As most seniors prepare to attend college next year, the question of whether they can afford their number one school is on many of their minds. It is quite common for students to apply to scholarships through the university that they plan on attending or to other national scholarships. However, many seniors do not think to apply to scholarships through their own high school.

LT offers at least 255 scholarships to students; many of these scholarships are offered by local organizations such as the Rotary Club or individual donors who maybe have a Memorial Scholarship Fund specifically for LT students or students living in our school area, College and Career Coordinator Lianne Musser said.

“Your chances of winning [scholarships offered through LT] as opposed to let’s say national scholarships that are offered to thousands of high schools are much higher,” Musser said.

Scholarships provided through LT include the David L. Thompson Theatre Scholarship, a Friends of those with Special Needs Scholarship, a Fueling the Minds of the Future Scholarship, the Lagrange Art League’s Visual Arts Scholarship, the Lagrange Kiwanis Club-Timke Scholarship, the Louis J. Desalvo Business Scholarship, and many more.

Chloe Hunt ‘20 volunteers every Sunday for two hours at AMITA Hospital in LaGrange and is applying to a volunteering scholarship worth $5,000.

“The volunteering [scholarship] required two recommendation letters from a volunteer coordinator that I had to go to at the hospital and then someone that volunteers with me filled out the other one,” Hunt said.

Hunt is also applying for a scholarship relating to her major: Speech Pathology.

“Basically it’s a scholarship for my major. I think I found out about it when I went to Marquette and they were talking about it and then I just got into it then. I’m really excited to study [speech pathology] and it’s something that I enjoy because I am on the speech team, it is kind of related to that. I’m going to help people speak,” Hunt said.

Both scholarships that she is applying to require essays.

Quite different than the scholarships that Hunt is applying to, Jane Bailey ‘20 is applying to the Grace Keenan scholarship, which is an audition-based music and theater scholarship.

“I feel like I have had a different experience than most people because I had to write an essay, turn in a resume and do an audition,” Bailey said. “I’ve been working on my audition probably for a half a year, probably since June when I started working on my pieces with my vocal teacher.”

The application process depends on the donor but for the most part, it asks applicants to explain how they would qualify for the specific scholarship, Musser said.

“I think it is a good idea [to apply for scholarships] because if you win that scholarship, you are winning free money so why not?” Hunt said.

LT’s College and Career Center comes out with a new packet every week listing the scholarships available, and applications can be found on Naviance.

Ninety five percent of scholarships are posted by the first week of December and are due in February or early March, the last deadline for most being just before Spring Break.

“Unfortunately, students often wait until they find out how much they will receive from a college before they begin looking for additional scholarship money and by then, it’s too late,” Musser said.