Tuition costs are rising.

Are scholarships increasing as well?

As with everything else these days, tuition is going up. It's to be expected, of course. Higher energy rates and higher insurance costs, not to mention everything else that seems to be going up these days -- these rate increases hit the university, too.

So as the cost of higher education gets ... well, higher, what's happening with the scholarships? Are they keeping pace with the costs?

The biggest thing we're finding as we examine the institutional scholarships at many, many colleges is inconsistency. In other words, everybody's handling the situation differently.

The numbers are all over the place!

A college may increase tuition, but correspondingly increase its merit scholarships as well.

For example: One university we found raised its tuition by $2500, coupled with a $2500 increase in its best scholarships.

Net result: No change from last year to this year for good students who win their scholarships.

A college will increase tuition, but leave its scholarship levels the same.

For example: We've found several who've raised the tuition rate, perhaps by $2000. But the $10,000 scholarship remains the same.

Net result: Still an excellent scholarship, but perhaps not as valuable as it was last year, since the winning student must still scrape together an extra two grand for tuition.

A college may increase tuition, and also increase its scholarship levels. But ALSO raise the bar for students to be eligible for those good scholarships!

For example: We found one university whose scholarships went up $1000 each to keep up with higher tuition. But, whereas last year the ACT score required to compete for the big bucks was a 25, this year one must score a 27 to become eligible for the same scholarship.

Net result: You've got to be the very best candidate you can possibly be to get these scholarships!

Two things scholarship seekers should do:

Keep up with what the colleges are offering. You need to know what to expect when your student is ready to apply. To assist you, we continue to research and update our scholarship information at Big Figure Scholarships.

Continue developing your student to be that scholarship candidate the colleges are looking for! At Scholarship Prep, our goal is to help you do just that!