During the past three years, I’ve posted a lot of information on Monroe on a Budget for southeast Michigan residents about scholarship eligibility, deadlines and applications.

The sponsors and foundations who are helping to send students to college these days via scholarships are typically looking for volunteerism, leadership and community involvement in addition to good grades and / or test scores and / or financial need.

What’s the grade point expectation? A common requirement is a 3.0 GPA, which includes a lot more students than just the valedictorians or summa grads.

But there are other criteria you might not expect. These examples from my “scholarship” archives are for scholarships that have been announced during the past couple of years on behalf of students who are from, or attending college in, southeast Michigan:

• Older adults who need additional education to return to the workforce.
• Choir and band members who plan to continue music ensemble participation at the college level.
• A scholarship that was written for students who were home-schooled or is currently working at least 30 hours a week.
• A scholarship that was written for students who have a family member working as a professional truck driver.
• A baseball scholarship that doesn’t rely on the ability to play at the college level, but on how well the winner showed sportsmanship and love of the game at the high school level.

As I’ve said before:

The scholarship game is not a fair playing field.

It takes a lot of time and effort to fill out those applications.

There is no magic cut-off point where everyone who has a grade point above a certain level gets money for their education.

Whoever sponsors the scholarship money gets to decide where it goes.

There are, however, two ways in which you can build up your chances in getting whatever money that the foundations, sponsors, donors and colleges make available to students in your demographic or geographic area:

• Keep your high school (and college) grades at least 3.0 GPA.
• Get involved in a volunteer or community service project or cause that you are passionate about.