Ever feel are out of luck when trying to figure out how to pay for college?

Every year the UAF Financial Aid Office has plenty of scholarships available for the taking. Just because this school year isn't done does not mean it isn't time to get the ball rolling with scholarship applications.

Plenty of money is available to students who are eligible to apply, according to Julie Parshall, a university scholarship coordinator. Two main sources for scholarship money are through the UA Foundation and UAF privately funded scholarships. UAF has $600,000 of free scholarship money to give away in privately funded scholarships this year.

The criteria students need to meet for applying varies from scholarship to scholarship. Many privately funded scholarships are only available to students in a certain academic department or major; the Harvey Shields Scholarship application says the ideal applicant should be studying Anthropology. Other criteria include GPA or class standing. Criteria largely depend on the donors' instructions for the funds.

Last year, the university received 1,400 eligible applicants, according to Parshall. Of those, 500 students were awarded scholarship money. That's a potential $428.57 for each eligible applicant.

For the lucky 500 applicants who did receive scholarships, some of their amounts were much higher. For UAF privately funded scholarships, the highest amount awarded was $8,500 which three applicants received.

Lacie Grosvold, a journalism student and ad manager at the Sun Star, received $8,500 for this year through the privately funded scholarships.

"I applied online and it only took six hours from start to finish," Grosvold said. "I put a lot of time into my essay. After I wrote it I took it to the writing center to have them look it over."

The time and effort put into her application paid off, as she was one of the lucky students to receive the highest amount awarded. When other means of financial aid are not an option for your, say for instance the FAFSA, scholarships are the way to go for funding your education, Grosvold said.

The next highest award amount was for $8,000 in which one applicant was awarded and then $7,000 respectively. Two applicants were awarded this amount.

Scholarships for the UA Foundation peaked at an amount of $5,000 and nine applicants were awarded this amount.

ASUAF Vice President Sarah Byam, 20, also received a privately funded scholarship.

"The application process was really easy," she said. "All I had to do for mine was just fill out the online application and it took very little of my time."

Students can easily obtain free scholarship money from either of these sources, Parshall said. She also encouraged student to look into statewide funding as well as the FAFSA.

Deadlines are quickly approaching for these so any interested students should start to think of their financial situations for the next academic year right away. Both applications are due Feb. 15.

February is also Financial Aid Awareness Month. The Financial Aid Office will be presenting a series of workshops throughout the month. The goals of these workshops are to make the financial aid process easier to understand for students. They will be offering free advice, workshops, food and prizes.