Arthritis scholarships for college are generally established to help take the great burden of financial need with regards to tuition costs off of the minds of students with the condition, in all hopes making going to school that much easier. Adding student loans on top of having to deal with what can sometimes be crippling pain is a mental burden even students that are completely healthy do not need in their lives.
Attending school or, even more basic for the matter, living life with arthritis can be a difficult task for anybody. With regularly occurring pain in the joints interrupting activities and forcing concentration away from a task at hand it can be hard to even imagine going to school at times. Added to this the sheer difficulty of fighting through arthritis pain while typing paper, writing notes or even turning the pages of a text book makes it is pretty clear that arthritis sufferers need as much help as they can get.
Getting access to arthritis scholarships is not an incredibly difficult process as there are a number of national organizations devoted to the topic which also offer financial aid programs. Some colleges have programs which are designed around helping students with disabilities and, on top of looking into potential disability scholarship sources, students should always look into what programs their individual university may offer.
The Arthritis Foundation, apart from working to spread awareness and supporting research regarding arthritis, offers at least two different programs students may find of interest. Their arthritis scholarships come from the Winterhoff Collegiate Scholarship and the RA Scholarship which are designed for those students or family member living with somebody suffering with arthritis. On top of these arthritic scholarships, the Arthritis Foundation also offers the Barbara Pierce-Nord Assistive Device Scholarship to help individuals afford equipment to help them in their day to day activities. The Winterhoff Collegiate Scholarship offers programs to three specific universities – the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, and Arizona State University. Students at these universities should contact their on campus Disability Resource Center and register as a student with arthritis in order to be eligible for the disability scholarships which awards anywhere from $500 to $2,000. Once appropriately registered, students will be able to fill out their university’s scholarship form to be enrolled for a chance to receive an award.
The Arthritis Foundation’s nationally offered arthritis scholarship is the RA Scholarship program which is available to students attending school anywhere in the United States. Apart from US residency other eligibility requirements include being able to show proof of having arthritis, formally seeking a degree or a certification at a university, demonstrating academic merit and having already been enrolled or accepted to an institution of higher education in the United States. Students completing an application for this arthritis scholarship will need to submit two letters of recommendation – one from a teacher and another from a community member – along with a school transcript and picture of the applicant. Further a one to two page essay about how the applicant is living beyond the limitation imposed on them by arthritis must be turned in with their application material. The RA Scholarship program provides up to $10,000 to those who receive the reward. Deadline for all applicants is March 18, 2011.
The Arthritis Foundation is not the only group which provides college scholarships for arthritis and students should look around and both regional and national organizations which work in the field for additional funding options. The Arthritis Foundation itself is split into different regions around the country and the Northern/Southern New England Arthritis Foundation provides their own yearly $1,000 scholarships with requirements set as the same as the national program. Many of these programs are built around sufferers of juvenile arthritis, but those people who have recently began showing symptoms but are older in age are still eligible to apply for programs of their own.
Interested students should take their time when considering these rheumatoid scholarships and make sure that they truly have the ability to go through school with the condition as arthritis scholarship selection committees very often look for drive over anything else in essay submissions.