With the economic struggles affecting the entire country, many people are looking for other places for money because many families are strapped for cash.

A great option for students attending EC is scholarships.

With every penny being watched, paying for school is one thing that may be farthest from a student or a prospective students’ mind.

Last year, 600 students applied for those scholarships. As of that time, EC had about 22,000 students enrolled in classes and that number increased this year.

This year’s total for scholarship will be 250, with some mentioned on the campus’ Web site, so more students should apply for a chance at earning one of the many scholarships available.

The scholarships available are characterized into two different types, institutional; meaning it comes directly from EC, or non-institutional; meaning it comes from other organizations.

With fliers around campus, teachers helping by spreading the word and encouraging students to apply for scholarships, the added awareness will help those application numbers rise.

The numbers of students who applied last year was disappointing for the amount of scholarships available and the added amount of publicity this year should prevent a repeat offense.

The addition of fliers is new this year to help promote the good will of the campus in its effort to give back to the students.

The hope is that with added awareness, the results for applications will increase from years past.

With an opportunity like this, it would be foolish not to take advantage of the chance that is being presented. This is essentially a chance to gain some reward for the hard work put into schooling and at the same time, make some money.

This also presents a chance to earn some accolades and money for the hard work done in school if students do not qualify for financial aid.

With scholarships, the money that would be given from financial aid can be paid back. In some cases, the amount of money can be larger than the money awarded in aid.

With the amount of scholarships being offered and the economy slipping, these scholarships are extremely helpful for anyone in need.

Scholarships are going to be given depending upon the major and will vary in value.

To apply for the opportunity to get scholarships, students must register into MyECC and fill out the scholarship application.

The only other directions would be to file the application during the week where it is eligible and for the students to check their e-mails for updates.

With these simple steps, the chance to earn a free semester of books or classes is available with the minimum effort of just signing onto a website and applying.

The reasons not to try for scholarships are scarse, if any.

Even with a small scholarship of $500, there is still the relief of knowing that an entire semester’s expense for books can be paid.

Even if the work to get the scholarships seem steep, the awards greatly outrank the cons and students should be applying for a chance to get some financial relief in a time where relief is difficult to come across.