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Just as schools have closed their doors due to coronavirus, charities and non-profit organizations have had to shutter down. While they might suspend board meetings, community fundraisers or award ceremonies, chances are they haven't shut down their scholarship offerings - in fact, many non-profits have extended their scholarship application windows from mid- or late March into April, May or even June. If you've been applying for scholarships this spring and missed out on some March or early April deadlines, check your account - you may find that some scholarships have had their due dates pushed back, giving you more time to submit an application.
If organizations are shutting down, why would they still offer scholarships? For many non-profits, scholarships are their way to make a charitable donation, which they are inclined to do every year for tax reasons. If other charitable events they typically run in the year are being canceled, a scholarship may be their best option to give back to the community. And unlike fundraising events, which are hard to imagine going virtual, scholarship committee members can network online to review applications and decide on winners. Many school-sponsored scholarships are also funded by private donations, and much like organizations, it's in the individual donor's best interest to give every year.
If you haven't, log into your account and see if any of the scholarships you were matched with have had their deadlines changed. You can easily check by sorting matched scholarships by deadline, or by reviewing scholarships you have favorited. Our database is constantly being updated and organizations are going into their listings and pushing back due dates. Likely targets for deadline extensions will be scholarships that were accepting applications up until mid- or late March or early April. You may find that you have a whole additional month to work on your application!
As non-profit organizations are working to stay as operational as possible within government-enforced quarantines and shelter-in-place orders, it is likely that they will need more time to review scholarship applications and send offers to chosen students. Many updated listings have delayed their acceptance by the same amount as their deadline, so a scholarship you may have heard from in April originally might now be sending out acceptances in May. Traditionally, National College Acceptance Day is on May 1st. Luckily, many colleges have pushed their acceptance deadlines to June 1st - giving incoming students an additional month to make their college decision. Not only does this accommodate students waiting to hear back from delayed scholarships, but also helps families who are impacted financially by the coronavirus outbreak.
Check back regularly on our News section to keep up to date on the latest information on the coronavirus and higher education.