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book shelf as map of usa (seek scholarship illustration)
The cost of a college education has ballooned the last decade to the point where even high school students are worried about it. Most students remain in their home states to take advantage of lower tuition at public colleges and universities, but those costs vary drastically from state to state. Scholarships are a great way to score financial aid. In fact, around $46 billion in grants and scholarship money is awarded to students each year. This money is typically provided by the U.S. Department of Education and the nation’s colleges and universities. While the average student will only win $1,000-5,000, still, applying to scholarships is the only way to actually win a scholarship. The biggest mistake a high school student can make is not applying for scholarships in college.

Avoid these common mistakes while applying for financial aid. 

So, when it comes to paying for college, which states are seeking the most scholarship opportunities? And how many students are actually submitting scholarship applications? To determine the amount of scholarship applications submitted per student per state, a sampling of nearly 2 million registered users was derived from ScholarshipOwl’s internal database.

State Contribution to Total Scholarship Applications Submitted

The students seeking the most scholarships hail from Texas. Nearly 11% of all scholarship application submitted in the united states came from the Lone Star State. Next, are students residing in California, followed by Florida residents with approximately 10% and 7% of total applications submitted across the U.S, respectively. New York ranks fourth (4.5%) and Georgia fifth (3.9%). The state in which its students submitted the least amount of scholarship applications is Vermont. D.C. follows marginally close but places second to last. The map below shows how much each state contributes to the total amount of scholarship applications submitted.

State Contribution to Total Scholarship Applications Submitted (seek scholarship)
Click to enlarge map.

Average Application Submitted per Student by State

Although Texas contributed most to overall scholarship applications submitted per sate, it did not submit the most application per capita. Students residing in Utah submitted an average of nearly 2 applications submitted per student. Moreover, Montana and Wyoming follow closely and rank second and third, respectively. Followed by Alaska in fourth, and Idaho in fifth. Meanwhile, Nebraska ranked at the bottom with the average applications submitted per student just shy of 1. Once again, D.C. comes marginally close to ranking last, but ranks second to last instead. The map below depicts the total average of application submitted per state, per capita.


Average Applications Submitted Per Student by State (seek scholarship)
Click to enlarge map.