Once you find a culinary art school you want to attend, paying for it can be a problem. I found this great article, listed below, on cookingschools.com that tells you ways to get scholarship money to these cooking schools!
Culinary Scholarship Guide
Winning and finding culinary scholarships may not be as hard as you might imagine. You just have to know where to look, and how to apply.
Part 1: Where to Look for Cooking and Culinary Scholarships
Here’s a sample of groups and organizations that often offer culinary scholarships:
FastWeb.com — the online directory with hundreds of thousands of scholarships, many geared just for cooking students.
Community and Civic Groups
Professional Organizations
Businesses, Corporations and Employers
Charitable Foundations
Cooking Schools — This may seem obvious, but students often overlook scholarships offered by the very schools to which they're applying. Learn more about scholarships at these schools:
The French Culinary Institute
The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institutes
The Culinary Institute of America
Le Cordon Bleu Schools
Identify as many of these possibilities as you can. Look locally, too.
Once you’ve found all the available awards, get organized. Start a table, chart or spreadsheet with columns like "Sponsor," "Scholarship Name," "Contact Name," "Amount," "Requirements," and (very importantly) "Deadline."
Of course, you only want to put your valuable time into applying for the scholarships which best suit your ambitions… or the ones you can make out to fit your ambitions. For now, though, put down everything you come across that’s even close, and once you’ve finished your list, take a good, hard look at which options are most worth your efforts.
Part 2: Winning Cooking and Culinary Scholarships
Give Yourself Time
When you give yourself plenty of time, you can "position" yourself much better to qualify.
In other words, if there are requirements that you may not have met or excelled in, now you have a year to do it and really impress the judges! Take a hard look at what past winners did to win, and learn from what they did right. Maybe even track them down to see what they did and how they did it.
If you start late, then it’s less likely that you’ll have done exactly what the judges are looking for, and you may have to stretch things to make it appear that you did. That isn’t the best position to be in.
If possible (and it’s not always possible), do what you can to talk to some of the people granting the scholarships and find out specifically what they’re looking for. Often, organizations will have summaries of winning applications for you to review – definitely inquire about that!
There may be more to the application than you’ll find in the instructions.
Apply EARLY!
Most people turn their stuff in at the last minute, so you’ll stand out from the crowd when you apply early.
First impressions last! If your application is strong, and you get it in the hands of the judges early, then there’s a much better chance that they will remember you. You need to show that you’re different from the rest, more deserving than the rest. An important way to do that it to get it done before the rest – one to two weeks in advance should be plenty.
Start early, think ahead. Your chances will be much better.
Reality Checks
Reality Check #1: Be wary of folks on the web, in the mail or on the phone who tell say you must pay them in order to get a scholarship. The offers may sound enticing, but it also may be a marketing trick.
Reality Check #2: You won’t find too many culinary scholarships that will provide a free ride the entire way through the college experience. Yes, there are some. But the competition is fierce, with thousands of students applying, and you’d better not bet your house that you’ll get one — no matter how good you are.
The most abundant scholarships are in the $250 to $2,000 range. Before you scoff, remember that every little bit helps, and even the smallest scholarship will buy some pretty expensive books or supplies for a semester or two.
Good luck!
Courtesy of cookingschools.com
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Culinary Arts Schools for You
Interested in becoming a chef? Congratulations, you have made a wonderful career choice. You might be curious about where to start. A good first step is to research and compare cooking school locations, culinary degrees offered, facilities, cost, class size, and reputation to find the one that will help get your career off to a hot, sizzling start. This site's main goal is in helping potential students find a culinary arts school that fits their needs. We review all varieties of cooking schools. Compare Culinary Schools, Baking Schools, Pastry Schools and more.