What are micro-scholarships for college and how can I access them?

I've heard micro-scholarships can help with college fees by awarding small amounts for achievements. Can someone explain how these work and where I might find them? Do I need to start applying now, or can it wait?

Micro-scholarships are essentially smaller scholarship awards often given based on specific achievements, activities, or efforts. Unlike traditional scholarships, which usually require separate applications and essays, micro-scholarships can be earned incrementally over time for individual accomplishments or sustained involvement starting as early as 9th grade.

For instance, you could receive a micro-scholarship for things like maintaining a certain GPA, participation in a club or sport, community service activities, or even for visiting a college campus. Each college that partners with any platform offering micro-scholarships decides what accomplishments to reward and how much the reward will be.

One such website where you can get started is Appily. With it, you can earn micro-scholarships from participating colleges for your high school achievements. Just create an account, follow the colleges you're interested in, and then see a list of the actions you can take to earn micro-scholarships from those colleges.

As to when you should start applying, the earlier the better. Starting from your first year of high school, you can begin earning micro-scholarships. Remember, these awards do not mostly consist of large sums of money but rather small amounts that can accumulate over time.

Finally, it's important to note that micro-scholarships usually don't stack with merit scholarships awarded by individual colleges, and they don't necessarily guarantee that you'll get the same amount in financial aid. Always check the policies of the colleges you're interested in.