Ordinary students often ask whether there are any scholarships available to students who don’t have an A average. This page has resources for some scholarships for average students. Although these scholarships don’t require a high GPA, they do require excellence in a non-academic area. Every scholarship sponsor is trying to find the students that best fulfill their selection criteria. If the selection criteria don’t depend on academic merit, then they might depend on athletic or artistic merit, community service, extracurricular activities, or on skill in a non-academic discipline. The winners are always the students who best reflect the goals of the scholarship sponsor. Candidates don’t necessarily need to be academically talented, but do need to be extraordinary and amazing in other ways. No scholarship sponsor gives away money simply for breathing, except perhaps the US government.

The following list of scholarships is intended to be representative, not comprehensive. To find other scholarships for students with specific interests or abilities, search the Fastweb scholarship database. See also Finaid’s list of unusual scholarships, as these often include awards that don’t require a 4.0 GPA.

Other sources of non-academic scholarships include your employer or your parent’s employer, your church, synagogue or mosque, hobbyist groups, local businesses, community service organizations, fraternal organizations, unions and minority groups. There are also many essay contests.

Many education lenders and other businesses also use scholarship lotteries to attract students to their web sites. Usually the winners are selected by a random drawing.

For a list of scholarships for average students and how to apply, visit Fastweb’s Scholarships for Average Students page.