The most significant scholarship resource for minority students is the Free Application for Financial Student Aid. The FAFSA website is an official federal portal, including scholarship, loan and grant financial aid options. A branch of the U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid processes 14 million student applications annually to provide an estimated annual output of $80 billion. All funds are federally funded or guaranteed for education beyond the high school level. Minorities are encouraged to apply.
Minorities have long been underrepresented in the education system. Thanks to scholarship aid offered by private organizations, foundations and corporations such as Microsoft, which offers the College Diversity Program, for example, minorities can apply for higher education support from funding pools geared directly toward them.
In addition to offering higher education scholarship aid, the College Diversity Program also seeks to hire students from historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and women's colleges. Examples of universities include (respectively) Hampton University and Howard University; Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey and University of New Mexico; and Mount Holyoke College and Wellesley College.
Fundsnet Services offer a variety of higher education funding, including minority and women's scholarships, Latino scholarships and black college funds. The web portal offers applicants a catalog of applicable scholarship sources and provides an online application.
The Carlisle Barracks Army Education and Training Center, an office of the U.S. Army War College, offers college scholarships to minority students interested in a career in the service. Visit the Carlisle Barracks website for a complete list of scholarships.
College scholarships for minorities are divided as scholarships or grant aid, for undergraduate and graduate education and for women. Within these divisions are specific aid types for minorities entering a medical field, for example. Additional areas include computer science or engineering, media communications, social sciences, ethnic studies and history. Scholarships are open to college-bound high school seniors as well as undergraduate and graduate students.
Most financial aid and college scholarships for minorities are merit-based or need-based. In either case, applicants must provide academic transcripts as well as tax and income information (W2, federal tax return, stocks and bonds valuation) at the time of submission. Failure to do so will void the application.
College scholarships for minorities are free and do not require processing nor application fees. Websites that require a fee to access "free scholarships for minorities" should be avoided. These websites charge a fee for information that can be accessed for free by using this guide, as well as others like it. Avoid websites or scholarship portals that also promise to provide "hidden" or "unknown" scholarships. All federally funded scholarships and grants are made available to the general public and are never hidden or restricted to a limited few.