University of Memphis' new scholarship software Tiger Scholarship Manager is now available to help students find the scholarships they qualify for.
The new software requires students to fill out a general application. From there, the software compares the general application with the student's academic profile and matches it with scholarships. Once the software matches the student with scholarships, applying is a simple as a couple of clicks of the mouse.
Lofton Wilborn, assistant director of financial aid and scholarships, feels this software will make it much easier for students to find scholarships.
"In the past, students would have to go to different departments to see what scholarships were available, but this gives students one central location to access those additional resource," he said. "This will make it easier for all students to find what is available for them."
Some students have had trouble finding what they qualified for because there has not been this centralized location to look for scholarships in the past. Dr. Leslie Graff, communications coordinator for the English department, feels that students not knowing what scholarships they qualify for is a major contributor to them not applying for the.
"I feel that students sometimes feel discouraged, or they think they're not qualified or a good enough student for scholarship," she said. "They think that they do not have a shot at it, when many of them really do."
Graff also believes that some students do not apply because they think the applications are too hard and take too much time. She hopes the new software will help students realize many scholarships are not hard to apply for.
"Many students think applying is going to be difficult and they feel like it is going to be a lot of work," she said. "Students are already busy with jobs, school and family and they feel scholarship applications are just one more thing. With papers and midterms they think they can't do one more thing. In many cases, we are looking for something they have already done, like an essay they wrote the previous semester."
Graff thinks the new software will encourage more students to look and help them apply for more scholarships.
"Hopefully if students have a central location, more students will feel like they can sit down one evening and apply to a whole bunch of scholarships," Graff said.
Wilborn echoes this sentiment and believes having all the scholarship info in a centralized location will really benefit students.
"We want students to be able to reach other resources that are available to them and move toward their goal of graduation," he said.
Wilborn and Graff agree college is anything but cheap, and scholarships are way to help students pay for those costs.
"College is expensive," Graff said. "We try to keep the cost down here at the University of Memphis, but it is still expensive. I hope students will put themselves out there and take chances on scholarships. I think that our students are much more qualified then they give themselves credit for, so I would encourage students to just apply and keep applying even if they do not get them one year."
The scholarship office plans to send campus wide emails to the student body with more information about the new scholarship software starting Wednesday.
