Culinary School Scholarships

You’ve loved to cook meals that make people smile and say “AHHH”, and you’ve finally decided to pursue your dream and look into culinary school. A great place to start is here where you can get free information about all the top culinary schools: Free Culinary School Information.

Like any flavor of higher education today (pun intended), you’re also likely to get a case of sticker shock when you see how much it will cost to continue with your culinary education goals. And this applies to financing any kind of higher education- it doesn’t just apply to culinary school. One approach to closing this considerable financial gap is to win culinary school scholarships.

But you think “that’s easier said than done”. Yes, it is true that winning scholarships can be a daunting task, but if you understand how to “play the game” you might be surprised to find that winning culinary school scholarships is very possible. Learning how to do this might take time and work, but the effort can result in big payoffs worth perhaps thousands of dollars. Better still, cutting down on your costs to attend culinary school can lessen the amount of student loans you take out, and those can keep you in debt for many years.

The first step in approaching this effort is to read the book “How To Attend College Almost For Free” by Ben Kaplan. Kaplan does not concentrate specifically on culinary scholarships, but the general techniques required to win just about any scholarship will certainly apply to attending culinary school as well.

There are hundreds of good ideas to think about in this book, but two stand out in particular. To win scholarships you need to understand the motivations of the judges who will be deciding on the winners of the awards they will be giving out. To accomplish this for culinary scholarships you should speak with the financial office of the culinary school you are considering and ask them about culinary scholarships that are available. Certainly the top schools have a good handle on what scholarships are out there, and they may have some good advice about winning techniques. For example you might be able to contact previous winners of particular scholarships and ask them about their experiences and what they think the scholarship judges are looking for.

Next you need to learn how to make yourself stand out from the rest of the crowd. The best way to accomplish this is to tell personal stories and anecdotes about your culinary experiences and why they have helped to motivate you in your career decision. A good personal story that uncovers who you really are and what is driving you toward your destiny in the culinary world will stand out and be remembered much more in the mind of a judge who may have to wade through hundreds of scholarship applications.

In addition you need to have good skills when it comes to self critique and self evaluation. These are not easy things to do in an unbiased way, and it would be wise to seek the help of family, friends and advisors. If you can accurately understand your strengths and weaknesses you can work to “fill in the blanks” and present yourself as a well rounded individual with culinary skills in many facets of the business.

One last bit of advice before you run out and read the book. Apply for lots of scholarships. There is a learning curve for scholarship applications and once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to apply for many of them and increase your chances of winning some big scholarship money. Remember, winning culinary school scholarships is really possible if you put your mind to it.