Creative scholarships are merit based awards that tend to reward talents rather than grades. So, if you like to express your creativity, they can be a useful way to pay for college.
Many creative scholarships are for fine arts students with gifts in the visual arts. Visual arts majors are photography or design based arts like painting, graphic design or animation.
But you do not have to be a visual arts student to apply for a creative scholarship. Your artistic interests may lie in music, creative writing, dance, theater or film. It may be a hobby for you rather than your college major.
Either way, applying for a creative scholarship may be quick and simple. In fact, all you might need to do is upload a portfolio, project, photo, short video or essay.
What Creative Scholarships Can Students Apply for?
High school and college students may find many creative scholarships to show off their imagination. These types of awards are really fun to get your creative juices flowing in order to help pay for college.
Dixie Belle Paint Company Scholarship wants to help students succeed and graduate. To do this they offer a new award called the Creativity Leads to Success Scholarship. It is open to all high school, college and grad students who are also US citizens.
To apply, you fill out a quick form and write a 500 word essay that answers the question, “How does individual creativity lead to success?” There will be three winners. One grand prize of $2,500 and two prizes of $1,250 each.
Each year Arts for Life! awards $1,000 creative scholarships to 25 graduating high school seniors in Florida. Winners show their excellence in creative writing, dance, drama, music or visual art. Launched by former First Lady Columba Bush in 1999, the program has awarded scholarships to more than 500 gifted high school seniors.
To apply, you must submit a completed application, a brief essay explaining “How the arts have positively influenced my life” and a portfolio of work in one of five areas. Creative writing, dance, drama, music or visual art.
How a Creativity Scholarship Helps Pay for College?
Scholarships could cover the high costs of pursuing a college degree. Tuition, fees, housing, and other expenses may be paid for by a creative scholarship. Also, scholarships are a better alternative to a student loan.
According to the NCES, the average student loan amount for undergraduates was $7,200 for one academic year. Within the last decade, college tuition has increased by 19% on average. Public institutions tuition and fees went up by 18% compared to private nonprofit schools increased by 15%.
Since college is getting more expensive every year, you should start applying for creative scholarships today! Many creative scholarships tend to be renewable so it may help pay for college until you graduate. That means you might not have to pay out of pocket or borrow more student loans!
List of Creative Scholarships
To help you in your search, here is a list of creative scholarships to apply for. Follow the application guidelines, be mindful of deadlines and let your originality and creativity shine through!
Pinsky Law supports, and provides its services to, entrepreneurs and startup companies. This is the reason we developed and maintain the legal resources for startups section on this website. We know that establishing and operating a new venture is challenging and requires commitment of substantial financial resources. Founders of a new venture must be personally and financially committed to their startup business. Many entrepreneurs mortgage their homes, cash RRSP, and use credit cards to finance the initial operations of the new venture. Access to these sources of capital may be critical to the startup, but these resources come at a high emotional and financial cost. To assist driven, up-and-coming, entrepreneurs who are committed to building their startup businesses, we have set up the New Venture Development Scholarship. To apply for the New Venture Development Scholarship please send us, in confidence, in PDF format, a copy of a business plan for your existing or prospective business, along with the information outlined in the scholarship criteria below. Pinsky Law is a business, taxation, and intellectual property law firm, and therefore we require the applicants to include in their business plan a section outlining taxation and intellectual property strategy for their business.
This creative and fun scholarship program is open to all U.S. students who are 14 and older and who are currently enrolled (or enroll no later than fall of 2026) in an accredited postsecondary institution of higher education. One scholarship winner with an imaginative and well-written response to the scholarship question about the Zombie Apocalypse will receive a $2,000 scholarship.
To enter any contest, you must be a high school junior or senior between the ages of 14 and 20; or a full-time undergraduate college student between the ages of 15 and 25. If you are under 18, your parent or legal guardian must sign an eligibility form.
This annual scholarship is available for U.S. students who are 14 years or older. To enter, students must create an original design for a greeting card. The winning student’s school will also receive $1,000 for helping to promote the scholarship contest. 100 entries will be made available online for public voting.
The annual Adobe Creativity Scholarships program provide college or university education tuition for up to U.S. $25,000.00 per academic year for required tuition and fees to young people pursuing study in a creative field and using creativity as a force for positive social impact.
Adobe, through the IIE offers the Design Circle Scholarship to support diversity. Each year, they will award 10 annual college scholarships of up to $25,000 per year for up to four years or $100,000 of undergraduate study. Click to learn more and apply today!
