Done with Your College Apps? Resist the Temptation to Get Lost in “Scholarship Land”

On The Choice, a current college applicant recently blogged about the dizzying number of private scholarships available.

How much time should you devote to searching for and applying to such scholarships? Consider the following:

• Private scholarships constitute just six percent of all grant aid in the U.S.
• If you win a private scholarship, many schools will reduce the amount of need-based grant aid they award you.

My advice: don’t take on so many scholarship apps that your academics—or your sanity—suffers. Private scholarships can help, but chances are they’ll be a relatively minor factor in the net cost of your college education.