In 2023, the average cost of college tuition was $35,551 per year including the cost of daily expenses. But many private institutions cost students and parents much much more.
With prices that high, many gifted students and their families wonder how they could possibly afford higher education. Paying for school sometimes comes down to luck, risky financial decisions, and massive loans that worthy students will take their whole lives to pay off.
However, there is some reprieve from college tuition. Unique scholarships are a great option for many college students.
By choosing to apply for a scholarship with a small applicant pool, you increase your chances of receiving the funding. Check out some of these unique scholar opportunities to find one that you fit in the niche category!
1. Catholic Knights Financial Company Scholarship
Are you a Christian student who engages in a lot of community service? While of course, it’s admirable and worthwhile to engage in community service without expecting anything in return, you may also receive help paying for college!
If you do at least ten hours (that’s only one hour a week for about a semester) of community service at a non-profit organization, you could qualify for this scholarship!
The only catch is that it has a deadline of March 31 each year. Even if you missed it this year, you can always double down on your community service to apply for the scholarship next year. That even gives you plenty of time to start some community service if you aren’t engaging in it already.
Are you a devout Christian who hasn’t found time for community service yet? That’s okay! Check out these other scholarships for Christians to find the unique scholarship that matches your student profile!
2. Vegetarian Resource Group Scholarship
Are you a young vegetarian with a commitment to promoting and spreading vegetarian knowledge and resources to your school or community?
If you’re already encouraging others to consider vegetarianism and participating in the vegetarian community, you may receive a scholarship from the Vegetarian Resource Group!
There are three winners every year. One will receive a $10,000 scholarship while the other two will receive a $5,000 scholarship each.
All it takes is answering some questions about your academics and interests, and an essay detailing your work in the vegetarian community.
Some of the topics of the essay include: why you are vegetarian, how you would suggest vegetarianism to another person, and how you envision your “perfect life” in five years.
3. Sweet and Simple Scholarship
Students who are fundamentally grateful people may find success with the Sweet and Simple Scholarship. This is also one of the good scholarship options for students who have a way with words but want to avoid having to write multiple lengthy essays to apply for scholarships.
The rules of the Sweet and Simple Scholarship are very “simple”. All students must do is write 250 words about a gift that they have received that was meaningful to them.
Some examples of past winners’ gifts are a sketchbook, the knowledge of astronomy, a stethoscope, and a cake. It doesn’t have to be something big to have had a big impact on you!
The scholarship is worth $1,500 which may not sound like a lot, but every penny counts when you’re looking at scholarships.
4. Minecraft Scholarship
I bet you didn’t expect that your favorite video game could help you with paying for college! If you’ve found that the video game, Minecraft, has helped prepare you for education or your career, you should absolutely apply for this $2,000 scholarship.
Simply write an essay about how Minecraft has influenced or enhanced your education or career opportunities. You may talk about a desired career in game development or architecture.
Maybe Minecraft has helped you develop critical thinking skills or spacial awareness. The possibilities are endless for an essay on this topic, and it’s a topic that not every student is able to discuss!
Best of all, if you’re already in college it isn’t too late to apply for this scholarship. It’s open to current college students too!
5. Scholarship for Aggressive Scholarship Applicants
After reading this list, you might become addicted to applying for scholarships! If that’s the case, there’s even a scholarship for that!
The Scholarship for Aggressive Scholarship Applicants rewards a student every two months for doing the hard work of simply applying for scholarships. All you have to do is send them submission receipts of all the scholarships that you’ve been applying for.
You don’t have to receive ANY of them in order to win this scholarship. All they want is to see evidence of your hard work and dedication to finding ways to afford college. Include a letter about why you’ve applied for scholarships and how you feel after submitting applications.
Every two months you could receive an extra $500 towards your education. That’s the perfect amount to pay off your textbook expenses for the semester.
6. American Board of Funeral Service Education Scholarship
A career in funeral or mortuary services is not for everyone, but those who enter the field often find it rewarding and the perfect use of their unique skills.
Unfortunately, it’s an underserved industry with few young people going to school to learn the skills required. That’s why the American Board of Funeral Service Education has put together this scholarship. They hope to encourage interested students to pursue a mortuary degree and join the funeral industry.
This is a great scholarship for current college students who have taken a semester of mortuary sciences. This scholarship requires a letter of recommendation from a professor, but you don’t need to write an essay. You could win between $1,500 and $2,500 depending on the number of applicants that year.
7. Alzheimer’s Awareness College Scholarship
Alzheimer’s is a heartbreaking condition that has negatively impacted so many lives. If you’ve had a loved one suffer from Alzheimer’s and been affected personally by the condition, you could be eligible for the Alzheimer’s Awareness College Scholarship.
People who have had to care for loved ones with Alzheimer’s have had unfair difficulties put on them during their time of high school studies. You deserve recognition and compensation for your hardships and your compassion towards a loved one with Alzheimer’s.
There are eleven winners of this scholarship in a single year which greatly improves your chances of winning it. Ten winners will receive $500 each, but one grand prize winner will receive $5,000. That’s a major reward for an essay about a topic so close to your heart.
8. Tall Clubs International Scholarship
Okay, this scholarship is CERTAINLY unique, and only a small percentage of young people are eligible for it. But if you do fit the criteria, it’s definitely worth applying for.
This scholarship is explicitly for tall students! Applicants must be over 5’10” for women and 6’0″ for men and under the age of 21.
There is one thing you should know. The club cannot accept applications at this time from students living in:
- Hawaii
- Missouri
- Montana
- North Dakota
- Pennsylvania
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Wyoming
But everywhere else in the U.S. is eligible! There are few scholarships as simple or unique as this one.
There are two kinds of applications. There’s an application for those applying on the basis of merit. They’re tall and have contributed positively to their community through academics, extracurriculars, community service, and leadership.
The second type must present the same materials as the merit applicants but can be considered as a “legacy” applicant. They must, in addition to the other materials, present proof that they have a direct relation who has been a member of Tall Clubs International for a minimum of ten years.
9. Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship
Do you have major graphic design or illustration skills and a creative mind? You should consider applying for the Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship!
This scholarship awards $1,000 to the best original greeting card designed by a student. All occasions are eligible for design.
Even if you don’t officially win the scholarship, there’s still an opportunity to make some money. All submitted greeting cards are eligible for printing by the company, and if they choose yours at any time they will financially compensate you for it. That means that multiple talented young artists and graphic designers can reap the rewards of this opportunity!
10. Zombie Apocalypse Scholarship
Are you the type of person who lives for developing useful survival skills? Put your survival knowledge to the test by applying for a Zombie Apocalypse Scholarship.
This scholarship application asks that you detail in an essay the steps that you would take to survive a Zombie Apocalypse. This scholarship has a relatively small pool because it requires that you are both a fan of zombie media and someone who really knows their stuff when it comes to survival tactics and techniques.
This is also a great scholarship for students who are applying to many scholarships because the essay is only 250 words long. Make sure that you include both creativity and factual details to stand out.
11. Asparagus Club Scholarship
I bet you didn’t even know that there was an Asparagus Club let alone a scholarship attached to it. This scholarship is for students studying agriculture who are willing to make a commitment to growing and selling asparagus in their careers.
You could receive between $2,000 and $5,000 for your academic achievements and devotion to one of the strangest growing vegetables in the world. Take a moment and consider if that’s a commitment you can make.
Because if you can, we doubt that there will be too many applicants applying with you. Get that bread… we mean get that asparagus!
12. Doodle Google Scholarship
This is the highest rewarding scholarship on our list, and it requires a creative and talented individual to win it.
The national winner will take home $30,000 for themselves to help pay tuition and $50,000 to buy tech for their school or organization. National finalists will also receive a $5,000 college scholarship and some exciting, fun Google merchandise.
So what does it take to win? You must illustrate the word Google in whatever creative and compelling way that you can come up with. A panel of guest judges reviews submissions and chooses one for its artistic merit, educational qualities, and other criteria.
If you win, it’s really the gift that just keeps on giving. For the rest of your artistic career, you can include your win on your resume and tell future employers that your artwork was featured on Google for a whole day! Not a lot of artists are able to make that claim.
13. Stuck At Prom Scholarship
This is a really creative scholarship for a really creative student who loves fashion, unconventional materials, and prom!
To enter, you must create your entire prom outfit entirely out of Duck Tape (Duck Brand). You can take photographs of your process and finished product to be judged for your fashion skills.
The best part is that Duck Tape has released many colorful and creative duck tapes for you to draw inspiration from. You can also check out previous winners to get ideas about how to make the construction work.
There are multiple winners every year and you could receive a scholarship anywhere between $500 and $10,000. If you want to get creative with your prom ideas anyway, you should consider this unique scholarship opportunity!
Unique Scholarships For Your Unique Self
We all have different skills and abilities that we can bring to the world of higher education. These unique scholarships celebrate all different kinds of students and can make a major difference in your college expenses. Consider what’s important to you and find scholarships that speak to you (even if they aren’t listed here)!
Did you find this article helpful? Check out our Lifestyle section for more articles to help with your finances and education!
Sharon Howe is a creative person with diverse talents. She writes engaging articles for WonderWorldSpace.com, where she works as a content writer. Writing allows Sharon to inform and captivate readers. Additionally, Sharon pursues music as a hobby, which allows her to showcase her artistic abilities in another creative area.