Top 888 Scholarships for High School Seniors in February 2025

These scholarships are aimed at supporting high school seniors’ academic and career goals. During senior year of high school, your college search and application process will be well underway. It can feel overwhelming to find and apply for scholarships alongside colleges, but it’s extremely worth the effort to secure money for college before your freshman year even starts. Plus, the entire scholarship process is way easier on Mos! 

Whether you want to go to a four-year college, two-year community college, or trade school after you graduate high school, there are scholarships for seniors out there that fit you perfectly. 

You can improve your chances of winning scholarships by finding the opportunities that best match your qualifications and creating a strong and unique application that highlights those qualifications.

To refine your search and find scholarships for seniors that also match profile criteria like your home state and more, get personalized scholarship recommendations on the Mos app. 

For an overview of just a few great scholarships for high school seniors, plus some helpful tips for how to find and win scholarship opportunities for seniors, keep reading! 

Ten Scholarships for High School Seniors that Mos Loves

1. Straight ‘A’ Scholarship

   • The Straight ‘A’ Scholarship

   •  offers up to $5,000 to all high school students, freshmen through seniors, with a minimum of a 3.0 GPA. Apply or ask your Mos advisor to learn more!

2. Davidson Fellows Scholarship

   • The Davidson Fellows Scholarship offers up to $50,000 to high-achieving students who have completed a significant piece of work that experts in the field recognize as meaningful and has the potential to make a positive contribution to society. To qualify, you must be 18 or younger as of the application deadline to be eligible.

3. Create a Greeting Card Scholarship

   • The annual Create-A-Greeting Card $10,000 Scholarship contest is for any student, 14 years of age or older, enrolled in high school, college, university, or homeschool. To apply, you must submit an original photo, artwork, or computer graphics for the front of a greeting card. Interested? Apply!

4. MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge

   • The MathWorks Math Modeling (M3 Challenge) offers up to $100,000 scholarships to high school juniors and seniors in the U.S. and sixth-form students (age 16-19) in England and Wales. 

5. Courage To Grow Scholarship

   • The Courage to Grow Scholarship provides $500 to help a junior or senior in high school or a college student pay for college. To qualify, you need a minimum GPA of 2.5 or better and be a U.S. citizen. To apply, you need to write an essay. Sound like a good fit? Visit the scholarship website today.

6. Abbott and Fenner Scholarship

   • The Abbott and Fenner Scholarship offers $1,000 to high school juniors and seniors, as well as students currently enrolled in any accredited post-secondary institution. To apply, you must write an essay. 

7. Driver Education Initiative Award (Round 1)

   • The National Driving and Traffic School is seeking to reward essay applicants with $500 for students currently enrolled in either High School, University, or College. To apply, you must submit an essay on being a safer driver. The winner will be required to provide proof of successful acceptance to a Higher Institute of Learning, College, or University.

8. $1,000 Too Cool to Pay for School Scholarship

   • The Too Cool To Pay for School Scholarship offers $1,000 to high school, college, and graduate school students. It is open to US residents, DACA students, undocumented students, and international students currently studying in the US. To apply, you must fill out a short online form. 

9. NSHSS Foundation Earth Day Award

   • The NSHSS Foundation Earth Day Award offers ten $500 awards to high school seniors annually. To qualify, you must submit details about an environmental project that you are currently working on, or one that will be initiated for Earth Day in their home, school, and/or community.

10. Carter Pitts Scholarships

    1. The Carter Pitts Scholarship offers $500 to students preparing for careers in the newspaper industry. To apply, you may need an essay and recommendation letters. Visit the website to start your application! 

Tips and Strategies for Applying for Scholarships for High School Seniors 

Here’s a guide of what to consider when you’re applying for scholarships, how to apply, and a few practical tips on how to set yourself apart as a strong applicant.  

• When to Start Applying for Scholarships? Right Now!

If you want to win as much money for college as possible, you should start your scholarship search as early as possible. That way, you can avoid missing out on deadlines and give yourself plenty of time to get your application materials together. 

Basically, the best time to start applying to scholarships for seniors is right now! 

• Research Your Scholarships

The fact that you’re reading this guide means that you’re already doing your research. Great work! 

Plenty of organizations and foundations offer scholarships to seniors planning to pursue different fields of study, belonging to different demographics, or experiencing different life circumstances. 

Use this page to search for scholarships for seniors that fit your profile, your financial goals, and your academic interests. 

It pays to be strategic about the scholarships you apply for instead of just applying for every single listing without checking the requirements first. For example, if you’ve never done any volunteer work, it would be a waste of your time to apply for a scholarship that’s aimed at rewarding community service. 

• It’s a Numbers Game 

Ultimately, the best way to boost your odds of winning scholarship money is to apply for as many opportunities as you can. 

This might seem to contradict the previous point, but it’s all about hitting the right balance between narrowing down your search and maximizing the amount of applications you actually send. 

Think about it this way: 

• Applying for one scholarship you qualify for is better than applying for ten scholarships you don’t qualify for. 

• Applying for ten scholarships you do qualify for is way better than applying for just the one.

• Make a Game Plan   

Being a student can be overwhelming. 

You’re busy all the time with commitments that include—but aren’t even limited to—class, clubs, studying, homework, and social events. It can be difficult to set aside time to apply for scholarships, which is why lots of students end up missing deadlines for scholarships they'd have a great chance of winning. 

To avoid falling behind on your academic and financial goals, be intentional about how often you apply for scholarships, what time you work on your applications, and much time you spend on them. Think of it as starting a new, healthy habit—like flossing your teeth or meditating. 

Set a personal goal for how many scholarships you want to apply for a week. 

Then, find a time in your schedule where it would be easy to integrate your new scholarship habit. For example, if you have a regular study hall period you can spend 15 minutes of that period applying to scholarships. If you use Mos, that’s enough time to apply for 5 or more scholarships! 

• Track Your Scholarship Applications   

Once you identify all the opportunities you qualify for and make an application plan, keep track of your scholarship journey. The Mos app makes this easy by letting you save scholarships and track your application status, but you can also do this on your own with a physical list or a spreadsheet online. 

However you want to keep tabs on your scholarship applications, make sure to track their deadlines and application requirements. 

• Tailor Your Application 

Every scholarship will ask for its own set of application materials. For example, a scholarship for high school seniors who are planning to major in history might ask you to write an essay about a figure from history that inspires you. 

Because of this, you shouldn’t just reuse the exact same essay or personal statement for every scholarship you apply for. 

Your application should highlight why you’re applying for the specific scholarship you’re applying for, not just why you’re applying for a scholarship in general. Explain how, if you receive the award, it will help you achieve a career or educational goal that aligns with the mission of the organization that’s offering the scholarship. 

For example, if you’re applying to a scholarship that was founded by or dedicated to a particular person, you should demonstrate that you’ve done research on who that person is, explain how their legacy inspires you, and outline the ways the scholarship would help you continue that legacy. 

That doesn’t mean that you have to start from scratch with every single application. You can use a previous essay or personal statement you’re proud of as a template for your future applications as long as you make meaningful changes to it that tailor it to a specific opportunity.  

For more on how to write a good personal statement, check out these resources: 

• Purdue Owl: Writing the Personal Statement

• College Essay Guy: How to Write a Personal Statement (Tips + Essay Examples)

• Highlight Your Achievements and Leadership Skills 

A scholarship application isn’t the place to be humble. 

A lot of scholarships for high school seniors ask for examples of your leadership skills, community involvement, or other achievements. Scholarship committees don’t know anything about you outside of the contents of your application. If there’s a certain accomplishment or quality you’re proud of, the only way to make sure they know about it is to tell them. 

That might seem obvious, but some students default to downplaying their own accomplishments. When you’re reading over your application form or your essay, make sure you include all of the (relevant) stuff you’d want the scholarship committee to take into consideration. 

If you’re having trouble with this, try doing a brain dump on a sheet of paper. Write down every single extracurricular activity, school event, hobby, volunteer position, and leadership role you can remember having. Then, circle the ones you’re the most proud of in red and circle the ones that are relevant to the scholarship you’re applying for in blue. Anything you circled twice should definitely make its way into your application. 

If that’s too hard, ask a friend, parent, teacher, or mentor to help you brainstorm a list of your accomplishments. The people who care about you will often be able to list a ton of amazing things about you that you might write off as “not that impressive.”  

• Prepare Your Documents and Transcripts 

A lot of scholarships require you to submit financial documentation, academic transcripts, or both.

Need-based scholarships are aimed at students who don’t have the financial means to pay for college. The federal and state governments are two major sources of need-based aid, which they offer through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). 

The FAFSA is a form that asks for a fair amount of personal information and financial info. Learn what documents you need for FAFSA on the Mos blog.  

Merit-based scholarships are meant to reward a student’s accomplishments—usually academic accomplishments, but there are plenty of merit-based scholarships that reward things like artistic talent or sports prowess too! A merit-based scholarship might ask for a transcript of your grades. 

Check out PrepScholar’s guide on how to get your high school transcript. 

Make sure you have all necessary documents ready before a scholarship’s deadline. Ask for your transcript a few weeks in advance to avoid missing out on money you qualify for.

• Follow Directions Carefully 

Scholarship applications often have specific formatting requirements. 

A few examples of requirements you might run into: 

• Essay word count. Example: A scholarship that specifies that your essay can’t be over 500 words. 

• File format. Example: A scholarship that only accepts application forms that are uploaded as PDFs. 

• A portfolio. Example: An arts scholarship that requires you to include 3-5 charcoal drawings you’ve done, all scanned and uploaded as a single file. 

If you don’t submit an application that matches all of the submission requirements, you run the risk of being disqualified, no matter how strong of an applicant you are. 

Think about it from the scholarship committee’s perspective: if they get a lot of strong applications from students who are all equally deserving of the award, they might end up falling back on technicalities like word count to decide who to eliminate from the candidate pool. Don’t give them any reason to throw out your application. 

Carefully read over all of the submission instructions when you’re putting together your application. If it helps, make a list of every separate requirement and check them off as you apply. Before you hit submit, check your application over one last time just to be safe. 

• Ask for Strong References 

Some scholarships for high school seniors will ask you for letters of recommendation from professors, teachers, mentors, or other figures in your life. 

When you’re deciding who to ask for a letter of recommendation, think about the people who you’ve known for a longer time and who have witnessed your accomplishments firsthand. A teacher who’s seen you work hard and improve over the course of three years is probably a better option than a teacher who only had you for one class two years ago. 

You can set up your recommenders to write you the best letter possible by telling them what kind of qualities or achievements the scholarship provider is looking for, and by sending them a polite email reminder about your recommendation a couple weeks before the scholarship’s deadline.

You can also set yourself up to get a stronger recommendation by building your relationships with your potential references. Regularly participating in a teacher’s class by asking thoughtful questions about the class material is a good way to set yourself apart from the rest of the class. 

• Pay Attention to Deadlines 

Scholarships usually have firm deadlines, and it’s pretty rare for them to accept late submissions. 

We already mentioned the importance of tracking deadlines earlier, but one more tip to avoid missing deadlines is to set yourself a personal deadline that’s a day or two before the official deadline. That way, you can avoid the frantic race to finish your application before midnight on the due date, and you have a grace period of a few days to work on your application if life gets busy. 

Other Sources of Financial Aid for High School Seniors 

Scholarships aren’t the only way to fund your college education as a high school senior. 

For information on other financial aid resources, check out The Mos Financial Aid Roadmap: 8 Ways to Get Money for College. 

Apply Faster on the Mos app 

When you apply for more than one scholarship, you have to fill out the same information over and over again. Even if it only takes a few minutes every time, those minutes add up. Plus, it can make the whole process feel like a mind-numbing slog instead of an exciting chance to spotlight the achievements and qualities that make you special as an applicant. 

When you sign up for Mos, you only have to fill out your information once. Then, every time you apply for a scholarship, the app auto-fills your information into the application. This means that applications can take as little as a few seconds! With every scholarship you apply to, your odds of winning money for college from one of them go up (remember, it’s partially a numbers game). And with every scholarship you apply to on Mos, the amount of time you save goes up right alongside those odds. 

Related Scholarship Categories

• No-essay scholarships

• Easy scholarships

• Merit scholarships

• Scholarships for Black and/or African American students

• Scholarships for women 

• Arts scholarships