Applying for Scholarships | Foundation for Ensuring Access and Equity

I was offered 6 full scholarships: Amherst College, Duke University, Princeton University, Vanderbilt University, Washington & Lee University, and Williams College. She was also selected as a UMBC-Meyerhoff Scholar. She has received her undergraduate degree and is a Ford Foundation Fellow pursuing her PhD in math. 2.1 million in scholarships
While my school counselor was telling students to apply for lots of scholarships, Mr. and Mrs. Wynn told me that developing the body of work to earn admission to the 'right' colleges would be a more valuable use of my time. They were right! With my admission to Caltech, I do not need any more scholarships. My financial aid pays for everything, including traveling from California to Florida.full scholarship
When I participated in the college planning boot camp as a rising 7th grader I remember telling Mrs. Wynn that my top choice school was MIT. She told me to focus on building my body of work in leadership and community service and showcasing my passion for math and astronomy. Like a math equation, the plan worked perfectly with my being offered multiple full scholarships from MIT, Georgia Tech, Brown, and Dartmouth.1 million in scholarships
I was not planning on applying to any HBCUs, but Mr. and Mrs. Wynn convinced me that I could have at least 2 full scholarship offers. They were right! I was offered full scholarships to Spelman College and Xavier University of Louisiana.2 full scholarships
My financial award at Williams College is exactly what Mr. and Mrs. Wynn told me I would receive if I was offered admission. There is no need for me to apply for any other scholarships as my financial aid award covers the full cost of attendance, books, medical insurance, travel, personal expenses, attending conferences, and study abroad.full scholarship
I landed 5 full scholarships: Boston College, Macalester College, Northeastern University, Washington & Lee University, and Williams College.2.1 million in scholarships
The scholarship plan that I developed worked to perfection. I was offered admission to The University of Chicago as an Odyssey Scholar, AND, I was selected as a Ron Brown Scholar.full scholarship
I was not offered much beyond the Georgia HOPE Scholarship to attend Spelman College. However, the guidance that I received helped me to land a $20,000 CodeHouse Scholarship prior to entering Spelman and a $10,000 per year ELC Scholarship since entering Spelman.$90,000 in scholarships
I was not a recruited athlete so I learned how to market myself to college coaches. My efforts resulted in my being offered a combination athletic/academic scholarship by the Women's Volleyball coach at Brenau University in my home state of Georgia.full scholarship
While I wanted to attend North Carolina A&T, I was offered admission, but no scholarship money. Mr. and Mrs. Wynn guided me into applying to Tuskegee University where I was offered the Presidential Scholarship.full scholarship
Both my sister and I were selected as Gates Millennium Scholars. I attended Spelman College while my sister attended Howard University. The Gates Scholarship has also funded our graduate school education.2 full scholarships
As a result of the guidance provided by the cohort, my triplet sisters and I all received full college scholarships. I am a Dowdy Scholar at North Carolina A&T; Tristyn received a full scholarship to the Claflin University Honors College; and Kailer received a full scholarship to Wesleyan University.3 full scholarships
The cohort helped both my sister and me land full scholarships. My older sister received a full scholarship to the Claflin University Honors College and I received my full scholarship to the University of South Carolina - Columbia.2 full scholarships
As a result of the guidance that we received in the Guilford County Schools Cohort, my sister and I received multiple full scholarship offers from a highly selective group of schools. I accepted the full scholarship to the University of Richmond as a Richmond Scholar and my sister accepted a full scholarship to Bowdoin College. We have both received our degrees debt free!2 full scholarships
I joined the cohort as a rising 6th grader. At that time, I had no idea that I would be on a full scholarship pathway or that my older sister would join me on this pathway. She received her full scholarship to Johns Hopkins, while I received my full scholarship to Brown University.2 full scholarships

Scholarship Facts
To fully understand the value of Mychal Wynn’s two books of researching and landing scholarships, parents, students, and counselors must stop believing the popularized myth that scholarships are falling from the sky and that billions of dollars in scholarships go unclaimed each year. This is just that—a myth.
Scholarship providers are not just sitting on millions of dollars in scholarships waiting for any student to apply, nor are they moved by the fact that a student may need scholarship money. Not only are the facts regarding scholarships far less sensational and far more sobering, landing scholarship money is far more competitive, requiring a clear and focused scholarship strategy.
In the following video, Kristen, a student who was offered admission to such highly selective schools as Duke, Amherst, Davidson, Amherst, and Williams, together with several full scholarships, provides insight into the importance of a student “packaging” themselves through their résumé, recommendation letters, essays, and by submitting a high quality application to best present themselves to colleges and scholarship providers.
According to data compiled at Research.com (Bouchrika 2025), a successful scholarship strategy is based on facts rather than wishful thinking or simply submitting a large number of scholarship applications:
Athletic scholarships are offered to less than 2% of high school student-athletes (Next College Student Athlete, 2021).
Only one in eight college students is awarded a scholarship (Kantrowitz, 2019).
Of the students who were awarded scholarships, 97% receive $2,500 or less (Kantrowitz, 2020).
Furthermore, only 0.2% of students receive scholarships worth $25,000 or more (Unigo, 2021).
Full-ride scholarships are awarded to only about 0.1% of students (Wignall, 2021).
When it comes to the average scholarship amount per student, Asians receive the highest with $13,480. Next are students of two or more races ($11,940), Caucasians ($11,420), African Americans ($11,390), Hispanics ($11,090), Native Americans ($10,750), and Pacific Islanders ($10,280) (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019).
Only 8% of scholarships are granted to students whose families have high incomes (ThinkImpact, 2021).
For each full-time enrollee, the average amount of scholarship money per student is $10,050, while a qualified full-time graduate student receives $8,860 (Ma & Pender, 2021).
For undergraduates, the type of student aid that awards the highest amount of money is institutional grants with $58 billion, followed by federal loans ($45 billion), federal Pell Grants ($26 billion), state grants ($13 billion), and private and employer grants ($12 billion) (College Board, 2021).
As for the biggest source of student aid for graduate students, federal loans leads the pack with $39 billion, followed by institutional grants ($13.4 billion), private and employer grants ($4.2 billion), federal veterans benefits ($1.7 billion), and federal education tax benefits (College Board, 2021).
While Consumer Affairs data from the Journal of Consumer Research (Student loan debt statistics 2025) reports that over 4 in 10 college students take out student loans, the percentage of Black, Native American, and low income students is much higher with Black women leaving college with the highest amount of student loan debt (Student Loan Debt by Race Statistics)
Researching and applying for scholarships is a labor-intensive process requiring many hours of research, writing essays, and creating high quality application packages. The step-by-step guidance provided in Show Me the Money and HBCU Scholarships…and more* can mean the difference between a debt-free college education or leaving college with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt.