College can be expensive and everyone is looking for scholarships to help lighten the load. A quick google search will provide you with a vast array of scholarships for everything from having a financial need to speaking fluent Klingon. This can be both a blessing and a curse, given that it provides a wide base of scholarships to potentially earn, but it can also be extremely intimidating and overwhelming. Many scholarships also have very specific, nitpicky requirements that you may not perfectly fit, thus disqualifying you for that almost perfect full-ride scholarship.
I did some digging and assembled a collection of scholarships for individuals with hearing loss with reasonably open requirements. You will find them here, ordered by deadline date. The deadlines for most of these have passed, but keep them in mind for next year. There’s no reason you can’t continue to apply for scholarships even after you’ve begun to attend college.
March 29: Foundation for Sight & Sound National Scholarship
May 1: Sertoma Scholarship for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
May 26: Louise Tumarkin Zazove Foundation Scholarship
June 15: Optimist International Communication Contest for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
October 1: And of course there is Cochlear’s scholarship
Don’t only apply to these, there are a lot of scholarships that I intentionally didn’t include because they were specific to physical location or have an unusual requirement that might apply to you.
So do some of your own digging. There are a lot of great sites out there that can match you with appropriate scholarships. You would also be well served by contacting your university. It is likely they will have a system for pairing you with scholarships or an extensive database of scholarships available. Further, a lot of universities have scholarships specifically for students attending their universities.
There are also a lot of scholarships for a specific degree. Typically hearing loss scholarships require that the applicant be pursuing a degree in a field related to speech, hearing or language, but I did happen upon one that was for agriculture and another from Google for computer science.
As always, my biggest piece of advice is to get started as early as possible. This can be a trying process, so get started early so you’ll have time to give yourself breaks from the constant frustration of finding yet another scholarship that you aren’t just the perfect fit for.
Start searching for a scholarship that fits you today!
