There`s a big talk about how many unclaimed scholarships are out there and how you could get them. There is a part of myth and a part that is reality and the answer is not that straightforward, but read on for a clarification.

The fact is that institutions do not create scholarship with an intention not to offer the funds to students that are in need. Most of them will even advertise their scholarships and bursaries, but that can only be done to a certain extent. It is also true that some scholarships or bursaries are not advertised and a small number of people do apply.

Scholarships and bursaries will remain unclaimed if the institution sets the eligibility criteria at a much higher level than the students can meet, but that rarely happens as the eligibility criteria are chosen based on applications that were received in the past. Some still keep the bar high, but that is quite rare and only far small funds that are anyway available to only a handful of students.

There was a talk at some point that there are about $7 billion that are available for tuition assistance programs and only a very small part of those funds, around $400 million, are used. In reality the money that is theoretically provided for tuitions will not be lost, it will be used by the company for something else or it will be put out there for the applicants that come in the next year.

It is equally true that most people apply for the same scholarships, the ones that everybody hears about and some funds remain largely untapped because few people know about them, not because they are particularly hidden. So there is quite a large sum of money out there that is destined for bursaries or scholarships, but the students still need to pas some eligibility criteria, whether it is about the income of the parents or about the educational results. What you need to learn from this is that the only way you can do something about it is to do your research thoroughly and apply to all the bursaries and scholarships, even if some are hard to find or small.