Scholarship-Application Process Simplified at Penn College
Published 11.28.2007
The Financial Aid Office at Pennsylvania College of Technology announces a new scholarship-application process that students will find easier and faster to complete each year.
The college has teamed with Nelnet, a diversified educational-services company, to produce an online scholarship application for current and incoming students.
"Our previous scholarship process of students making application for each one separately was cumbersome, and it was difficult for students to know exactly for which scholarships they were eligible to apply," said Dennis L. Correll, director of financial aid at Penn College.
"We also found students overwhelmed with reading the 150-plus different scholarships, then completing a separate application for each one they thought they met the requirements," he explained. "This new application takes all the guesswork out of the process and, within a very short time frame, makes applying to any scholarship the college offers that meets students' backgrounds and academics extremely easy."
The few questions that students need to answer take less than five minutes, he said. While streamlining the application process, the revised procedure also adds a refinement to help the Financial Aid Office better choose among students competing for scholarships: a short essay.
"As the number of college students continues to grow, we have found that several students meet all the requirements for any one scholarship, and we have had to go to faculty and deans to help in the selection," Correll said. "Now, we will be able to utilize the short essay to rank students in the awarding process."
The essay isn't required in all cases, but Correll encourages students to complete the writing assignment to ensure that, when applying for any scholarship that mandates one, everything will be in place for proper evaluation.
"The bottom line: Students only need to apply once and don't need to worry about specific scholarship requirements to be considered," Correll added.
The new application will be available Dec. 1, and the link can be found on the college's Financial Aid Web site . Any questions can be directed to the Financial Aid Office at (800) 367-9222 or by e-mail .