Universities Weblog

(Source: Vassar College)Anyone familiar with college fund raising knows that donors can restrict scholarship gifts so narrowly that it's sometimes difficult to find students who meet their criteria. Donors may prefer students with a particular major, or from a particular city, or with a particular set of extracurricular interests. And some donors combine all of those attributes in their restrictions. Good luck finding worthy candidates. As a result, millions of dollars go unclaimed each year.

Other obscure and peculiar scholarships do find happy recipients who happen to be lucky enough to fit the bill.

Here's a bit from the New York Times:

Every year, millions in scholarships and financial aid are awarded at more than 4,200 colleges and universities. But other scholarships, amounting to perhaps several million dollars more, are tied up in endowments that have rules so obscure and restrictive that they are rarely tapped—even as the cost of higher education soars. [....]

By and large, these unusual scholarships are holdovers from the 19th and early 20th centuries, education officials said, when benefactors endowed scholarships through a will or an informal letter, setting terms that have not always kept pace with the times. "Finding a Baptist minister's daughter is a little bit hard these days," said Michael P. Fraher, director of financial aid at Vassar College, referring to a requirement for one scholarship there. [....]

Then there are those scholarships that are unusual but have no shortage of takers. Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., has a $1,000 scholarship for left-handed students. David Letterman set up a $10,000 top award at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., for telecommunication students who have a creative mind. There are scholarships for tall people, short people and fat people.

Loyola University in Chicago has a scholarship for Catholics with the last name of Zolp, which is currently filled. The university has not had to do any extraordinary recruiting. "We've had quite a few Zolps come through," said Edward R. Moore, the university's scholarship director. "They seem to know about it."So if you're strapped for cash and can't find enough financial aid, browse the scholarship catalog one more time. You just might find something bizarre enough to qualify for.

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