Scholarship Alert: Upromise

Upromise is giving away big scholarship money again this year. I applied last year, and I didn’t get it – and I would reapply this year, if only I weren’t graduating! But if you apply early, you might have a really good shot.

From the site:

Everyone knows college costs are on the rise. And while you’re doing your best to save, you’re probably going to need some help.

As part of our mission to make college more accessible, we’ve increased the amount of our Upromise scholarship fund to $500,000, twice what it was when we introduced it a year ago. That means 200 of the best and brightest students will receive scholarships of $2,500 each for the 2009-2010 academic year.

You must be a Upromise member to win. Awards will be based on need and merit. Applications must be received by February 28, 2009.

What does "need and merit" mean? Need seems to simply mean that you have a combined family adjusted gross income of $65,000 or less, and merit means having a GPA of 3.0 or higher. These are just the base requirements to qualify – meeting them doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll win.

Other base requirements?

• Be a Upromise member (which you should be already, but if you’re not, you have the option to sign up) or child of a Upromise member
• Be a US citizen or legal permanent resident residing in one of the 50 states
• Be a high school senior or graduate planning to enroll in the 2009-2010 school year, OR be already enrolled in a full-time undergrad program.

This scholarship is most definitely worth a shot, if you meet all the base requirements. It’s good money, and it looks like they’ll have it every year, so save all of your info from this year, so you can edit it and re-use it if you apply again next year!

There’s one month left to apply, so I suggest you do it right away! Anecdotal evidence says that when two equal candidates are up for the same award, the one who applied first will usually be picked.