By Desiree Amani
You’ve been keeping up your GPA, using all of your spare time to volunteer, and you’re more involved at Ryerson than the people who are paid to be. If this sounds like you, there are two things that need to be asked. First, when do you sleep? Seriously. Get some rest. But more importantly, have you looked into the scholarships and bursaries offered at Ryerson?
There are several categories of scholarships available for our community’s undergraduate students. There are entrance scholarships, but they are only available to high school students preparing to enter their first year of post-secondary studies. If you received the guaranteed and renewable entrance scholarship, make sure to keep that GPA up to renew!
Program specific, faculty wide, and university wide awards vary, and usually require an application. Check the appropriate websites (i.e. those of your program and faculty, as well as Ryerson itself) to learn more about the scholarships offered and the deadlines to apply.
Special categories awards are for students falling under specific groupings these categories are: Aboriginal students, international students, Ontario Bridging Participant Assistance Program (OBPAP), student athletes, and students with disabilities. All of these awards require an application, all of which are available on the Ryerson website.
Don’t think we forgot about you, Yeates and Chang School students; there are dozens of scholarships and bursaries available to you as well — usually in large denominations. The specific requirements can be found on the respective websites.
Now that you know about all of the money out there, the next step is knowing how to get your hands on it. To some, applying for these scholarships may seem like a daunting task. One scholarship may ask you to do several things as a part of your application.
First year Business Management student Sarah Lasagna was one of the recipients of the $10,000 Ted Rogers School of Management Undergraduate Entrance Scholarship, and she assures students that the application process was actually “rather simple.”
“I filled out the form, I wrote the essay/cover letter about myself, and I got the two letters of recommendation from people who knew that I was involved,” she explains.
Lasagna’s quest for cash did have some bumps along the way.
“[The application] was due in July, and at the end of August they sent a letter in the mail saying I was unsuccessful. But, in October they emailed me saying ‘after recent developments, we can offer you $10,000 for your studies.’ It was pretty awesome.”
Carole Scrase, the Manager of Student Financial Assistance, notes, “we do not have any unclaimed scholarships at Ryerson.” There is, however, a silver lining — students can be pretty lazy. “The bulk of Ryerson’s scholarships are awarded automatically based on incoming academic averages during the admission process,” Scrase explains.
Basically, the application process throws a lot of students off. Having to go through great lengths for these scholarships usually stops students from applying in the first place.
“Students are more selective when applying for scholarships requiring a student letter, referee letters or description of community/university engagement as these take more time to assemble.”
So, although some parts of applying for a scholarship may seem intimidating or difficult, just being willing to go through the effort may give you a solid shot at getting your hands on that sweet, sweet cash.
Make sure to do your research on the scholarships available to you. If the Ryerson scholarships aren’t right for you, there are thousands of external scholarships available through websites such as studentawards.com and scholarshipscanada.com. These third-party sites offer broad categories of scholarships, catering to any and every student imaginable that are completely exclusive from Ryerson. Your money is out there, it’s just up to you to find it.
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