The average amount of scholarship money offered to LT students through universities and colleges is $30-35 million and students will utilize $13 million of that amount. This year the amount of students actually applying for the scholarships has decreased since last year. On average, there are five fewer applications per scholarship.

The College and Career Center has received as few as three to five applications for many of the local scholarships and for some, only one person applied, Head of the College and Career Center Lianne Musser said. More students applied last year, but this year more parents and students inquired about scholarships and they did not follow through with the application.

“I wish I knew why students didn’t apply,” Musser said. “I can only guess many students think that the financial side of college is their parent’s responsibility, not theirs. They are focused on applying, not on paying for college.”

It’s not until the family starts getting financial information from the college or FAFSA that they start looking for scholarship money, but by then it’s too late, Musser said. The College and Career Center made it easier to apply by allowing students to request transcripts in a sealed envelope that they could mail on their own. Despite these extra efforts, some students did not apply and many turned in applications after the due date.

Local scholarships average $1,000 each and LT has 100 local donors. However, there are three local donors that offer more than one scholarship: The Kelli Joy O’Laughlin scholarship offers 10 at $10,000 this year and the Jack Kunkle scholarship offers four. The Kiwanis of LaGrange offers a $20,000 scholarship (which is online now) for a four-year college student and two scholarships that cover two years at COD worth $9,000 each.

While some students won’t apply for any scholarship this year, Joe Dillon ‘15 has applied for many. He has applied for the O’Laughlin, Reber and Kunkle scholarships amongst several others.

“I figured I should apply for as many as I could,” Dillon said. “It’s free money, why not put in the extra effort to fill out some paperwork?”