While not the most ideal situation for many high school seniors, one option to make higher education slightly more affordable is for college-bound women to attend all-female colleges. A number of colleges and universities around the nation are only open to female students and therefore exclusively provide grants and scholarships to these students. Spelman College, Barnard College and Agnes Scott College are all-women's options that provide scholarship and grant money to incoming students based on both need and merit.
Another tactic that is effective in securing grants and scholarships is for women heading into college to enroll in programs in fields that are historically dominated by men. Fields such as engineering, law and business are all academic arenas in which white men have typically composed the majority of students, so women interested in these fields can often find scholarships and grants to support their pursuits. Grants such as the Barry Goldwater Scholarship Grant, for science and math students, The National Physical Science Consortium, for geology, chemistry and other physical sciences, as well as the Women in Engineering and Computer and Information Science Awards, for those pursuing careers in engineering and other such sciences, are all possible grants that women would be able to earn depending on their particular specialty.
Depending on an applicant's circumstances, there are a number of grants available to fund higher educational opportunities. Grants set aside for battered women, single mothers, non-traditional students, as well as disadvantaged women are all available. When looking for money to fund further study it is important to carefully evaluate everything that you have to offer and all the peculiar traits that set you apart from other applicants. It is in these nuances that students will be best able to track down funds for continuing their education.
Finaid.com as well as Fastweb.com are great resources to hunt down scholarship and grant money that can be used at colleges and universities around the country. Though these searches may not exclusive list women's awards, they often have search criteria that would enable users to hunt down these particular grants.
There are numerous websites that list scholarships and grants available to female students. WE Magazine's online feature about 100 scholarships and grants for women is exceptionally useful as you hunt for ways to pay for your education. The Women's Sports Foundation also funds grants for young women, doling out more than $150,000 to thousands of women across the country. Fundsnetservices.com is also a valuable resource, listing dozens of scholarships and grants that are up for grabs for women with a variety of educational and personal backgrounds.