College Affordability for Minority Students: Scholarships, Grants, & More
College affordability is a matter in question for the majority of college students of all races and ethnicities. For many applicants, scholarships can help to offset education costs and may even supplement other forms of financial aid. Minority scholarships, in particular, can help level the playing field for minority groups underrepresented in U.S. colleges and universities. The total amount of scholarships for minorities has risen dramatically over the last decade, with more than $96 billion in grants allocated to Hispanic, Alaska-Native, Native Hawaiian, and minority STEM students by the U.S. Department of Education as recently as 2014.
Though a wealth of minority scholarships exist today, each year many eligible students miss out on these scholarships and other special funding opportunities because they find the research process too difficult; awards are often sponsored by so many different organizations and dispersed among so many different institutions that locating minority scholarships specific to your situation can seem nearly impossible. We developed our guide to finding scholarships for minorities to help students just like you maximize their financial aid opportunities. We'll provide you with easy access to the minority scholarships that could mean big savings for your educational investment, all in one place.
Unique Challenges Minority Students Face
While efforts to increase diversity across U.S. campuses through minority scholarships and aid are actually working, we still have a very long way to go. In somewhat of a holding pattern that has deemed education " still separate and unequal ," minorities continues to face significant resource gaps when it comes to educational attainment, though the minority population is expected to eclipse white students in education in the U.S. by the year 2022. Minority student groups including African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans historically have less access to a full range of high-level courses, are underrepresented in gifted and talented programs, and score lower on AP tests compared to their white counterparts—all while studying at the high school level and potentially preparing to enter higher education.
Experts attribute these challenges to disadvantages in wealth, health, parental education, criminal justice, and other socio-economic statistics affecting quality of life in minority communities. African-American students, for example, are among the lowest-income groups, and attain bachelor's and advanced degrees at roughly half the rate of their white counterparts. Through links to scholarships for Hispanics and Latino scholarships, African-American scholarships, Native American scholarships, Pacific Islander scholarships, and Asian-American scholarships, our list is designed to help eliminate financial barriers that often discourage minority college enrollees and may prevent them from completing their education and earning a degree. Please note, as the definition of "minority" is far broader than one of nationality or heritage, our list was assembled with inclusion in mind, in order to provide maximum financial aid resources to our diverse student readership.
Scholarships for African-American Students
Scholarships for Hispanic and Latino Students
Scholarships for Native American Students
Scholarships for Asian and Pacific Islander Students
Scholarships for Arab American Students
Scholarships for Undocumented Students
Scholarships for First-Generation College Students
Scholarships for LGBTQIA Students
Scholarship and Financial Aid Checklist
Start building your resume early – look for engagement opportunities such as volunteering within related community groups or organizations in your chosen field.
Make contacts by establishing relationships with teachers, employers, and community leaders who inspire you, and ask for letters of recommendation well in advance.
Find the right fit – research the awards most relevant to you; once you know your school, research awards offered by that institution.
ALWAYS complete the FAFSA on time!
Collect and save materials in a safe place – compile resumes, recommendation letters, transcripts, portfolios, essays, and tax records to send with your applications.
Be organized – keep calendars of application deadlines, follow-up plans, and your to-do lists.
Distinguish yourself – be compelling and try to set yourself apart from other candidates in all points of contact, be it essays, interviews, or recommendations.
If the requirements demand it, you may need to verify your heritage using a resource like this (use Native American checker site); this is especially common among scholarships for Native Americans that may require proof of a student's membership in a federally or state-recognized tribe.
Consider pursuing financial aid opportunities for all minority and other classifications that may apply to you; for example, some scholarships for Latinos or Asian-American scholarships may also be tailored to women or majors in a specific field of study.
Apply to every general, all-inclusive minority scholarship that you can find!
Additional Resources
United We Dream : This resource was designed especially for immigrant students and their families to provide educational and empowerment opportunities to improve equity and increase attainment rates for this population within the higher education system.
Scholly : Scholly is a comprehensive app specifically designed to help students find, apply for, and track college scholarship awards; with sponsorship directly from many major colleges and universities offering financial aid, Scholly has helped students earn more than $70 million in grants and scholarships.
Federal Student Aid : As many scholarships require a student to demonstrate financial need or provide family income information, this federal site overseen by the U.S. Department of Education should be your first step toward applying for aid.
Fastweb : This aggregate site not only lets students tailor their search for scholarships by grade level, essay requirements, citizenship status, and more, but can also help find internships and loans for college-bound students.
College Scholarships : One of the oldest scholarship search sites, College Scholarships has been helping students find funding for college since 1999. The site offers grants, scholarships, loans, and other federal funding opportunities, filtered by gender, school level, ethnicity, award amount, or location.
Good Call : Good Call's comprehensive guide to applying for scholarships features information on everything from the difference between grants and scholarships to tips on how to ace your essay and scholarship interviews.
4-H Club Programs : Through programs designed to inspire and encourage farming and agriculture leadership from a young age, the 4-H Club is a national organization awarding hundreds of college scholarships to students studying ecology, science, and STEM disciplines each year.
Elks National Foundation Scholarship Programs : This national foundation offers a series of lucrative and highly competitive awards to undergraduate students each year, including the Most Valuable Student Scholarship, which features a first-place prize of $50,000.
United Technologies Employee Scholar Program : With a goal to "have the best-educated workforce on the planet," United Technologies offers one of the most extensive employee-sponsored education programs in existence today, complete with full financial benefits that allow anyone in the company's global workforce to earn a college degree.
Scholarships.com : Featured on CNN and MSNBC and in Forbes , Scholarships.com may be the most prominent of all aggregate student funding directories; the site includes dozens of filters to help students find the perfect scholarships to fit their needs, as well as a college search, relevant scholarship news, and more.
RightStudent : Powered by and partnered exclusively with Scholarships.com, this site is a tool developed for college recruiters and admissions officers to be matched with qualified students who might be the perfect fit at their school. Through RightStudent, college prospects can be put in contact with recruiters directly, to learn about targeted school and scholarship applications at the same time.
Scholarship America : With 325 collegiate partners, Scholarship America was designed to help students learn about potentially hidden opportunities to maximize their financial aid; the organization features a Dollars to Dollars matching program to help students find supplemental funding while retaining the full benefits of their existing financial aid package.
RMHC : The Ronald McDonald House Charities have long been a provider of scholarships and grants to help students from all walks of life achieve a college education. The organization's efforts since 1985 have awarded more than $60 million in financial aid to college students in need.
UNCF : Each year, the historic United Negro College Fund provides scholarships totaling more than $100 million that enable tens of thousands of students to attend college; the organization's support includes but is not limited to an esteemed network of 37 HBCUs, and also encompasses prominent awards including the Gates Millennium Scholars Program and the UNCF/Koch Scholars Program.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation : Not only a provider of one of the nation's most lucrative and distinguished scholarships, the Gates Millennium Scholars program, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation instills the same equity-minded values into its other programming, which includes hundreds of global initiatives toward health, human development, and policy and advocacy initiatives for students and scholars around the world.