Finding Scholarship Opportunities

Once you’re here at SUU, there are even more scholarships and opportunities available to you! If you want extra opportunities to fund your college education, you’ve come to the right place.

Step 1: Departmental Scholarships

Departmental Scholarships are scholarships offered depending on your major or college that you study under. For example, an accounting major will see scholarships offered to students in the College of Business AND those offered to accounting majors only. If you haven’t picked a major yet, don’t worry! There are some scholarships available to the entire SUU student body.

Because these are local, specific scholarships, you are only competing with people at you college and major. These always open November 1st and they are awarded for the next school year. Make sure to apply for as many as you can and write your scholarship essays well before the deadline!

Housing scholarships through the Leavitt Foundation also open up on November 1st. If you are looking for reduced cost housing, apply for this scholarship through your portal.

A NOTE ABOUT SCHOLARSHIP ESSAYS (AKA PERSONAL STATEMENTS):
Most scholarships require some sort of essay. A scholarship essay, or personal statement, is a basic essay explaining your goals in going to college, your life’s mission, obstacles you have had to overcome, and why this is important to you. We suggest you write this essay before you even find a scholarship you want to apply to. By getting this base down, you will have an essay prepared to send to most scholarships or a solid foundation to build upon. If you need to write an essay based on a specific prompt, be sure to visit the Writing Center to have them review and edit your essay.

Step 2:

Once you’ve applied for your departmental scholarships, your next best option is to look at local and state scholarships. Utah has quite a few state scholarships available to residents; check out this list of Private Scholarship Opportunities and Utah College Advising Corps' scholarship blog. If you are an out-of-state student, check your state’s education department or your school and city for possible scholarships that can be used at SUU.

Step 3:

After you’ve applied for departmental scholarships and your local city/state scholarships, next up is to try national scholarships. These scholarships are far more competitive, since you are competing with students throughout the US! You will want to find scholarships that fit you, not general scholarships.

Search for scholarships with key descriptive words about you and your major. For example, if you are a female accounting major, search for “women in accounting” scholarships or “women in business” scholarships. If you are a person of color, search for scholarships that specialize in ethnically diverse recipients. If you have a dream job as a marine biologist, search for ‘marine science scholarships’. If you have had a major event happen in your life, search for “scholarships for cancer survivors” or “scholarships for people with learning disabilities”. There are many, many scholarships out there, the trick is filtering out the ones just for you.

If you need any assistance in finding scholarships or writing scholarship essays, please visit us today!