Have you taken a look at the cost of attending nursing school? It’s enough to scare the dickens out of anyone considering a career in professional nursing. Although there are thousands of programs designed to ease the financial burden, just looking at them all can easily transform that fear into anxiety. That is, unless you know what you’re looking for. Nursing school grants and scholarships are the two most common funding sources you’ll find and the good news is that unlike loans, neither require repayment.
Understand first, that there’s a significant difference between grants and scholarships. A grant is a monetary fund ‘granted’ by both the government and non-profit organizations. A scholarship is a monetary fund ‘awarded’ by a business or private individual. In addition, a grant can be used to fund any part of a student’s nursing education while a scholarship may be limited to tuition or dormitory costs.
The ‘grant’ and ‘award’ aspect of each resource is important. A grant is often granted to anyone who applies, but a scholarship is awarded to a single individual out of a pool of applicants. Both resources can be low on funds at times and toughen the selection process – making academic performance and financial need critical factors in final decisions.
Your diligence in locating appropriate grant and scholarship resources will increase your chances of getting the funds you need. The first place you should look is at the nursing programs that you’re interested in attending. Their guidance counselors will not only give you a list of the programs that work with them, they’ll also give you the necessary applications.
You don’t want to stop your search there, however. Hit the internet for even more opportunities. With the right searching skills, you can quickly zero in on grants and scholarships appropriate for your chosen nursing program and nursing career.
Once you’ve got a small collection of applications in front of you, read each one over carefully and note the unique requirements. Grant applications are pretty straightforward and resemble the typical application (simple questions, answers, etc.). Scholarship applications are a bit different however. Depending on where the scholarship comes from, a scholarship application may require several letters of recommendation and an essay. It may even require a work commitment.
Some scholarships are granted on the premise that their recipients will work at a specific establishment after graduating. That establishment could be a clinic, a hospital, or even a school as a nursing teacher.
The only requirement that both grant and scholarship applications may have in common, is the need to prove financial need. In this case, applications may need to accompany personal tax or earned income statements. If a nursing school applicant doesn’t have access to these documents, the student’s parents are responsible for their availability.
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