If you've been applying to scholarships for a while (or even if you haven't), chances are, you're getting tired of writing all those essays. Finding financial aid can be a lot of work - I feel you!
A good strategy when applying for scholarships is to mix up the types of scholarships you're applying for.
This means considering things such as scholarship type (is there an essay required?) and amount (generally, scholarships with higher award amounts are harder to earn).
To give your hands a break from all that typing here's my list of quick and easy no-essay scholarships.
Most of these no essay scholarships are open to high school, college, and graduate school students, so check them out, get those easy applications in, and keep your fingers crossed.
*Pro-tip* - While some of these scholarships currently have specific deadlines, keep them bookmarked because they often renew monthly, quarterly, or yearly!
ABSOLUTELY!
Some scholarships (like no-essay ones) are created to be more like contests, where all you have to do is enter some info and you're good to go, whereas other scholarships require a greater amount of work and commitment.
Ultimately, each and every scholarship we feature aims to help provide help and support to students going through the difficult process of paying for college.
To be honest, the only way that you can actually increase your chances of winning no-essay scholarships is by applying for all of them and not missing any deadlines.
For example, take a no-essay scholarship like mine, which runs quarterly. We pick four winners each year, at the end of the month in June, September, December, and March. If you want to maximize your chances of winning my scholarship, I would tell you to set a reminder to make sure that you apply for it every quarter, so that you don't miss out on any opportunity to win.
Most no-essay scholarships are for small amounts (think: $500 - $2,000) because, in comparison to other scholarships that have lots of application requirements, no-essay scholarships tend to run more like contests.
Organizations love to give back to students in any and all ways possible, and they also like to try to make student's lives easier by offering easy scholarship opportunities.
However, from the perspective of private organizations, many of them would rather save their scholarships of higher amounts to be distributed through competitive opportunities where they can select students on the basis of merit, leadership, and other qualities. That's why you'll probably never come across a full-ride scholarship that is also a no-essay one!
There are tons of resources and places out there that you can use to find "harder" scholarships to apply for to pair with your efforts in applying to the easy ones.
The first place I recommend you go is over to my search engine, where you can search for all types of scholarships based on criteria such as home state, area of study, GPA, and more.
After that, I recommend you also do some surfing of the web (based on your specific scholarship criteria) to help you find even more nuanced and local opportunities.
Award Amount: $1,000
Scholarship Deadline: Quarterly (last day of the month in September, December, March, and June)
PS - I know I'm biased, but this is the best no-essay scholarship of them all! It's open to high school, undergraduate, and graduate students studying in the United States, and is an easy way to win $1,000.
Award Amount: $2,500
Scholarship Deadline: January 15
Open to all students in the US and Canada ages 26 and under! No essay or minimum GPA required.
Award Amount: Generally $1,000, but varies (sometimes it's $2,222!)
Scholarship Deadline: Last day of each month
Award Amount: $1,000
Scholarship Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: $1,000
Scholarship Deadline: December 31, June 30
Open to all high school students, including students with DACA status and international students who are planning on attending a higher education institution in the US!
Award Amount: $2,000
Scholarship Deadline: Monthly
Award Amount: $10,000
Scholarship Deadline: Quarterly
Award Amount: $25,000
Scholarship Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: $2,500
Scholarship Deadline: Last day of each month
Award Amount: $1,000
Scholarship Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: $1,000
Scholarship Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: $2,000
Scholarship Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: $500
Scholarship Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: $500
Scholarship Deadline: January 4
Award Amount: $500
Scholarship Deadline: January 4
Award Amount: $1,000
Scholarship Deadline: February 27 and October 10
Award Amount: $10,000
Scholarship Deadline: March 9
Award Amount: $5,000
Scholarship Deadline: April 1
Award Amount: $2,500
Scholarship Deadline: May 31
Eligibility: Open to high school juniors and high school seniors who are interested in or planning to enroll in a Christian college or university.
Award Amount: $1,000
Scholarship Deadline: June 30
Many of these scholarships run continuously on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Set a reminder for yourself to revisit these scholarships each month and reapply to give yourself the best chance at winning one!
No-Essay scholarships that have an additional component (like an art or video submission) will tend to give you a "leg up" because they involve more than some luck.
Take full advantage of this by putting your best foot forward with that extra step!
No-essay scholarships should be a key component of your scholarship application strategy because of how easy they are to apply for.
However, it's important to remember they should definitely be balanced with other scholarships with more specific and stringent requirements, in order to give you the best chances of winning at the end of the day!
To summarize, no-essay scholarships can be a little addition to any overall scholarship strategy for both high school and college students. Although any given scholarship award for these types of opportunities may not be the highest or the biggest, the process to enter to win is an easy one.
Well, that pretty much sums up everything you need to know about no essay scholarships, and everything that you need to actually go out and apply for them!