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Top 50 Scholarships for College Freshmen in November 2022
Scholarships are not only for high school students. There are many great scholarships for college freshmen out there. Applying to scholarships once you’ve already started school can help you reduce future tuition payments and ensure that you can remain in school even if you encounter any unexpected financial obstacles.
Our team has assembled a thoroughly-vetted list of the top scholarships for college freshman to help you start your applications. Let’s get into it!
- Top scholarships for college freshmen
- How to win scholarships for college freshmen
- Tips for college freshmen
- Frequently asked questions
- Additional scholarships
50 Scholarships for College Freshmen in November 2022
The Scholarships360 Research Team reviews all scholarships individually and strives to exclude any scholarship where any of the below applies:
- The scholarship requires a fee to apply
- The scholarship provider’s privacy policy allows for the misuse of student data
- The scholarship requires paid membership in an organization (with certain exceptions for reputable trade organizations and others)
- Student are required to sign up for a site or service to apply*
- The scholarship seems primarily used for lead generation** or idea harvesting purposes***
- The scholarship website has many grammatical errors and/or advertisements
- The scholarship or scholarship providing organization seem untrustworthy
- There is no evidence the scholarship was previously awarded
- The scholarship has not been awarded in the past 12 months
- There is no available contact information
If you believe a scholarship has been published in error, please reach out to [email protected] and we’ll take a look!
* There are certain exceptions to this, for example if the sponsoring organization is a major corporation or nonprofit with its own scholarship application system.
** Lead generation scholarships will require students to sign up for an app or website and require minimal (if any) application requirements.
***Idea harvesting scholarships will require students to submit blog posts or other materials that companies may use for marketing purposes.
$10,000 “No Essay” Scholarship
Scholarships360 Exclusive
Easy scholarship open to all US-based high school, college, community college and graduate students.
$2,000 Nitro College Scholarship – No Essay
Sponsored
Easy scholarship open to all high school, college, community and graduate students.
Niche $50,000 “No Essay” College Scholarship
Sponsored
Open to high school and college students, as well as anyone looking to attend college or graduate school in the next year.
ServiceScape Scholarship
Offered by ServiceScape
Open to graduating high school seniors and current college students who submit a 300 word essay.
JCS Beauty “Nourish and Shine” BIPOC Cosmetology Scholarship
Offered by Beauty Changes Lives
Open to new or currently enrolled Black/African American students at a cosmetology program leading to licensure in the U.S. or Canada.
$2,500 November ScholarshipPoints Scholarship
Sponsored
Easy $10k scholarship from ScholarshipPoints open to all students.
Addiction Awareness Scholarship
Offered by Seasons in Malibu
Open to students entering college or already enrolled in college who are pursuing any major and can shed light on issues about addiction.
Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (ACFEA) War Veterans Scholarship
Offered by Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (ACFEA)
Open to persons on active duty and honorably discharged military veterans who are pursuing an undergraduate degree in a STEM field.
African American Leadership Society STEM Scholarship
Offered by United Way of South Hampton Roads
Open to African American high school seniors & college students from Hamptons Roads interested in STEM.
International Student Scholarship
Sponsored
Open to undergraduate international students studying in the United States and who are paying out-of-state tuition.
$10,000 CollegeXpress Scholarship
Sponsored
Annual $10k scholarship from CollegeXpress open to all high school students.
SMART Scholarship Program
Offered by U.S. Department of Defense
Open to postsecondary students studying one of SMART's 21 approved STEM disciplines.
Barbara Lotze Scholarship for Future Physics Teachers
Offered by American Association of Physics Teachers
Open to high school seniors and college students who are leading toward a career in physics teaching in the high schools.
NAMM President’s Innovation Award
Offered by NAMM Foundation
Open to college and graduate students who are enrolled in college/university music or music business programs.
ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) Scholarships
Offered by American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers
Open to undergraduates studying engineering to work in the Heating, Refrigerating, and/or Air-Conditioning industries.
Worthy Women’s Scholarship
Offered by Worthy
Open to women age 30 or older who have decided to enroll in school to pursue their passions.
Job-Applications.com Working Parent College Scholarship Award
Offered by job-applications.com
Working parents who are enrolled in an accredited U.S. postsecondary educational institution.
Science Ambassador Scholarship
Offered by Cards Against Humanity
Female high school seniors and undergraduate students who submit a three-minute educational video on a STEM topic they're passionate about.
$25k “Be Bold” No-Essay Scholarship
Sponsored
Easy scholarship open to high school students, college students, community college students, and graduate students.
Niche $2,000 “No Essay” College Scholarship
Sponsored
Easy scholarship from Niche open to all high school, college, and graduate students.
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How to win scholarships for college freshmen
Now that you’ve got a list of some great opportunities, it’s time to start your applications. Most scholarships receive a huge number of applicants, so it’s important to ensure that your application stands out from the crowd.
Essays are one of the best ways to showcase what makes you unique on a scholarship application. To ace your essay, check out our “Show, Don’t Tell” essay primer, and our guide on how to write an essay about yourself. And if you need a little nudge to get you started, try out our guide on how to start a scholarship essay – we’ve even included a few examples to inspire you to get that first word on the page!
It’s also important to keep word limits in mind as you write your essay. Different scholarships put different limits on their essay prompts, and you should adjust the scope of your essay based on those limits. Our guides to writing 250 and 500 word essays can help you tune your writing to these different limits.
Also see: The ultimate guide to finding and winning scholarships
Tips for college freshmen
Freshman year is a big year for students. If you are a first-year in college, it may be your first time living away from your parents, cooking your own meals, and managing your own money. To top it all off, this is all in addition to adjusting to college academics and balancing extracurriculars with schoolwork! Luckily, we have a few tips to help you through this transition.
These include guides on how to make money in college, how to save money, and how to decide whether work-study is worth it for you. You can also check out our guides on how to find roommates and how to pay for housing, and investigate whether you can pay for off-campus housing with student loans. And don’t miss our guide on how to get involved on campus!
Frequently asked questions
Can you apply to scholarships once you’re already in college?
Yes, you can! All of the scholarships on this list are open to current college students. College students can apply to scholarships to help fund your remaining years of undergrad. They can also apply to scholarships to help fund grad school or other programs they plan to complete after undergrad.
Will my financial aid go down if I win a scholarship once I’m in college?
It’s important to consider that some need-based financial aid packages may change if you win scholarships in college. Most of the time, you have to report any earned scholarships to your school, and they might adjust your aid as a result.
Before applying to scholarships, it’s a good idea to ask your financial aid office about their “scholarship displacement policy” to find out how additional scholarship funds might affect your aid. If they tell you that they will reduce your need-based aid by exactly the amount you earn in scholarships, you may be better off spending your time working a job to help fund your education.
