpful Articles and Resources
- Taming The High Cost Of College
- The Scholarship Guide for Busy Parents
- Access Scholarships
- Too Cool to Pay for School $1,000 Scholarship
- Around the Corner from College $1,000 Scholarship
- Ayden Berkey’s Contact Info:
- Ayden Berley – Instagram
- Email – ayden@accessscholarships.com
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Brad Baldridge
Today's episode is all about scholarships. Where to find them, how to apply, how to win, and a great scholarship resource as well.
Presenter
You have kids, they grow up, and before you know it, it's time to plan for college. Where do you start? How much is it going to cost? Will you qualify for financial aid? Should you be looking into scholarships? When will you be able to retire? What about student loans? The list of questions is never-ending. The good news is all the answers are right here. Welcome to the Taming the High Cost of College Podcast. Here is your host, certified financial planner, Brad Baldridge.
Brad Baldridge
Hello, and welcome to Taming the High Cost of College. I'm your host, Brad Baldridge. Today's episode we've got a great interview with Ayden Berkey. She is the owner and operator of Access Scholarships, a great website that has a lot of good information on pursuing scholarships, as well as a search database where you can actually look up scholarships and find scholarships that are a good fit for you. She also even has office hours where you if you have questions, you can actually reach out to her and learn a little bit more. And then stay tuned because in Brad Recommends, we talk a little bit about my own scholarship resource called the Scholarship Guide for Busy Parents. And once you've learned a little bit from Ayden here, I recommend that you go on and dive into the Scholarship Guide for Busy Parents, because that will add additional scholarship information on top of what we learned here today. Alright, let's go ahead and jump into the interview.
Alright, today we're sitting down with Ayden Berkey. She's the co-founder of Access Scholarships. Welcome, Ayden.
Ayden Berkey
Thank you. Hi, Brad.
Brad Baldridge
Alright. So can you tell us a little bit more about Access Scholarships and what it is, and why parents would care?
Ayden Berkey
Yeah, definitely. So to give you an overview, Access Scholarships is a scholarship search engine. And it's also a resource platform that can be used by both students and parents to learn more about various aspects of financial aid of everything that goes into scholarships, whether it be how to search for them, how to apply for them, everything in between, and also just providing the actual scholarships that students and parents can go out there and search for. And yeah, it's really just meant to be an all-encompassing, free to use resource that families can utilize to learn about, like I said, all different aspects of financial aid. But it can also be incredibly helpful for families, and specifically students to use during their college years as they navigate certain aspects of extracurricular activities, and leadership and internships, studying and all sorts of things like that.
Brad Baldridge
Right. Okay. So you guys provide a platform to help people find scholarships. So one of the articles I ran across pretty quickly was an article that was speaking to pursuing scholarships as a junior, and you had a pretty long list of scholarships and other things. So can you tell us a little bit more about the scholarship timeline that, I guess parents and students, if they're new to this, when should they be working on it? And what should they be doing when?
Ayden Berkey
Yes, definitely. So I'm super glad that you pointed out that that blog post, because I actually just updated it this morning. And so usually, I think that personally, the best time for families to really get started with the scholarship process is, during that junior year of high school. There are certainly lots of scholarship opportunities out there for high school juniors, I believe I have listed at least 35 of them in that one blog post. But the great thing about starting out in the process, as a junior in high school is that there are lots of scholarship opportunities out there for you. But I feel like personally, the realm of opportunities really starts to open up as once you become a senior. So by students and their parents starting to get into the process as a junior, it gives you plenty of time to really do all your research, learn about scholarships, what they are, where you can find them, how to best be a competitive applicant in the process, so that by the time you start applying for scholarships, whether that's during your junior year, or as a senior, you are pretty set up for success. You're organized and pretty much ready to tackle any scholarship that you want to apply for.
Brad Baldridge
Right. So I, as an example, I had a family, and this would be 5, 6, 7 years ago now, but they did 41 scholarship applications and they won seven.
Ayden Berkey
Wow.
Brad Baldridge
They had $39,000 when you added it all up. And the reason I tell this story is when you do 39 scholarship applications, that's a lot of work, that isn't something that you knock out on a Sunday or two that's a...
Ayden Berkey
Yeah
Brad Baldridge
Many, many Sundays and they worked hard. Starting in the junior year, mom and dad participated, I think, that's the other challenge that families have, is if your idea of getting scholarships as mom and dad is to just assign it to your student and expect it to be done, I think you're asking for trouble. Because I think most students don't really understand how to pursue scholarships. And if you just say, 'Well, it's your job to go get scholarships,' most students, not intentionally, but they're going to, they have busy lives, they're pursuing prom and AP, this, and finals and testing and all the other stuff are on college and ending up high school. And the concept of chasing scholarships, I think, is a foreign thing, and they put it off, or when they do work on it, they're not very effective, so they get discouraged. So I think parents need to be involved and set some time to, to help your student. And so there is possibility of success. But what I see a lot is parents completely run out of time as well, because they're not really saying, 'Well, we're thinking about scholarships till maybe rolling into the senior year.' And then they've got applications and everything else. And that just, they just don't have the time to put that on the pile.
Ayden Berkey
Yeah, definitely. I think, I think that actually goes everything that you're saying about the importance of parents really being involved in in any way that they can in terms of helping their kids be prepared to apply for scholarships, I think that goes hand in hand with the importance of just having those conversations regarding financial aid and paying for college as a whole, as early as, as you possibly can. So maybe that means like, even freshmen or sophomore year, like having parents sit down with their students and say, 'I mean, college is a few years away, but these next few years will go very quickly.' So, having those conversations around financial aid and introducing the topic of scholarships early on, so that students can be prepared and really set themselves up for success. And parents definitely play a key role in in that journey, for sure.
Brad Baldridge
Right. Now, what do you, who do you see actually signing up for Access Scholarships? Is it again, I know there's also kids, and it's never too late for scholarships. You know, theoretically, if you're a junior in college, you could still work on scholarships for your senior year. But as far as high school-aged kids, do you see a lot of sophomores and juniors? Is it mostly seniors? And how does that work for the typical high school family?
Ayden Berkey
Definitely. So I think the majority of the high school students that I see interacting with the platform reaching out to me through social media and signing up for my office hour sessions, those students usually are either high school juniors or seniors. I will have the occasional sophomore reaching out to me asking about which scholarships am I eligible for, am I even eligible to apply for scholarships. The answer is, yes, there definitely are scholarships out there for high school students of all years, but they definitely do tend to trend more towards those upper classmen. And in terms of, I guess, who utilizes the platform overall, it definitely is skewed more towards students. However, each month of the year, I post some sort of virtual webinar or event, they can range from topics related to college admissions, to test prep, to financial aid and scholarships, of course. And those are definitely the, I guess, aspects of the platform where I see the highest number of parents really participating and just wanting to learn more about the college admissions process more about how to be a competitive scholarship applicant, and, and all fun stuff like that.
Brad Baldridge
Yes, yeah. And that's where I talked to parents as well, as the junior year is the time to lay down your strategy around testing, your visits, school research. And then scholarships is also on that list of, 'Well, what is your plan for scholarships?' Because if you start searching in your junior year, and you run across the scholarship that says you have to be a senior to apply, well, most scholarships happen every year. So you just, you write that one down and put it in your reminder system. And you apply for it the next year.
Ayden Berkey
Yeah.
Brad Baldridge
But again, I think most families need to learn the landscape of how do scholarships work and that type of thing, so that they can build a plan that makes sense. And if you're starting at square one, you need to maybe do a little research, I noticed on your website as well, that you've got a number of articles about the process.
Ayden Berkey
Yeah, so I guess, like the importance of, I think, starting as a high school junior or the importance of parents really incorporating students into the scholarship process as a junior as opposed to sitting down at the beginning of your senior year and really trying to balance and juggle the scholarship process with college admissions and doing tours and finishing up any test prep, if that's relevant for the student, I think senior year definitely has a lot going on for the students and for the parents, just in terms of really navigating everything that comes with trying to figure out the college applications and what comes next. So if parents can really introduce their students to the scholarship landscape and kind of get everything related to it pretty ironed out and feeling familiar going to the senior year, then that's definitely an optimal situation.
Brad Baldridge
Right. So now a family is wanting to take advantage of your platform. What does it cost, and a little more about how does it work?
Ayden Berkey
Definitely. So the Access Scholarships platform, the website, our search engine, all of the resources on the website are 100% free to use by students, families, parents, pretty much anyone that wants to log on can freely access any of the information that I have put out there. And the reason why I did that was because I always think of it as a pretty paradoxical situation, right? Like, there are, thousands, and thousands, and thousands of families out there that are struggling to figure out how they're going to pay for college. And I wanted access scholarships to be a platform that is truly just a helpful resource for those families that are trying to figure out how they're going to make those ends meet. So it did seem a little bit like paradoxical to charge families a fee of any kind to sign up to access information about scholarships. So that was one thing that was super important to me, making the platform free for anyone who wants to find that information, they can easily find it and navigate through all of our resource pages, all of our scholarships. And I also do offer free, free office hours for students, which parents of course, are more than happy to sit in on as well, those office hours take place every Friday, so students can sign up to chat with me about scholarships for a half an hour period of time on a Friday, and they can easily sign up for those office hours on my main 'Student Resources' page on the Access Scholarships website.
Brad Baldridge
Right. Okay, so you'll actually jump on a, I guess, a Zoom call of some sort and work with families, and then you have multiple people at the same time? So if it's your turn to ask questions, or is it private? Or is it more just whoever's on there, ask questions, and everybody gets to hear the answers?
Ayden Berkey
Yeah, so at the moment, it's definitely more geared towards one-on-one. So for example, a student might reach out to me on Instagram, or they might comment on one of my TikToks and say, like, 'I don't know where to start with scholarships, I need help.' So usually, from there, I will say, 'Okay, great. I'd love to help you out. Here are a few, initial blog posts and resources that I suggest checking out. And if you still have questions after that, or let's say you're working on an essay for a scholarship, and you just want some help narrowing down your topics, or some basic editing and things like that, then feel free to sign up for my office hours. And you and I can sit down over Google Meet or Zoom and chat for that period of time, and we'll see how I can help.' So they're definitely more geared towards one-on-one at the moment.
Brad Baldridge
Okay. So I guess for the scholarship process, there's kind of three steps, there were two steps, for sure, and you really want the third step as well. But so there's the find the scholarship, apply to this scholarship, win the scholarship. And
Ayden Berkey
Right
Brad Baldridge
There's no point in doing the first two steps if you don't really have a chance of, of winning. So you tell me a little bit. I've noticed on your website, you had some strategies around figuring out which ones make sense to apply to, or how does the process work in that regard of, you know, should I spend my time filling this one out, or that one out? Or skip both of these and go on and find a better one?
Ayden Berkey
Right, so the main piece of advice that I have for students when it comes to, because the reality is that there are, thousands and thousands of scholarships out there. And as a student, you likely don't have the time to apply for thousands and thousands of scholarships. So you have to learn how to be selective and be picky in terms of the ones that you do choose to spend your time on, right? So with that, I would say that the main piece of advice that I tell students is to really try and find the scholarships that are as specific or unique to your profile as possible. So before a student even sits down to apply for any scholarships, like let's say a student is completely new to the process. One thing that I always suggest is to either open up a Word document or even just sit down with a pen and a pad of paper and start writing down or bulleting a list of things that you feel make up who you are, right? So what state do you live in? What's your GPA? What's your intended area of study? What extracurricular activities are you involved in? What are your passions outside of academics? And then there's all these other random things. For example, there are scholarships out there for twins, there are scholarships out there for people who are super tall or left handed or various other quirky aspects of your makeup as a person. So I always encourage students to create that initial list of everything that you feel makes up who you are. And then it ultimately will make it easier to search for scholarships, because let's say you're a STEM major. So maybe you're an engineering student, right? It's probably a lot more helpful to search for scholarships for women in STEM, as opposed to just scholarships for STEM students, right? So anything that you can do to make it so that you're searching for scholarships that are as specific to your profile as possible, will likely mean that the competition is slightly less, because you're not in an application pool with thousands of other students may be the terms and I guess conditions to that specific scholarship, make it so that less people can apply. So you're competing against fewer people. So
Brad Baldridge
Okay, so I'd say I have something unique. Like, I'm a redhead, that's relatively unique.
Ayden Berkey
Yeah.
Brad Baldridge
I've tried to find scholarships for redheads. And I did find one where, and it was a very, it was $500. It was on a website that was kind of defunct. And it essentially said, the guy that put it together, he said, I created the scholarship for redheads because I searched for one and I couldn't find it. So I decided I had to put one out there. And it looks like it was kind of a, a passion project or something he was doing in his spare time, just as kind of a joke. And looks like he got tired of it. Because the last time it was awarded was eight years ago. But the remnants of it was still out on the internet. So I guess we're in your platform, how does that work? If we have some uniquenesses that we're trying to put into you have a way to, is it free form? Or is there a list that we check boxes? Or how does the search parameters work within your program?
Ayden Berkey
Yeah, definitely. So when students go on to our scholarship search, they can enter in their major, their area or their intended area of study, their GPA, any extracurriculars that they're involved in, whether that be a sport, or some sort of leadership or anything like that. And at the moment, our platform doesn't quite get as specific as you know, you can't just search like, 'Oh, I'm a redhead,' or like, 'What color is my hair,' right?
Brad Baldridge
Right.
Ayden Berkey
Once, once you, once you do go through to the results page, you can use our keyword search box to, you know, let's say you, you did want to see if there were any scholarships for redheads, you could type the word 'redhead' into the search box, and see if any corresponding scholarship does come up. So that's currently how the search engine aspect of the platform works. And I guess the other main area of the website, which I'm trying to build out in terms of giving students and parents the opportunities to find some really great opportunities for scholarships is the blog. So on the Access Scholarships blog, which you already found by that post that was titled 'Scholarships for High School Juniors,' I am, pretty much on a weekly basis, trying to put out new content that I think will be relevant for students. So I have scholarship posts for college students, scholarships for graduate students, scholarships for engineering students, and the list goes on and on and on. So once I feel like I have put together a decent list of scholarships that pertain to a specific area of students, then I'll go ahead and put that into a blog post, because I just think it's a super helpful and easy way for students to search for scholarships based on various aspects of who they are, right? So
Brad Baldridge
Right, so, then some of the scholars stuff that might be in your blog post as an example, that automatically be in the search as well or is that additional scholarships beyond what's on your platform?
Ayden Berkey
So all of the scholarships that are featured in any blog post that that I put together are already somewhere in the Access Scholarships search engine. The reason why I also will curate these blog posts like '20 scholarships for this type of student,' '10 scholarships for this type of student' is because I've discovered through chatting with students, since I've started this journey that using the search engine aspect of the platform can sometimes be overwhelming and every student is different in terms of of how they prefer to take in new information and get started with that process. So I thought that making these lists was just a good, I guess, side partner to some students may be preferred to just search directly through the engine, others may be preferential towards scrolling through those blog posts to find scholarships that way. So just a different way of getting the information about the scholarships that are out there.
Brad Baldridge
Right. So let's talk a little bit about applying for scholarships, then once we found the scholarships you're interested in applying for, what, typically, are we going to have to do in order to actually apply?
Ayden Berkey
Right, which is a great question, very important aspect of the process for sure. So every scholarship is unique and different in terms of the application requirements that it may have for students who are wanting to apply, generally, the majority of scholarships out there will ask for, I guess, the most popular or most common application requirements that students will come across as they apply for scholarships are uploading a transcript. So you know, so that the scholarship committee can see your GPA, they can see which which classes you take in, things like that. So they'll ask for a transcript, they might ask for letters of recommendation from teachers, coaches, anyone else in your community who you've been involved with, in some capacity, whether that's academic or extracurricular, they may ask for an essay, or a series of short essay submissions. Scholarships also sometimes asked for a video submission upload. So maybe a requirement will be recorded two-minute video of you responding to this question about, why you deserve X scholarship and uploaded onto our platform. So those are generally some of the most common application requirements that students will likely see. As you get further into applying for some of the more competitive scholarships, like, for example, some of those full ride scholarship opportunities, students will generally also have to take part in interviews and other things along the way, just to further talk to the committee and really convince them of why they are deserving of that opportunity.
Brad Baldridge
Right. So I guess a lot of the parents that our listening may not have chased many scholarships in their day. And if they did, they might have been actually filling out scholarship applications with a typewriter to kind of put this into context. So are you saying that the application process happens right on your site? Or do you just send is it linked out other places where you go? And I mean, I'm assuming most of this stuff, now you're doing it online in some form, but are you filling out forms or you type it into a website? Or is it like filling out the FAFSA, where you put a bunch of data into a website somewhere, and then send it to many places?
Ayden Berkey
Right. So for example, if a student finds a scholarship on on the access scholarships platform that they want to apply for, and the majority of the of the opportunities that we have featured in the database are by private organizations. So for example, like a Taco Bell, or a Microsoft, right, so let's say a student wants to apply for one of Microsoft scholarships, they would click on the 'Apply Now' button that is featured on that specific scholarship page on Access Scholarships, and it would then direct them to the actual scholarship page on Microsoft's website. So from there, it definitely varies depending on... Some organizations will offer a wide variety of scholarships, and students only need to fill out one application to then be considered for multiple opportunities. For other scholarships, it's, a student needs to fill out one individual application for each scholarship that they would like to apply for. And that's generally I think, the more common of the two, but there are definitely organizations out there, for example, I know that the Society of Women Engineers offers I think, probably at least 100 scholarships, and for students to be eligible or I mean, for students to apply, they simply fill out one application on the SWE website, and then they are considered for every scholarship that they're deemed eligible for.
Brad Baldridge
Okay, so it wouldn't be unusual to get redirected to the website that actually operates the scholarship. So we shouldn't be surprised to find ourselves on a different website that's then asking for information.
Ayden Berkey
Yep, correct. And so that is generally the most common way that that these applications occur so a student will find a scholarship on Access Scholarships. So click the 'Apply Now' button and it will take them directly to that that specific organization scholarship application page, so that the students can learn more and you know, decide whether or not they want to apply from there?
Brad Baldridge
Right. All right, so now we've done the first two steps, we've found scholarships we're interested in, we figured out how to apply, how do we actually win, what, any strategies or ideas around being more successful and actually winning the scholarship?
Ayden Berkey
Definitely. And these, it's actually funny because when I talk about tips for optimal success in terms of winning scholarships, I feel like, sometimes students are like, 'Oh, no, you're spilling all the secrets.' But this is all information that is very readily available on Access Scholarships website, I have a blog post on strategies for winning scholarships. And so just as an FYI, this is not, certainly not private information. And I want all students and parents to be aware of these tips, when they're going into the scholarship process, the first tip that I have, is to really put a lot of emphasis on those extra submissions that a scholarship may have. So for example, if you're applying for a scholarship, and they want to see your transcript, they want to see a letter of recommendation, and they want to see maybe two essays, right? So definitely, your essays are going to be the portion of the application where you really have the opportunity to show the committee who you are as a person, why you're unique, and what, what you bring to the table that maybe other applicants don't. And a lot of times, that's not information that you can easily convey through just uploading your transcript, right? While that information does give a lot of insight into, you know, the rigor of the classes that you've taken and maybe even a little bit of how strong of a student you are, the essays, and those extra submission areas are the place where you can really stand out as an applicant. And so that's why I like to put a lot of emphasis on helping students craft really strong and unique and memorable essays. Because ultimately, I think that that is one of the places that gets the most emphasis in terms of determining whether a student is going to be moving on in terms of that application process or whether they will be selected, or if they won't be selected.
Brad Baldridge
Right. Okay. So, as we're kind of wrapping things up here, if people want to learn more about your website and get in contact with you, can you share out, however it is that you're best contacted?
Ayden Berkey
Definitely. So anyone, students, parents can easily, head over to accessscholarships.com to get started with your scholarship search to browse through, I have tons of pages of resources, starting in January of 2022, we will be revamping up with our next virtual events. So anyone can go there just to sign up for that event once, once it is in the works of being planned. And then anyone can also follow Access Scholarships on Instagram, I use the platform quite frequently to post about scholarship opportunities to post tips about scholarships and all fun stuff like that. And families can also reach me directly by email at ayden@accessscholarships.com to get any other questions answered, and chat more.
Brad Baldridge
All right. Well, thank you very much for all the great information. And we'll stay in touch and I'm sure we'll talk again.
Ayden Berkey
Yep. Thanks so much Brad for having me.
Brad Baldridge
All right, that was a great interview, I recommend everybody go check out Access Scholarships. It's a great website. Again, it's got some great information as far as the database, and she's always putting out great information you can also follow on social. But again, if you think scholarships are in your future, I think that's a great place for your students and parents to follow along. As always, all the information is available in our show notes. That would be at tamingthehighcostofcollege.com/142, as this is episode 142. If you enjoy these podcasts around please share them with your school counselor and your friends. Most people don't know we exist, most people don't know that they can get help for college. So I'll point them in the right direction and give them a helping hand. And of course you can also give us a review. We appreciate any reviews we can get as well. Alright, stick around for Brad Recommends where we talk about the Scholarship Guide for Busy Parents, your next step as far as pursuing scholarships.
Presenter
The latest tips, tricks, and tools you can use today. This is Brad Recommends on Taming the High Cost of College.
Brad Baldridge
Today I'm recommending the Scholarship Guide for Busy Parents. That's a free resource we have on our website at tamingthehighcostofcollege.com/scholarships will get you there. But you can sign up for our free resource that helps families understand the three different types of scholarships. So we just listened to a lot of information about private scholarships or outside scholarships, again scholarships that come from locations other than the college themselves, corporations and charities and that type of thing. But in addition to what we've learned about here, you really need to understand, you can also get scholarships from the colleges you're attending. And those scholarships can come in the form of need-based or merit-based scholarships, and in sometimes some families will get both. So you need to understand those options as well, because they can make a big difference as well. And I think many families are a bit confused about the different types of scholarships. And when they hear that rumor of, 'Well, so and so got a scholarship,' they're not getting the whole story, as far as, what was it, need-based? Was it merit-based? Did it come from a corporation, or did it come from the college itself? I mean, as an example, there's many colleges out there that claim that more than 99% of their applicants will win a scholarship. So at some colleges, there's some scholarships that are just automatic. So you're not going to have to spend a lot of time pursuing the scholarships, all you need to do is apply and they'll give you a scholarship. Now at many colleges, there's different levels of scholarship as well. Some you'll also need to apply, fill out financial aid. And then finally, at some colleges, there's some scholarships where you need to apply to the college, be accepted, and then from there, you can go on fill out financial aid, and then finally, do something extra, fill out an additional application, and additional essay, some sort of additional work, sometimes it's an interview. And sometimes colleges will invite some of their top prospects to pursue scholarships. So all those different types of scholarships are certainly available out there. And the Scholarship Guide for Busy Parents will go into a little more detail, give you some examples, and help you through the process a little bit more. So I encourage you to go check out the resource. It's four videos, each video is relatively short and to the point. And again, it's not going to give you everything you need to know, but it'll help get you started and then you can decide if you need to go a little deeper into the various types of scholarships. Alright, that's all we have for today. As always, show notes are available at our website and we appreciate any sort of reviews. If you need help directly, you can certainly reach out to us at our website as well. There's a 'Contact Us', there's 'Work with Brad' if you're interested in getting more information along those regards as well. I appreciate you listening and we'll see you next week!
Presenter
Thank you for listening to the Taming the High Cost of College Podcast. Now it's time for you to take action. Head to tamingthehighcostofcollege.com for show notes, bonus content, and to leave feedback for Brad. The next step on your college journey starts now. Brad Baldridge is a registered representative of Cambridge Investment Research and an investment advisor representative of Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, a registered investment advisor. Securities are offered through Cambridge Investment Research Incorporated, a broker dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. Brad owns two companies, Baldridge Wealth Management and Baldridge College Solutions. The Baldridge companies are not affiliated with Cambridge Investment Research.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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