Let’s face it: College is one expensive place.

From tuition, textbooks and all the other costs that can accumulate, being a college student can drain a checking account faster than anything else. It’s definitely a time in everyone’s life that scrimping and saving comes into play.

Luckily for some students, there are scholarships that pitch in and help make the cost less overwhelming. Most scholarships are geared toward the academically successful or those in need of financial aid. What I’ve noticed, however, is that there don’t seem to be any scholarships for those who are deemed “average.” It’s either the handful of smart kids who get everything and those with great financial need that get the rest.

Does one really need to get a 28 or better on the ACT to qualify for some of these scholarships? It seems a bit ridiculous to me. The test isn’t an accurate analysis of intelligence, and most of the content isn’t seen in college classes. I have never understood why this is stressed so much in the candidate process for scholarships and the like.

There should be a “middle man” scholarship for those of us who did well in high school but were not necessarily at the top of the class. Just because we didn’t score better than a 22 on the ACT, doesn’t mean we don’t deserve financial assistance too. 

I’m not saying the academically gifted don’t deserve their scholarships. They do. However, so do those who were in the middle of the class and got good grades. There should be a few scholarships out there solely for us. We worked hard for our GPA’s too.

There are such a wide variety of scholarships already available for anyone and everyone, except the average. This needs to change. If there’s a scholarship for being extremely short or tall, there needs to be one for the “middle man” too.

Bri Shelton can be contacted at [email protected].