If you are trying to find money for college, you are bound to stumble across weird scholarships. They range from duck calling scholarships to duct tape contests. Are they worth it? Sure. Most of them are legitimate contests or scholarships that do pay out the money. Don’t pin your hopes on paying for all of college that way though. Most of these unusual scholarships are limited to $500 to $1000 dollars. Face it, that does not get you far in today’s college scene with annual costs of $40,000 at the well known colleges, even the public ones, but don’t despair, there is hope.

If you can’t get enough scholarships to attend a well known college, then you can still start out at a community college and transfer when you find the resources. You could take eight credit hours of college courses at my local community college for $1000. So what are you waiting for? The point is to get started. You certainly won’t win any if you don’t apply.

Are you tall? Great, there is a scholarship you can apply for at www.tall.org. They provide $1000 scholarships if you are under 21 years old, tall and starting college the following fall. The application process for this one sounds particularly easy, just contact your local club, ask them to sponsor you and you are in the running. I would think it’s worth 15 minutes of your time to try for that one.

What else is on your list of characteristics, skills and family background? You would be surprised how specific some of these unique scholarships are. It doesn’t even have to be your own fate. If you have a brother or sister with cancer, you can apply for the sibling scholarship at www.supersibs.org. For this one you do have to plan to enroll as a full-time student the next fall. You can find a list of weird scholarships currently available at http://www.collegeandfinance.com.

To expand your options, do some research on your own. Now that you know how diverse these scholarships are, take a good look at yourself. Who are you? What hobbies do you have? Where did your family come from? Who did they work for? There are so many weird scholarships out there, you will probably find one to match every unique thing you can list about yourself.

The trick about college scholarships is to start early. If you are a few years away from college or if you have a son or daughter in that position start checking out potential scholarships now. If you find some that are likely candidates, look at the applications and find out what needs to be in the set of experiences to have a good chance at winning. If you or your kids can add that in before they become eligible, you are a step ahead of the competition. These strange scholarships may sound like you could apply to them as an afterthought and for some that may be true but many of them still have added requirements.

Did you know that many high schools now have scholarship clubs or counselors to encourage their students to seek out these weird scholarships and contests? They meet weekly to find and apply to scholarships. So if you win one, it was worth your time but do be aware of the competition.

Personally, as far as weird scholarships go, I like the ones that require almost no effort such as the tall person one or the drawings some banks have for scholarships where all you have to do is submit your name and be able to prove some minimal GPA, and the ones that are so specific that you have a very good chance of winning it. Those would be the ones offered by your local town to someone who plays the trombone and plans to study music or is good at carpentry and worked at the local lumber yard.